Another year is on the way to passing by, quicker than ever before, but that’s more to do with me getting older than any other reason ;) In those months the market has been level, and by that I mean values by and large have remained where they were for vintage Heuers. The market for new and neo vintage on the ‘speculator" brands has continued to soften, although the recent raft of RRP increases may well put a floor on further falls on that stuff. Although values on vintage Heuer have generally been flat that isn’t to say there hasn’t been any activity, there has been some very good auction results, and interestingly the museum has been actively buying up watches for their archives, more on that later…
 

The guide has remained steady, with only a few alterations on values, with less than 5-10% swing on any model. There is no change to supply, which is still very weak with very few good or desirable watches coming to market and those that have, found good homes (or museum drawers) to live in. There were some very rare and desirable watches that appeared at top auctions this summer which was great to see, because the past few years of auctions since the Heuer Parade, have seen ‘slim pickings" for anyone on the hunt for the best and rarest Heuers. The results were strong and I hope auction houses will note this and get back to offering us some more interesting and important Heuer watches again, at least in an effort to dilute their frankly overbalanced line up of new, neo vintage and independent brand watches! Of this summers results... a nice original condition (but not mint) 2447 Seafarer sold for $40000+ at Christies which is notably ahead of guide values. Sothebys also had some very rare references, and I believe these two auction houses are now the most likely places to see the best Heuers in auction. Results in Sothebys May auction saw a 2447 Carrera "Yachting" achieve 41.000 CHF, a PVD Monaco achieve 63,000 CHF, a 1158CHN Carrera go for 31,000CHF which were again all ahead of guide values. This reinforces that the rarest and most desired Heuers continue to be strong and that the gap between the best and the rest continues to grow wider.

This year is the 60th anniversary of the Carrera and there have already been some events held and watches launched by the manufacturer to celebrate this. Apparently the latest release is to be the final re edition in the oft used case and so it may well have been a case of ‘save the best for last’ with the 2447SN ‘Panda’. Credit where credit is due (as I have not often been impressed with their re-editions) the dial on this one is very nice. The 2nd execution style markers and hands really works, although there are always things a hard core vintage collectors think could be handled better. Sure the case could be a touch thinner, and sharper, they could have thinner sub dial hands and a shorter tail to the sweep hand and there is something not quite right about the "glass-box’ but that’s getting picky. It’s definitely a nice looking watch, and has rightly been well received in the market, let's hope it's a sign of things to come...

As mentioned in the intro, the heritage department has been active in the private collector market and interestingly paying well over ‘market’ for some pieces, although in my opinion these should be (and have been) treated as outliers. I have witnessed several rounds of this over the past fifteen years, most notably in the mid 2010’s when some average watches achieved unfathomable prices at auction which left the collector community rather puzzled and somewhat amused. Was this supposed to influence the market at the time? I’m not sure but if so it failed as the watches involved and values achieved made no rational sense and if anything it made the market suspicious of manipulation. This recent round of purchases is obviously not trying to influence the market, because at the end of the day, there has been rightly very little visibility of it, apart from the usual core collector chatter, but either way there are some collectors and retailers who have been delighted to see some good fortune come their way, and who would begrudge that in these ‘cost of living’ days!

As a parting shot I often have emails that ask me about predictions for Heuer watch values as an investment, and mostly I try and avoid answering directly because your first priority as a watch collector should always be the passion for the watches and the rest follows. However I have been giving this some thought recently and due to a certain set of circumstances I believe now is a great time to add grail vintage Heuers into a collection. This current period has seen prices that have been largely stable over a few years coincide with a time when money in the bank is often devaluing due to higher inflation, which means that there hasn't been a better time to add such grail pieces since the start of the prior upward curve (2010-2017).  Add into the mix that modern watch brands have been putting up prices quickly over the past two years only makes the stable vintage watch values of the past few years look particularly attractive. Given that the market goes in phases (and has been demonstrably so over the past 30 years) it would not surprise me if the next phase of appreciation is not that far away. Unless collecting vintage sport chronographs goes out of fashion there seems little doubt to me that prices of the best examples will be notably higher by the end of the decade.

The next guide update will be either at the end of 2023 or at the beginning of 2024, until then happy Heuering!