My friends in China are loathe to get me any watches due to the amount of fakes both new and vintage. This doesn’t speak to China as a whole merely the people I know don’t know watches. They did well in real estate and only buy from Rolex AD and a few cool Chinese luxury brands.
Although we speak to them weekly and news I get varies too much from what is printed in the west. Chinas unemployment rate has always been high equal to that of the US population but their population cracking a billion may make that normal I don’t know. I always enjoy my times in China but was disappointed to find watches run about the same prices in the US.
I also found a lacking of swear words in Chinese conversation many blushed when I asked them to tell me a few. Anyway for those that lean towards the party line I always found it best to avoid political discourse as they are not prone speaking poorly about the government like we are in our towards western governments.
It is difficult to guess on the future of anything. I had some Chinese art I bought in China merely because I liked it. for some reason we looked up its value and found the artists work had skyrocketed like a tech stock during the internet bubble. I mailed it to family in China so they could take advantage of it shortly after which the value plummeted around here but I think it stayed strong in China so perhaps watch values will be cyclical and based on where your feet are in the world.
Perhaps I got off target here I just find china interesting no harm meant. I can only speak for myself and perhaps I will break even on my watch collection in the future. Like others I do give some vintage watches away to the few who expressed interest in what I was wearing nothing of great value as I don’t have many of great value anyway. I guess maybe vintage watches will do well or they won’t. That’s the best I can come up with.