I have noticed a lot of subs for watches talk about investments and watches holding value or going up. i wanted to actually check that instead of just reading about it so i spent way too much time this week pulling together all the auction results from a few houses back about 30 years. Then i went looking for the same watch selling more than once, not just two of the same ref, the exact same watch.

After all of it i found over 1,200 of them. This is what happened between the sales:
Median result was about +1% total, not per year, just total, over about two years of owning it. Basically nothing, just under half sold for less than they cost before a single fee.The fees are where it gets even worse, and i have a feeling id get a reply "you forgot the buyer's premium". I didnt, thats the point. These prices are what the buyer actually paid, premium included, on both ends. You pay premium going in and commission coming out so the hammer has to climb about 44% before youre even back to even as the seller. only 16% of these got there. Count the auction house's cut and 83% of them lost money.

I tried hard to disprove these before posting, it isnt survivorship (matched pairs, losers included, and the ones that tanked so hard nobody resold them arent even here). It holds same-house-only and one-pricing-basis-only. Holding periods run from under a year to over five. And its nominal, so after inflation the median lost money in real terms.

What i cant see is private and dealer sales. If that side behaves differently, tell me. And my fee numbers are mid-range (27% premium, 12% commission). If you actually consign, what do you really pay?

Not saying watches are a bad thing to own, buy what you love and wear it. Just that "watches are an investment" doesnt really survive the round trip data for the average one (AT AUCTION!). If you want a specific slice run, drop it in the replies and i will run it.

Advice

is stainless steel dial case crucial? or brass is fine?

My collection has ended up being pretty mixed over the years. I have watches I bought because I loved the movement. Others because of the dial or case design. And a few where I honestly just liked how they looked on my wrist I used to think that eventually I'd settle into one style or brand. Somehow the opposite happened.

The more watches I've owned the more I appreciate having different things in the box. One day I want something simple and clean. Another day I want a mechanical watch where half the fun is knowing what's going on inside the case. It has also changed how I judge new watches.

I don't really look at a watch and ask whether it's better than something I already own anymore. I ask whether it brings something different to the collection. That could be an interesting movement. A case shape I don't have. A brand with a history I find cool. Sometimes it's just a dial color that makes me want to wear it. I think learning more about horology actually pushed me in this direction. The deeper you go the harder it becomes to believe there's one "correct" way to enjoy watches.

Not sure if this is even interesting, but I remembered this recently and now it’s been stuck in my head.

A few years ago I worked for a couple of months at a small watch assembly facility in Switzerland.

I won’t say where exactly. Partly because of paperwork I signed when I started, and partly because I honestly don’t know how much of this I’m allowed to talk about.

The work itself wasn’t particularly exciting.

Most of the pieces arrived almost finished. At my station we did a very small part of the final assembly. In my case, mostly fitting the hands, checking their alignment and passing the piece on.

There was one client, though, that was treated differently. We were never told who they were. Normally you’d have some kind of client reference on the paperwork. With these pieces there were just numbers.

Before working on them we had to clean the workstation again, even if it had already been cleaned. New gloves every time. Every piece had to be signed in and out. Phones weren’t allowed anywhere near that part of the room. None of this seemed THAT strange at first. Expensive watches, confidentiality, whatever. What I found strange was how little we were supposed to know. People at different stations weren’t supposed to talk to each other about these pieces.

I once asked an older woman I worked with if she knew who the client was. She looked at me for a second and said:
“You only need to know your part.”

I laughed because I thought she was joking. She didn’t laugh. There were also certain pieces that came through separately from the others. Whenever one of those arrived, a supervisor stayed in the room until we were finished. If anything was wrong with it — even a tiny mark or something slightly out of alignment — we weren’t allowed to fix it ourselves. It would be documented, removed from the tray and taken away. I never saw one of those pieces come back.

The weirdest thing is that I don’t actually remember what most of the watches looked like anymore. But I remember a number. 1882. I saw it repeatedly. On paperwork. On some of the internal labels. And I’m almost certain I once saw it engraved extremely small somewhere on one of the pieces, although this was years ago and I don’t want to pretend my memory is perfect. At the time I assumed it was just a client code or a reference number. Maybe it was.

I left after a few months and basically forgot about the whole thing. Recently something reminded me of that job and I tried searching for the number, but obviously searching “Swiss watch 1882” gives you a million unrelated things.
So now I’m curious.

Does 1882 mean anything specific in watchmaking?
Or was it probably just an internal reference that meant absolutely nothing outside that facility?

I'm Brazilian, and I recently travelled to the UK to fulfil a lifelong dream: attending a match at Wimbledon (one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments). Of course, since this was my first international trip, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to explore some of the area, so I ended up setting aside a week to explore London.

I've been interested in watches and clocks for some time, so one of the places on my list was the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. It served as both a workplace and residence for the Astronomers Royal, beginning with John Flamsteed, and today it houses the famous clocks made by John Harrison, the self-taught clockmaker who found a practical solution to the problem of determining longitude at sea in the 18th century.

What I could never have anticipated was that, besides my visit to Greenwich, chance would lead me to another rather fascinating encounter with the history of horology. After all, it isn't particularly surprising to find so much related to timekeeping in London. England played an important role in the development of timekeeping instruments, partly because it was a major maritime power during the 17th and 18th centuries and therefore depended on the advances mentioned in the previous paragraph. Still, I have to admit that I hadn't really researched the subject in much depth, and it was precisely the unusual nature of what happened that made me want to share the story here.

