Swatch X Omega

One of the members of another forum I frequent has a few contacts in the Swiss industry(fairly heavy hitting vintage collector) and he was told recently by one in Swatch that these won't be an ongoing unlimited run and they'll stop producing them towards the end of the year, but are looking to other similar tie ins. Also that they were caught completely off guard by the popularity frenzy around them. The same chap was ahead of the game in noting that Swatch had backtracked and they wouldn't be selling online after all, so there might be something to this.

I'm not so sure SC. They're very of the moment, beany babies for the wrist and while there will no doubt be niche collectors like for anything I doubt they have any legs in the wider collector community. Even if Swatch stop production at the end of the year they will have made squillions of them by then, never mind the fakers rattling them out.

They're also a very cheap watch in the flesh, like 100 quid's worth and 150 for the name and overall design. Yep I saw one last week and had it in the hand(Mars one). Client of mine and felt a bit daft asking her for a pic of it. I expected it to be cheap, but it felt very flimsy and the strap was already starting to show wear and tear.

No doubt brand new in box unworn will hold some sort of premium, but less than in the past when people weren't looking to "future collectablity" nearly as much as today.

Just like in cars and other areas the Irish market is an oddball one and doesn't tend to compare to other markets, mainly down to its size. In speciality stuff like watches the market here is tiny. You just won't get the same number of interested people, so I'm not that surprised tbh. If I had one and was one of those PITA buying to flip types(which in my humble have fecked the market and hobby) I'd be selling on ebay not adverts.

These came up this not an hour ago when I was with a client. His teeenaged daughter copped my Heuer Bund and asked "is that one of those cool new Swatches?". She made a decent job of hiding her disappointment when I told her it wasn't, but she thought the NATO strap was cool. 😁 It seems they're spreading the fashion for watches anyway. At least fashionable ones.

They look funky and charming in the flesh, but a large part of that is the Swatch plasticky effect. The strap is awful and seems to wear quickly and they look like a hundred quid watch, where you're paying 150 for the name and hype. For the same money, minus the hype and name you could get one of these.

A pretty cool mashup in quartz of WW2 Gallet and Hanhart chronos with a touch of Zenith on top. In a steel case with movable click bezel, superluminova, date/no date option, sapphire crystal with anti reflection, a smooth running chronograph hand, leather strap and comes with a watchroll. Just don't look at the caseback embossed Spitfire that looks like it's had a stroke. Never mind that the watches it's inspired by were trying to shoot down the same Spitfires, but still...

If I had 250 quid burning a hole in my pocket for a cheap and cheerful chronograph I'd be buying the Dan Henry way before the MoonSwatch.

EDIT, just checked on ebay, they also seem to hold their value, even increase it. Buy it for 250, sell it in a few years for 3 or 400.

Or you could go to this yahoo and buy them individually for less. Well, not much less. Interesting how the different planets havee very different "values" to the eejits. Pluto being the least fave, Neptune way higher and hovering around three grand. 😮🤣

I'd reckon what's more likely to happen is stagnation. Too many people, actual buyers with actual cash rather than dealers/flippers played man maths over the covid period and are invested at values way above retail. They'll be in no rush to sell at a loss, so will likely hang onto their watch(s). Which means fewer coming to market at normal prices. Dealers and flippers bouncing from one deal to the next with other dealer/flippers are in much more precarious positions and need the rodeo to keep running. That end of things looks very shaky. Enough actual buyers with actual cash will see the market softening and not want to buy at their dealer prices and we'll get stagnation there too.

Like I was saying this already happened in the vintage world. The singular difference between that world and the current Rolex/AP/PP world is that the latter are still being produced. Thousands per day in the case of Rolex and not far off a thousand per week even for a brand like Patek. I suspect we're going to see a gap opening between new watches in AD windows and current/new in box/slightly used watches in owner's watchrolls.