Trilogy LE values

pIoNeErOfThEnILe · Oct 7, 2019

jhross98
to me. . and to the market

is there another LE that has done this poorly in terms of secondary market vs. retail price ? i cannot come up with anything close

it's pretty bad. it doesn't make it easier that omega released many non LE similar to these across the board at a lesser cost as well.

i also wanna cry when i turn it over and look at how underwhelming and bland the case back is as well. i realize this is how the original was, but it just looks meh.

Evitzee · Oct 7, 2019

pIoNeErOfThEnILe
i also wanna cry when i turn it over and look at how underwhelming and bland the case back is as well. i realize this is how the original was, but it just looks meh.

Hey, it's a throwback to what the original edition was. What do you expect, a sapphire back showing an average finished Omega movement? What would be the point of that? You don't like the look of the re-edition back because it is pretty faithful to the original (but meh in your view), but you drool when you look at an old, scratched up original back because its got 'patina'. This patina fetish is getting silly.

There is an element of Omega fans that want every new LE to fail because it's not up to their cherished original concept of old Omegas.

dsacks30 · Oct 7, 2019

S.H.
WIS who like only vintage or dislike coaxial don't buy (quite a few)

Can you elaborate on the point re: disliking the coaxial movement?

FWIW, I tried on the Trilogy Railmaster at the Omega Boutique in NYC recently and it was lovely, my favorite of the three.

scapa · Oct 7, 2019

jhross98
to me. . and to the market

is there another LE that has done this poorly in terms of secondary market vs. retail price ? i cannot come up with anything close

No idea. Bought it to enjoy, and to pass on. What the secondary market is willing to pay for the watch I have no interest in selling matters much less to me than the experience of owning it - which has been deeply satisfying, and will continue to be, I expect. I wouldn’t be surprised to see demand for these models rise again as remaining examples get bought. If it can happen to the Reduced...

Pun · Oct 7, 2019

jhross98
and you can STILL buy an actual railmaster for something close to what they asked for the LE. . makes no sense

It makes sense to me as I’ve exactly same watch with the latest movement inside (as it was when the original was made) and with no hassles of maintaining a vintage piece. I can wear it as roughly as I wish, with warranty. That’s a big plus to me over a vintage piece.

sjg22 · Oct 7, 2019

dsacks30
Can you elaborate on the point re: disliking the coaxial movement?

FWIW, I tried on the Trilogy Railmaster at the Omega Boutique in NYC recently and it was lovely, my favorite of the three.

I find the coaxial overly thick in most watches.

rominvicta · Oct 7, 2019

Evitzee
Usually a grey market watch will include everything EXCEPT the Warranty Card, it's a bit odd to not have the box or included accessories as they aren't serialized. Your supposition may be correct but it would be a yellow flag to me. Price is probably below original dealer wholesale. Odd.

Concur as well! Neither have I seen it nor heard of an AD selling without delivery of all boxes, cards and gadgets. That would have been like a Rolex issue. If this was told to you by the seller I would strongly doubt the info. Why don’t you check with an OB that watch? May be it was declared as stolen? Or at least they should be able to tell you where and when it was sold initially.

rominvicta · Oct 7, 2019

Sidnos
Hmmm, sure I read somewhere here that should a stolen watch be sent for service they return it to the owner who reported it stolen... could be wrong though!

Unfortunately that is something police is dealing with, not Omega. Though if watch has been declared as stolen with them, and once it reappears they should be informing police and letting them act accordingly to the info they have.

rainking · Oct 8, 2019

jhross98
why on earth would you compare the "build quality" of a vintage masterpiece to a new watch ? the entire point of vintage is that its. . old. vintage. patina

you don't see a lot of car companies coming out with exact replicas of cars from the 50s and 60s . . .because no one would want them.

can anyone think of an exact replica piece that has held or gained value ? i cannot. comparing this LE to other speedmaster LEs i think is a fools errand

and you can STILL buy an actual railmaster for something close to what they asked for the LE. . makes no sense

I get your points, but you're a bit off-base on some of them. No one would want iconic vintage cars of a certain ilk? Tell that to Jaguar with its continuation cars sold for more than $1M each. Comparing cars to watches is apples to oranges. There are regulations for cars that make it far more difficult to reproduce them and sell them today for actual road use. If Porsche, for just one example, built 3,000 true-to-form, brand new 550 Spyders and charged $500K a pop? They'd be gone before the aluminum bodies were formed. There would be wealthy people left out in the cold who wanted one but were denied a spot on the order list. Guaranteed.