One day, with no plans until the afternoon, when I would head to the Wimbledon queue, I decided to take a walk around the Marylebone High Street area. An AI assistant had suggested a few cafés and a visit to Daunt Books. While browsing the bookshop, I came across a book called "33 Walks in London That You Shouldn’t Miss", by Nicola H. Perry.

I immediately checked whether any of the thirty-three walks suggested in the book passed through the area where I was. To my surprise, not only was there a walk nearby, but the very bookshop I was standing in was actually part of the route. From there, I decided to follow the book's suggestions, which eventually led me to the Wallace Collection.

The Wallace Collection is a British national museum specialising in decorative arts, furniture and paintings. Its permanent collection, which is free to visit, houses one of the largest collections of furniture by André-Charles Boulle, the celebrated master of marquetry at the court of Louis XIV, including five clocks.

Using a technique that combined layers of wood, brass and tortoiseshell, Boulle's workshop decorated the cases, while other specialists, such as clockmakers and sculptors, worked on the movements and other elements of the clocks, producing remarkably beautiful pieces.

There was also a curious connection to Brazil: I had actually heard of the Parisian cabinetmaker before, after reading about the restoration of the clock that was destroyed in Brasília during the attacks on Brazil's government buildings on 8 January 2023.

The Brasília clock, besides having marquetry attributed to Boulle, has a movement made by Balthazar Martinot, an important French clockmaker associated with the court of Louis XIV in the late 17th century. It is not known exactly how this historical object made its way to Brazil, but it is likely that, after being presented to the Portuguese royal family, it was brought to Brazil with the court of Dom João VI in 1808.

My previous knowledge of the artist made the discovery of these Boulle clocks at the Wallace Collection all the more special.

Among the pieces in the London collection are:

• a clock incorporated into a wardrobe, dating from around 1715;
• two pedestal clocks, dating from around 1712–1725;
• two mantel clocks, dating from around 1715 and 1726.

The movements of these clocks were made by Pierre Gaudron, Jacques III Thuret, Louis Mynuël, Jean Jolly and Claude III Martinot, all French clockmakers based in Paris. Claude III Martinot, in fact, belonged to the same family of clockmakers as Balthazar Martinot, who made the movement of the Brasília clock.

A large collection of Boulle furniture and works by clockmakers associated with the court of Louis XIV can also be seen at Versailles, which is one of the next destinations I would like to visit.

Even in London, there are other museums and attractions dedicated to horology, such as the Clockmakers' Museum, which unfortunately I didn't have the opportunity to visit. For me, it is fascinating to see how the history of watchmaking and clockmaking is intertwined with great historical figures, famous kings, and even unusual episodes such as the one involving the clock in Brazil. It was precisely this combination of horology, history and unexpected events that motivated me to share this experience.

Thank you for reading this far, and see you around!

I am a fairly new watch collector and I am looking for something as a daily wear. I build cars and go to track days sometimes, although i will not be using the watch as a tool but I would not mind a chronograph. My main concerns are that the watch should have a story/history to it, be good looking (subjective ik), and should be a quality watch. I have a relatively smaller wrist too (I am a tall skinny guy).

The other demands that are not a necessity but I would love to have is automatic, and well reputed brand. Here are my shortlisted watches:

• Yema Rallygraf alpine cup series (white dial) ***
• Bulova Racer Chronograph (bigger size so not sure)
• Citizen Night Hawk BJ7000-52E (bigger size but i love the look and its kind becoming a collectible)
• Glycine airpilot (swiss is always good!!)
• Iron Annie Flight Control ***
• Bulova a-15 (i wish this was automatic)

*** I love the watch but have second thoughts due to the brand heritage

I wanted some opinion on the above watches and if someone compared these or owned these and want to chime in! If anyone wants to suggest any more watches please go ahead. Thanks.

I am a fairly new watch collector and I am looking for something as a daily wear. I build cars and go to track days sometimes, although i will not be using the watch as a tool but I would not mind a chronograph. My main concerns are that the watch should have a story/history to it, be good looking (subjective ik), and should be a quality watch. I have a relatively smaller wrist too (I am a tall skinny guy).

The other demands that are not a necessity but I would love to have is automatic, and well reputed brand. Here are my shortlisted watches:

• Yema Rallygraf alpine cup series (white dial) ***
• Bulova Racer Chronograph (bigger size so not sure)
• Citizen Night Hawk BJ7000-52E (bigger size but i love the look and its kind becoming a collectible)
• Glycine airpilot (swiss is always good!!)
• Iron Annie Flight Control ***
• Bulova a-15 (i wish this was automatic)

*** I love the watch but have second thoughts due to the brand heritage

I wanted some opinion on the above watches and if someone compared these or owned these and want to chime in! If anyone wants to suggest any more watches please go ahead. Thanks.

I just purchased this... Watch from a guy who had it built by FrankenFarm. I asked if he had documentation the build...he referred me to FrankenFarm who sent me these photos. The last photo bummed me out the amplitude is low and the beat error high. The seller told me that it keeps great time and that I should just wear and enjoy the watch. What say you?

https://preview.redd.it/jdrnfx2rv6ih1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=27f352f694045d565d08e808c30cab82a0dca5fc

My definition of a good set it and forget it watch has to be: analog, solar and ideally atomic timekeeping. The citizen promaster land GMT fits lots of that but I can’t think of much else, any thoughts?

Can someone recommend some watches that fit the description? Movement doesn't entirely matter automatic preferred budget under 800. I hate the date on the watch so that's probably the most important criteria. Thanks