I've been watching with some interest as an example of the gold BA145.022 has traversed the globe in a matter of days, changing hands between a few dealers. Here is the story.

I first saw the piece on LunarOyster's insta here, about 4 days ago:

https://instagram.com/p/6SrEYQBcT_/

After an alert from a buddy and a pricetag (15k), I took a look and it was soon up on his site. And then just as quickly, it was gone. "Man," I thought, "that was quick." And indeed it was. I happen to follow Jacek from hqmilton on insta, and less than a day later this appeared:

https://instagram.com/p/6XzNQHMmQE/

Huh, I thought, two in one week. Too good to be true. After checking examining the bezels a bit more carefully, it was clear they were the same watch. So, now it was in California. I was excited to get some detailed pictures on the site, and see how much the markup would be. But alas, foiled again, as I never was able to find it on hqmilton.com. Then I thought maybe it resurfaced here:

https://instagram.com/p/6bqNYDCORN/

In Hawaii. Also has a damaged bezel, but WAIT, its the not the same damaged bezel. So, different watch.

So, I guess it's still in the hands of the blokes at HQMilton, and I still patiently await the day when it might resurface.

Anyway, all this is to ask, Is this type of inventory swapping fairly common? What is the purpose? Is it a buy and hold strategy for these dealers?

 

Nice detective work ;-)

 

Will be interesting to see what happens on this one ? Same watch different bezel?

 

@Slevin kelevra I think the watches are different. The hands on the Hawaii one are lumed, while the other one has all black hands. So unless the hands were also changed (which I guess is possible), seems like different watches to me.

 

very interesting.. i agree that the Hawaii one is different. I have seen watches change hands quickly like this before, and at each change of hands, the price goes up!

 

It's a well known fact that @Barking mad has cornered the worldwide market for gold Apollo 11 moon watches.

 

@Gemini4 @Barking mad in preparation for the pending nuclear holocaust im sure. Gold, and watches!

 

Pretty common. Dealers trade at shows etc. all the time looking for better selling inventory (for them) or sell to finance another purchase etc.

 

And the final destination will be Davidoff Brothers in Geneva

 

for 3x the price of any prior sale!

 

Have you contacted Jacek to see if they still have it? They sell a lot from Instagram before it reaches their website.