I should be traveling to Dubai coming June, and was wondering if anyone here has experienced the vintage watch scene there and can recommend any places to visit for some 40's-60's Omega love! Any guidance would be highly appreciated
I went there in December, and there were plenty of shops in the malls selling new luxuary watches, all brands, but no single place to find vintage as far as I could spot..... It was fun though, to do just the window-shopping of watches in the malls, since there were so much to see of it. To buy there, you need to be a sheik Take a tour up the Burj-Khalifa, the highest building in the world, nice view from up there. Go duning in the desert to, with Jeep
It must be there somewhere........ I can imagine many people (especially during tight situation 4-5 years ago) will sell many of their luxury watch hoard or many AD sell their unsold NOS. Last time I went to Jeddah, I visited an old mall called Corniche. There is an Omega AD at the ground floor. When I walked up to 2nd floor in the corner alley there is small watch shop who sell Omega NOS mostly from 80's. There are two tones Seamaster 120, Polaris, Deville Prestige, Constellation manhattan etc. Unfortunately no model attracted me. Their price is reasonable IMO (A two tone NOS Seamaster 120 is USD 1900 before discount which I think could be as high as 30%)
Will most definitely share the experience... I'm extremely interested in what could turn up from a place like Dubai within the whole Gulf region and the types of extreme models they are known to purchase or own, and I hope I can turn out some interesting stories to share with all Thnx marturx. Nice recommendations I actualy did a quick google search on vintage watches in Dubai. It seems that there's only one main vintage watch shop there which is recently up and coming. (http://www.momentum-dubai.com/en/) Looking at their prices, though, I think I'll just be window shopping there myself Otherewise, only a few other "We sell and buy new and old watches" stores here and there, which could turn up a treasure or be a total bust!
you could buy the second hand Pepsi GMT master in that website for only 60% of their asking price in Jakarta.
I heard Hong Kong is an even better place. Probably Shaun can share his experience, However if you happened to be in Jakarta, I would accompany you to 4 places for second hand luxury watches (Gajah Mada, batu tulis, Blok Plaza and melawai Plaza) in town. It's not great for vintage because our economy before 1980's is still poor, so not many people afforded luxury watches. But if you are looking for 1980-2000 Rolexes, Jakarta is decent place. Many trader from Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam coming to buy these watches when Rupiah/IDR rate weaken compare to SGD, MYR and VND.
I think with the wealth in Dubai, the locals who buy watches will spend much more than Omega prices for gold and diamond watches and are not interested in vintage watches. Here I cant find any good vintage watch shop although plenty selling expensive newer watches. Also remember it will be 45degC during the day in Dubai in June so you'll need to take that into consideration if you are planning to wander around the Souq areas looking for suitable shops. Obviously night time will be a bit cooler but it is still hot
I figure it would be the same in Dubai, given that the U.A.E. is a more recently modernized nation as compared to Saudi Arabia or Kuwait who have been around and drilling for oil much longer! I guess we'll have to see.
Looking at the articles I found when searching Google, I was hoping to play on the fact that it might be an up&coming new market actually, and all we need are the right leads. Oh, absolutely aware of that... I suffer the burdens of 50 C temperature in Kuwait where I currently work! It's the humidity in Dubai that I'm really worried about... has it started to get suffocatingly humid yet?
Ah ok, these sorts of temperatures can be a new experience for those who have never encountered it. I worked a few months in Syria many years ago and it was 50deg but it was dry heat so not too 'bad' (relative to 48C with 100% humidity) I work in Qatar at the moment and its about 42deg today and humidity isnt too bad, certainly not the horrific humidity that we usually get during the summer.............thats a joy to look forward to Normally June isnt too bad for humidity in July / August can be really nasty You could be lucky in Dubai with the watches
Thanks pascs. Actually, I totally feel for you. I can't live with humidity in any way, and ironically, I'm kind of glad i'm here in Kuwait since although it's extremely hot (maybe hotter than any other Gulf country) it's hardly humid at any time of the year... the central air conditioning units everywhere indoors you go take care of the rest! Hope it's not so drastic in Dubai yet!
So, just back from Dubai, where I met a Hippocampus at the Mall of the Emirates, while wearing my SM 176.001/7... Not much of a vintage watch scene there, except for a great specialty vintage watch store called Momentum in the Dubai Financial Center Basic selection of Omegas Many other brands too, Down to the vintage Mickey Mouse moving hands watches! Also had with a few major rarities not for show, but only for the seriously interested.... Great store owner, with a great passion for the vintage watch scene, and a great supporter of Middle Eastern vintage watch lovers. A wonderful place to visit if you're around in Dubai, and would like to be in the presence of beauty that is rarely seen in one place in that destination!
Respectable Member Melhadary Quite a substantial number of vintage-watches over there, though not as good as in Singapore or Hong Kong, in my opinion. I do not know about Jakarta. However, when comparing to Sydney it is a desert, vintage-watch wise. Thank-you.
Jakarta is also a desert for vintage watch. All good vintage watches has been kept by few traders. Fortunately these traders now set up many local sales blogs. In the past it is really word of mouth network......if you don't included in these network, you won't see any of them. Almost literally.
Respectable Members Seamonster & Privateday7, I was truly pleasantly surprised when I saw this kind of "full-on" store there! The general scene in the Middle Eastern countries I have been to is one like Jakarta, nothing like Australia, Europe or US, and in a few cases, actually a very exclusive trade business between a few very rich members of society... very hard to get in on the action and enjoy the thrill of the hunt! I guess this is why prices may be quite high in a new store like this one, so as to compete with that type of trader set-up! Competing with a "new watch models" market is quite a challenge still, also, and the vintage watch scene is still at very infant stages.
However if you are talking about modern second hand watch (above year 2000 for general; above year 1980 for Rolex) then we have like 15 stores at 4 locations in Jakarta. It is a liquid market.
To my knowledge the plastic ones are not very popular there however great variety for the newer sapphire ones.
Oh no... I'm referring to the new modern watch market, very rare to find 2nd hand anything here, IMO! Atleast vintage watches have a certain allure, but used-modern may not be fit for many! There's a modern luxury watch corner in every mall, like this one: