Today I sold all my watches.

[eldiano84]

Funnily enough talking about houses is exactly what happened to me, except that my ex wife kept the entire proceeds hahaha I mean five years ago we wouldn’t had made anything other than just paying the mortgage but the way the market is wowowow she managed to quintuple the profits and screw me out of it(shady Lawyers)

I always found it funny how Stainless Steel Submariners go for more than Two Tone Subs, it’s boggling to me considering the materials but still. Like someone mentioned here might as well have your knives and forks hahaha

Is there a thing such as peak Rolex? Who knows, I just remember a sales spreadsheet from an AD I managed to look a while back that listed the price increase of Rolex watches over the last 30 years and so far is only going up.

 

[Tx3double]

V Vizard

Well, all bar my JLC Master Control and a 90s TAG SEL Chronometer that didn't attract adequate dealer interest. But everything else, mainly Rolexes, gone.

Why?

1. Because I had a watch box full of watches that used to mean something to me, but which I was not wearing and didn't mean to me what they once did.

2. Because I am bored with Rolex. They are everywhere.

3. Because I think we are at peak Rolex. One of the ones I sold today went for well over double what I paid for it. I cannot envisage it carrying on increasing forever.

4. It's just before Christmas and dealers want stock. I think they will do well this Christmas, but I have a hunch that Christmas 2022 may look more bleak.

I appreciate that my view won't be universally popular and watch me get proved spectacularly wrong on points 3 & 4.

The plan, and yes there is one, is to keep my JLC and buy a nice gold dress watch to alternate with it. For sport I will have an Apple watch.

But tonight I have a very empty looking watch box.

I hope we are at peak Rolex. Insane that cases are empty and second hand market is like double.

 

[river rat]

Don’t blame you selling your collection off if you got bored with the hobby and not wearing them. I got into vintage before the price jump. I am slowing down due to I can’t afford the hobby anymore so adding less to the collection . I see what vintage watches are selling for and it does make you think do a sell off but then you think you will never replace any you let go because you could not afford the high price they sell for and know what they use to sell for. Kind of like when I paid 500 bucks for a 1965 Chevy impala super sport there over priced now. Would be hard to let everything go the more I think about it.

 

[Omegafanman]

Not sure about peak Rolex but I sold half my shares last week..... just in case. That should gaurantee they remainder go up as I usualy call it wrong ;0)

 

[kaplan]

E eldiano84

I am at this point in my life also that I would be happy to see empty boxes but in my case I collect high end action figures but after my divorce that left me in ruin and having been 4 years in boxes and in a garage I’m doing the complete opposite of selling them all. For one no matter how you look at it toys or high end action figures are not made to last, some figures after years of not touching just break on sight, then my 1/18 model car collection is just collecting zync pest/rot, abs yellowing sucks so I honestly feel watches are better since you can legit fix them up however you can.

Figures on the other hand a complete mess and once one breaks you have nothing more to do than throw them in the trash. Not to mention i have close to 42 boxes worth of stuff.

So for sure I think right now is the perfect time to downsize to be honest. I came to terms with myself that I will never have them all displayed and it would be expensive to display them all anyways.

I was collecting Lego's, and my brother got me into Hot Toys, but luckily I sold all the figures once I realised Hot Toys was just going to re-issue them all, same with Lego's, they started re-issuing sets and I sold them all

I think I found my true calling with C-Cased Constellations though, at first I thought it was an investment, the recent 3M$ auction made me realise it's 100% not an investment, it's a passion, the thought of prices increasing was devastating

I really enjoy finding unique variations of this specific model that I can afford, I'm lucky that what I consider to be a rare watch is what most people don't desire, especially spider dials, it's madness buying something that didn't survive the test of time, but I love it

 

[septentrio]

V Vizard

3. Because I think we are at peak Rolex. One of the ones I sold today went for well over double what I paid for it. I cannot envisage it carrying on increasing forever.

That is a common misconception. You can compare it to buying an ETF index tracker at so-called ‘all-time high’ (ATH) pricepoints (like in current market). These funds are at ATH 90% of the time. The 2017 ATH pricepoint was about 50% of the current one. You can’t time the market, and, if you ask me, Rolex prices will keep increasing. If they crash at one point, they will recuperate and increase even further after.

 

[Fish70]

V Vizard

Well, all bar my JLC Master Control and a 90s TAG SEL Chronometer that didn't attract adequate dealer interest. But everything else, mainly Rolexes, gone.

Why?

1. Because I had a watch box full of watches that used to mean something to me, but which I was not wearing and didn't mean to me what they once did.

2. Because I am bored with Rolex. They are everywhere.

3. Because I think we are at peak Rolex. One of the ones I sold today went for well over double what I paid for it. I cannot envisage it carrying on increasing forever.

4. It's just before Christmas and dealers want stock. I think they will do well this Christmas, but I have a hunch that Christmas 2022 may look more bleak.

I appreciate that my view won't be universally popular and watch me get proved spectacularly wrong on points 3 & 4.

The plan, and yes there is one, is to keep my JLC and buy a nice gold dress watch to alternate with it. For sport I will have an Apple watch.

But tonight I have a very empty looking watch box.

Sounds totally reasonable to me. If I had some Rolex watches that I bought 5-10 years ago that I didn't wear anymore I would sell them now too. Madness not to.