It seems like all the best vintage IWC examples for sale on eBay and elsewhere come from Japan. Was that a particularly rich market for that brand?

 

Supposedly, in the 50s and 60s, Japan was determined to be the Switzerland of the East. Huge pushes in tech in Japan were made during this time. Supposedly, the chronometer competitions were shut down during this time due to the superior jpnese mvmts being submitted.

This fueled a huge hunger for high quality watches in Japan, which never really faced a quartz crisis like in the rest of the world.

The Japanese culture plays here in that most everyone takes ridiculous care of personal possessions.

Thus, these confluence of circumstances result in what you're seeing now.

All IMHO, of course. ;-)

 

IWC had a strong presence in Japan in the '60s and '70s. That, coupled with the fact that the Japanese collector community is arguably the most passionate in the world, would explain why there are many fine vintage IWC there.

As far as the "best" coming from Japan, that would be a generalization. There are many more top condition IWC in Europe than Japan, but they simply don't circulate. Also, there are vintage watches of all brands in outstanding condition in Japan, not just IWC. I have sold dozens of superb, varied examples to Japanese dealers who I have known for many years, and as the vintage market rose in value so significantly, more of them have began to actively source outside of Japan.

 

Almost everything vintage I see coming from Japan is too polished for my taste. I think they like to clean things up too much. Also, for some reason they usually upload low-res photos.

 

That is interesting and a bit counter-intuitive from the country that brought you wabi-sabi.

 

So true.

 

You're mixing it up with S Korea.

 

That may be true of the eBay sellers, but generally not the high-end vintage dealers.

 

i am talking about eBay sellers from Japan, and I have the same issues with watches listed on the yahoo japan site.