For ME, only wanting something like an original Speedmaster but not the re-issue is the realm of literal collectors. And that's fine and dandy. But bagging on the re-issue Speedy etc doesn't make much sense to me. Personally, I'm the exact opposite: Say I have even a billion dollars. What am I going to do with a 60-year-old watch that costs six figures other than put it on display in my house? Meanwhile, I can wear a brand-new copy of it from the actual manufacturer for relative peanuts, with a warranty and easy parts supply, and not even worry about it? Maybe it's just me, but I like watches for their design, function and appearance. Not to jerk myself off because I have some rare collectors' item no one else can get. I do get the appeal of that in its own way, but I want to actually wear my watches and not worry about it. So re-issues make sense/appeal to me. I'm thrilled Omega did the Trilogy set, it's bad ass. And I have the RM, because when I handled all three of them, it blew me away to my surprise. Could not care less about worrying about resale value down the road. Not at all why I was interested in the watches in the first place. Again though, that's just me.

S.H. · Oct 8, 2019

dsacks30
Can you elaborate on the point re: disliking the coaxial movement?

FWIW, I tried on the Trilogy Railmaster at the Omega Boutique in NYC recently and it was lovely, my favorite of the three.

Thickness and closed technology are my main hangups (also, it is not really more accurate and needs as much servicing).

Pun · Oct 8, 2019

sjg22
I find the coaxial overly thick in most watches.

My RM is perhaps slightly thicker than my Explorer 1. It definitely goes under the cuffs easily as well.

jaguar11 · Oct 8, 2019

I like the RM. Who knows regarding the value and does it really matter......

LeonDeBayonne · Oct 8, 2019

The 3 mistakes Omega made were the high number (4,000 in total for each, including sets, is too much), the bracelet buckle (far too thick) and the box (like most boxes for most brands, it is far too big). The rest is perfect in size, design... and I truly believe that, as some point, collectors will recognize this. In the meantime, as said above, value does not matter.

janw23 · Oct 8, 2019

Sidnos
Hmmm, sure I read somewhere here that should a stolen watch be sent for service they return it to the owner who reported it stolen... could be wrong though!

I don't think this is true. Anyway, in the absence of box and papers you should ask a lot of questions of the seller. Personally, it would not bother me if it was reflected in the price (sounds like it is) and the seller was forthcoming with details. Sure, relatively recent releases being sold without box and papers is uncommon, but doesn't necessarily mean it is high risk of being stolen.

Also, this thread is boring. There have been rather too many posts about Trilogy resale value recently. I get the impression that deep down some people believe that lower price reflects less worth or craftsmanship (oh wait, something Veblen something something drinking the marketing koolaid).

If you bought a new LE expecting it to appreciate or hold its value because "it's Omega" or because some other Omega LEs did, then this was a foolish decision. If value retention matters, one should look at the typical markdown for Omega releases on average, and factor that in as a reasonable worst case.

As for prices now, I think the current levels are attractive and prices have been stable at these levels for a while. I see little room for further depreciation, otherwise you start hitting the cost of the regular editions. Interestingly, since Omega has been increasing prices recently, and current levels retain the existing discount, the used market seems even more appealing.

BlackTalon · Oct 8, 2019

LeonDeBayonne
The 3 mistakes Omega made were the high number (4,000 in total for each, including sets, is too much), the bracelet buckle (far too thick) and the box (like most boxes for most brands, it is far too big). The rest is perfect in size, design... and I truly believe that, as some point, collectors will recognize this. In the meantime, as said above, value does not matter.

How did Omega make a mistake when they basically sold them all? Sure, some may be sitting at OBs and ADs, but the ones at ADs were paid for. The only people suffering from the high # of watches are those who hoped the values would shoot up (and I admittedly am in the camp to a certain extent). Buying a new watch is like buying a new car -- you have to expect it to lose a chunk of value as soon as you walk out the door where you bought it. and if that loss does not happen, then it should be a happy surprise, not an expectation.

I've bought enough LEs over the last few years to understand this. Even the #STs have have not appreciated by much, even though their production numbers were fairly low compared to the 60th Anniversary watches. And the Trilogy set was doomed to suffer a pull-back in pricing in my opinion due to the overall cost (people shelling out $20k USD would have often been looking at real vintage Speedmasters and Seamasters).

