Indeed! I think 9k eur for a very good condition is fair but some of those on C24 is pretty expensive...

Indeed. But so do sales prices. But very reasonable as A384 have been super cheap.

 

Agree with you about asking price, but my attention is on the trend! Based not only on ch24, my convintion is that the new a384 revival is pushing up the price of the vintage one.

 

I wonder how many of these over priced watches Chrono24 sells. As my experience is that only very reasonably priced watches sell on their site

 

Totally agree but but those prices could help to see some trends:
1) rising price (mounths ago they where 30/40% lower)
2) price gap betwen a384 and a385 incrising (i’m a 385 fan but I have both)

a correct or fair price doesn’t exist, every watch has his own price and the price depends on lot of things, first of all conditions but also who is the seller etc

never bought on c24 but I think on average we can assume a possible discount not over 20%, does someone with buying experience on c24 confirm or correct this?

 

Most sellers on there are professional dealers. Discounts are thin, sub 10% to zero

 

Yes!! Price shown on the ads has been significantly increased in the last 3-5 months ... but it is not more demand ... it is interesting to see how many week/months is necessary to get sold that watches.

A384 and A385 was underrated (like any other zenith, IMHO, what I want to thank), but demand was never high ... so I guess prices will go down slowly

Last year I saw A385 for around 4000 eur and A385 for around 5000 eur in good conditions ... I think that’s the price ...

 

Amazing pieces @Frederic_gva

 

Prices tend to be higher in the U.S. as the supply for the world's vintage El Primeros seem to come from Italy and are easier to source in Europe. Saw an A385 on a bracelet sell last month for $5000 on ebay but it was aggressively polished and had a service crown.

 

I have to disagree. A384 have been around 5k usd for a long time and in my opinion very under valued compared to A386 and Zenith Daytona (for example). A384 did not move up anything even though the A386 and Zenith Daytona did Indeed go up a lot. To mee, watches have a relative value to other watches, and lets say that A386 should be 2 times the price of A384 long term. Then the market all run in the same direction and buy A386 and bid up the price to around 4 times A384. Then it is to me likely that they will move back at some time (one up or the other down) as people eventually reallize that one of them is relatively cheap. Exactly the same thing happened to vintage Nautilus vs Royal Oak.

So in summary. A tropic panda El Primero in good condition should not be 5k with current values of other watches. It is a high quality and well balanced iconic chronograph from a highly regarded brand.

 

Will chime in since one of my watches is in there priced at 9750. I have sold quite a lot Primeros last year. Some go quick and others last a bit.
These thoughts in random order I like to share with you. Some of them are open doors but some maybe interesting for you guys.
1-The tropical A384 is one of the nicest early Primeros since they offer a true vintage experience. You can have the black dub dials but also the tropical sub dials with all the different kind of hues as mentioned earlier in this terrific post of @Mick Tock. I think in the pictures by @preacher you see different kind of A384 in different kind of conditions. Some have a ladder bracelet some don't. Some have black dub dials and some have tropical dials etc etc.. There is a different demand for each kind expression of this vintage reference.
2-On high demand sport Rolex models, dealers tend to take a small margin since they rotate quite fast.
3-Last year was a particular good year due to the anniversary of the Primero but also the speedmaster Moon landing.
4-I see a big price increase for early/rare Primeros since i ever got interested in them. I remember well the first prices i asked among @mahamithra in 2015 and compared others for around 3000-4000 euro.
5-Sometimes there is a bit wiggle room depending on the purchase price of the dealer. But bear in mind that a dealer has to make a living and has high costs such as interest, subscriptions, insurance, service costs, shipping and need to make a decent living.
6-Thereby I and some others will be the person who will give you one year guarantee. In my first year i had one return which was a really difficult one. But I solved it. To me a happy customer is the most important since I would like to offer my customers the experience I would like to be treated myself. And yes there are still a lot of things to improve. I will thrive to get better and better each day.

 

I really appreciate your intervention.
Thanks

 

I can only talk about my thoughts, and what I see. Perhaps is other situation what I see, or is other vision of the same situation.

I am a small collector, looking for good-looking zenith watches that I like. I am based in Europe, and use forums, chrono24 and some watch fairs in Europe.

Zenith has never had a great demand, even considering it is an iconic watch manufacture.

A386 is the probably the iconic watch from zenith, and most valued in the market, in addition with cover girl-A3818 and perhaps A3736 and A3817.

in my opinion A384 and A385 has been (for the market, not for me) like the ugly duck. Not high demand watches, so up to last year, I found these watches with amazing prices (A385 starting in 4K euro and A384 starting 5k euro). But in the last six months, of course with 50th anniversary of El primero, but also the revival of other models (A384 mainly), space on the press, etc prices (in Europe) are increasing, and number of pieces that are for sale are increasing. More interest, so watches appear, and prices go up

I see that as a collector, that mark as favorite any el primero vintage watch that is for sale on chrono24, and monitor what happens.

 

My few thoughts are:

First I would like to recommend to buy A384 / A385 to everyone who like the look and design of these watches. They are very well priced up until now IMHO and I would call them undervalued- Personally I am not a big fan of this case design and I don´t have any.

Second I don´t think that the A386 is overvalued currently. Five years ago you could buy a Rolex Zenith Daytona and an A386 for the same price (ca. EUR 10k), I mean in collectable original condition. Since then the Rolex has trippled in Price and the A386 has doubled. In conclusion IMHO it is not the time to speculate whether the A386 is overpriced nowadays.

I have two Zenith Daytonas and two A386 in beautifull condition. In the flesh I clearly think that the A386 is the more desireable watch from design, rarity and historical importance. I mean the Zenith Daytons were made about 250k pieces. But I am a collector and not an speculator.

Zenith is a great brand and the early EPs are very nice. I also have a great G381 Mk1. I love this watch and they are very affordable compared to other specimen from the mainstream brands.

Best luck

 

Congratulations!! Your Zenith vintage watches look amazing!!

 

Marvellous Examples of Zenith A386!!

 

buying a watch is a passion for some but not for many. What we do is we trade what we have for what we want. money=watch. It is because the money has no intrinsic value the watch brings satisfaction and enjoyment among other things. So it is never about price it is always about passion, for some!

 

With the release of the Heritage A3818 where does that leave the value of the original in your guys' opinion?

 

Up

 

+ 1

 

Let´s compare the Omega Speedmaster 60th Anniversary Speedmaster to the original Ref. 2915. Is there any doubt that the original (very rare, esp. in great condition) A3818 with drop down in value ? I don´t think so