Life is GOOD for Watches and their Collectors.

27 february 2005

Article by: TheSouthern.com NEW YORK (AP) -- A watch's primary function might be to keep track of hours, minutes and seconds but its style, system and statement are hardly secondary factors. That was a lesson collectors learned with quartz watches. Advancements in timekeeping techniques -- some of which date back centuries -- barely budged until the 1970s when quartz watches came on the scene, replacing the tension-controlled springs found in mechanical watches with a crystal in an electric field to oscillate at a constant frequency. Almost immediately, the demand for mechanical watches waned and a slowdown in production of those watches followed. But what happens when people stop making something? ADVERTISEMENT >> ADVERTISING INFO << "Everyone wants one," says Edward Faber, co-owner of New York's Aaron Faber Gallery, which sells vintage, collectible and estate jewelry. "They want one for the nostalgia of a mechanical watch." That made such watches "collectible," and in a world of expensive toys and eccentric hobbies, collectible often is a code word for valuable. "Now if you have a Daytona Rolex or Patek Philippe moon-phase (watch) -- if you have the means to acquire these -- when you walk into a board meeting in Los Angeles, London, Paris or Italy, it gives you cache," says Faber, who wrote "American Wristwatches: Five Decades of Style and Design" (Schiffer). The private market for high-end mechanical watches started to skyrocket, with particular interest from European and Asian collectors, and auction houses recognized the trend. The value continues to increase so dramatically, according to Faber, that watches made in the 1950s and '60s that cost hundreds of dollars then, are now worth thousands. "The Rolex Explorer -- a simple black military watch -- sold for $300 in the '70s. Now you can spend $6-, $7- or $8,000. You could have bought a Patek Philippe moon-phase full-price for $2,000 in the early '80s, now you cannot find them for less than $100,000," Faber says. A Cartier Tortue Minute Repeater, a rare minute-repeating wristwatch in 18-karat yellow gold from the 1920s, was auctioned earlier this year in New York for $640,500. A luxury watch is an acceptable -- yet noticeable -- sign of wealth for a man looking for a counterpart to a woman's diamond ring. "A big gold bracelet or pinky ring -- a man can't really wear. But it's OK to wear a 1930s Cartier or Vacheron Constantin," observes Faber. He says that Ralph Lauren has worn an exaggerated tank watch (a rectangular shape) as a symbol of style and elegance for years. However, for watches to keep their value, they also have to be perceived as special. When the pendulum looked like it was swinging back toward mechanical watches in the late '80s, Swiss watch companies increased production. However, the skilled craftspeople of the previous generation were gone, Faber explains, so the company looked to computers. The result is well-made contemporary watches with a lot of bells and whistles that cost a lot, but they don't command the interest or price of vintage watches, he says. It's a perpetual challenge to mix modernity with a brand's heritage and integrity, all equally important elements when you're hoping to design a future collectible, says Stanislas de Quercize, president and CEO of Cartier North America. Article by: TheSouthern.com