LeonDeBayonne · Oct 8, 2019

BlackTalon
How did Omega make a mistake when they basically sold them all? Sure, some may be sitting at OBs and ADs, but the ones at ADs were paid for. The only people suffering from the high # of watches are those who hoped the values would shoot up (and I admittedly am in the camp to a certain extent). Buying a new watch is like buying a new car -- you have to expect it to lose a chunk of value as soon as you walk out the door where you bought it. and if that loss does not happen, then it should be a happy surprise, not an expectation.

I've bought enough LEs over the last few years to understand this. Even the #STs have have not appreciated by much, even though their production numbers were fairly low compared to the 60th Anniversary watches. And the Trilogy set was doomed to suffer a pull-back in pricing in my opinion due to the overall cost (people shelling out $20k USD would have often been looking at real vintage Speedmasters and Seamasters).

Sure. While I am not sure at all that all trilogy watches have been sold to end-buyers or AD (I know that some boutiques still have the railmaster), my point is that there is no industry that can withstand in the long run a rise in prices, a rise in volumes and a rise in inventories at the same time. Something has to give.

rominvicta · Oct 8, 2019

How did Omega make a mistake when they basically sold them all? Sure, some may be sitting at OBs and ADs, but the ones at ADs were paid for. The only people suffering from the high # of watches are those who hoped the values would shoot up (and I admittedly am in the camp to a certain extent).

Me in person, I do not suffer in reply to your assumptions. But in general, the image of Omega suffers. And the very fact that this thread was started, proves me right. Mind you, IMHO nowadays there is almost no person that would readily slip over a thousand EUR for a wrist watch, and would expect on the very next day he/she would lose half of it. That’s the way the watch market looks like. And that is the reason why brands like PP and Rolex thrive and there are so many going down in the latest years.

BlackTalon · Oct 8, 2019

rominvicta
Me in person, I do not suffer in reply to your assumptions. But in general, the image of Omega suffers. And the very fact that this thread was started, proves me right. Mind you, IMHO nowadays there is almost no person that would readily slip over a thousand EUR for a wrist watch, and would expect on the very next day he/she would lose half of it. That’s the way the watch market looks like. And that is the reason why brands like PP and Rolex thrive and there are so many going down in the latest years.

The people who frequent OF are not really the typically buyers from what I have seen. The last few years I have come across quite a few people wearing Omegas, and the ones I have talked to have almost all been oblivious to the history, etc. They typically seem to know Speedmaster is the moonwatch, and Seamasters are associated with James Bond, but that is often the depth of their knowledge. They have typically talked about wanting to add another new blingy Omega at some point, and the thought of buying a 'used' watch is an aberration to them.

Poday · Oct 8, 2019

jhross98
you don't see a lot of car companies coming out with exact replicas of cars from the 50s and 60s . . .because no one would want them.

While I see what you’re trying to say here, it’s a bit more complicated than that. An exact replica of a 50s or 60s car wouldn’t meet current safety regulations and simply couldn’t be sold, regardless of the level of interest from the public. But if someone were to build a modern authorized replica of a Bricklin SV-1 or a ‘76 Aston Martin Lagonda, I’d be all over it.

jhross98
can anyone think of an exact replica piece that has held or gained value ? i cannot. comparing this LE to other speedmaster LEs i think is a fools errand

Not quite the same thing, obviously, but the “Watchco” SM300 builds have absolutely increased in value over the past few years...

Diomega · Oct 9, 2019

People have ceased to value the product itself, now the value of watches is in their speculative price.

Omega created the product closest to the original 1957. But people complain too much ... 3557 Speedmaster's - is it a lot for 7 billion people? The banal 116610 LN is easier to see on the wrist than any model from the Trilogy.

I hear a lot about the Railmaster Trilogy being boring. Well, yes, this is not candy from Richard Mille. However, after my friends saw this watch on their wrist, their opinion immediately changed. Two out of three bought this model. Two out of three! They went to the boutique and received. Not a Rolex, but a “boring watch.”

How can a with domed glass model be boring? How can a watch with a high-tech caliber be unpopular? World has gone mad. Everyone began to measure only at the speculative resale price.

Trilogy LE values

pIoNeErOfThEnILe

Evitzee

dsacks30

scapa

Pun

sjg22

rominvicta

rominvicta

rainking

S.H.

Pun

jaguar11

LeonDeBayonne

janw23

BlackTalon

LeonDeBayonne

rominvicta

BlackTalon

Poday

Diomega

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