There is no doubt that over the past two years we have seen a softening in demand for Monacos and this has been replaced with much higher demand for Carrera ("1960s Carrera" are up almost across the board). That is not to say that the Holy Grail Monacos are not still highly prized and valued, they are, but 1133G, 73633, 74033B/G and 1533B/G continue to look great value, with much lower price movement over this period than most Heuers. It will be interesting to see what happens at the Phillips "Stop, Start, Reset" auction (Lot 42) where a 74033N PVD Monaco is to be sold. We see very few “Dark Lord” Monacos come to market and the prior auction record for one (in similar condition) was £48,000 (inc buyers fee) back at the Bonhams Haslinger sale in December 2010. There is also a decent looking Rindt in that sale and with large increases in values on screw back case Autavia it will be interesting to see how they both get on. It is worth noting that besides the upcoming PVD Monaco there have been barely any “Holy Grail” Heuers sold at auction since December 2010, so we don’t really know yet what value the best pieces may achieve. Most of the “best of breed" pieces remain in the hands of long term Heuer collectors, the fact that most have not been tempted to sell as yet, must indicate something...

Autavias have again seen increases and as mentioned above, even some early watches that are not fully original have seen strong pricing. Compressor cases models are inferior in my opinion to the screw back case models but that has not stopped values climbing to new highs and of course the 2446cSN could still lay a reasonable claim to be included in any list of the Top 10 Heuers. Of course only five are known, so good luck trying to find one! This scarcity is one of the great aspects of collecting vintage Heuer. We all know about Heuers unmatched “golden age” motor racing pedigree and the diversity of the dials/models is another key ingredient. However so many of the "Holy Grail" models are around in such tiny numbers, many with less than ten known examples, so it is easy to see the temptation for a collector to own a watch that is likely to be seen on only a couple of wrists at most on Instagram! If you compare to other desirable vintage watch sport brands, such as Rolex and Omega, the known numbers on these “Holy Grails” are truly tiny in comparison. Talking of which, Instagram has really been a “game changer” for collectors, and of course also for retailers. All of a sudden over the space of a couple of years the whole world can see watches they never knew about before and although the information is not always the most reliable, it has fuelled peoples passion and/or fanned the flames! Before this your route to watch pictures and information was via watch forums, which are not as easy to stumble upon or as quick to participate in. However the downside of "IG” is the accuracy, knowledge and detail of the information you receive, which is why we should all remember the value of more traditional forums (like www.onthedash.com on Heuer), this is where the "nitty gritty" can be found.

The guide shows the strength of the market with values in green, showing increases, red downward movements (none!) and white showing a status quo. Autavia, Carrera, Camaro and Skipper show the strongest increases. The next update will be in November.

UPDATE: We saw in Spring/Summer various auctions where several Autavia in particular achieved some staggering results. These pieces were generally not best of breed nor the most desired pieces and I think we can conclude that various "external" elements may have played a part in these results. However there seems little doubt that the market for the best pieces is stronger than ever.