Is this worth £72,000?

[philcray]

I have a SS Rolex Sub Date and like a nice watch as much as the next man but I just cannot get my head round why anyone would even contemplate paying £72k for this watch?

http://www.watchfinder.co.uk/Rolex/Comex-Submarine...

Sure it looks cool and is no doubt rare and with a certain kudos given its history - and I know some people will pay over the odds for these things - but £72k has to just be a figure plucked out of the air, trebled and then with £20k stuck on for luck, surely? Or am i missing something?

And thats before we even get into considering the credit crunch and global financial meltdown!

[Healey73]

Wow, that is a whole heap of money! I think i'll stick to my standard one

Reminds me though, about 15 years back when I first started earning proper money and wanted to buy a really nice watch a family friend, who I also thought was a bit dodgy was having a big clear out as he was selling up everything to bum round the world as his wife had left him. He offered me one of his watches for £1k. It was a Submariner with red writing on it and being a bit of a naive 19 year old when it came to watches thought 'never seen one with red writing, must be fake' so declined his kind offer.

I heard not that long ago that they fetch at least £10k now!! whata mistaka to maka

[uriel]

I saw this the other day: http://cgi.ebay.com/ROLEX-Submariner-DOUBLE-RED-SE...

Some people must really, really like the colour red!

[Healey73]

Now, I really am depressed! I'm sure the one I was offered wasn't a sea dweller one, are there two different types? Please tell me there is a normal red submariner worth much much less if not I may spend the rest of the weekend crying!

[mblade123]

Yep looks about right.
Comex Rolexs used to be given away to the comex divers years ago after 10 years of service.

[Ultra Violent]

..Right arm, anyone?

[303Hound]

I know the guy who owns this particular watch, he had no idea of the value of it.

[mblade123]

Just for a bit of info on the Comex Rolex for you.

http://www.doubleredseadweller.com/comex%20watch.h...

[jcwuk]

mblade123 said:

Yep looks about right.
Comex Rolexs used to be given away to the comex divers years ago after 10 years of service.

But How have they arrived at such a figure ?
And will anyone actually pay that amount ?

[phumy]

This double red Sea Dweller is even more at nearly 140k GBP, how crazy is that:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ROLEX-Submariner-DOUBLE-RED-...

[shadwell davies]

If it sells it is worth it.

If you also have one, you may be excused to do some cartwheels around your garden......

[phumy]

If i was fortunate to own one of those and someone offered me that money i think i might bite their hand off. However theres always the other way of looking at it, if they've gone up in value by mahoosive amounts......then maybe they'll keep going up even more, so hang on to it.

[Stuart]

jcwuk said:

mblade123 said:

Yep looks about right.
Comex Rolexs used to be given away to the comex divers years ago after 10 years of service.

But How have they arrived at such a figure ?
And will anyone actually pay that amount ?

Good old fashioned supply and demand in action; there aren't enough of them to satisfy the demand of the people who want one. Ergo, value rises.

Your second question is tougher to answer. There are a couple of watch sales coming up in London pre-Christmas which will, I suspect, define current values in the market place. No Comex subs, but a couple of similarly rare pieces.

Any PH watch fans going to either Bonhams or Sotheby's on the 17/18 December btw?

[phumy]

Stuart said:

jcwuk said:

mblade123 said:

Yep looks about right.
Comex Rolexs used to be given away to the comex divers years ago after 10 years of service.

But How have they arrived at such a figure ?
And will anyone actually pay that amount ?

Good old fashioned supply and demand in action; there aren't enough of them to satisfy the demand of the people who want one. Ergo, value rises.

Your second question is tougher to answer. There are a couple of watch sales coming up in London pre-Christmas which will, I suspect, define current values in the market place. No Comex subs, but a couple of similarly rare pieces.

Any PH watch fans going to either Bonhams or Sotheby's on the 17/18 December btw?

But where is the demand, by putting them on ebay is crazy, there are so many idiots around now, that they will get scammed, almost guaranteed. Demand is when people want them at that price, i don't see people queuing up to buy at that price. Im sure its just owner or dealers plucking stupid numbers from the sky and trying the market, there is no complicated equation to work out how they arrive at such a crazy price.

[Stuart]

phumy said:

Stuart said:

jcwuk said:

mblade123 said:

Yep looks about right.
Comex Rolexs used to be given away to the comex divers years ago after 10 years of service.

But How have they arrived at such a figure ?
And will anyone actually pay that amount ?

Good old fashioned supply and demand in action; there aren't enough of them to satisfy the demand of the people who want one. Ergo, value rises.

Your second question is tougher to answer. There are a couple of watch sales coming up in London pre-Christmas which will, I suspect, define current values in the market place. No Comex subs, but a couple of similarly rare pieces.

Any PH watch fans going to either Bonhams or Sotheby's on the 17/18 December btw?

But where is the demand, by putting them on ebay is crazy, there are so many idiots around now, that they will get scammed, almost guaranteed. Demand is when people want them at that price, i don't see people queuing up to buy at that price. Im sure its just owner or dealers plucking stupid numbers from the sky and trying the market, there is no complicated equation to work out how they arrive at such a crazy price.

Yep, certainly some speculative pricing by dealers and owners, which is why I was suggesting that the London sales might set some more "official" values.

Isn't much of this driven by the price that someone got (around £55k IIRC) for an original SBS Rolex last year? It was a nice story - the SBS has fixed bars rather than spring pins to hold the strap, and the chap had taken it into a dealer to see about getting them removed so that he could wear it with a bracelet. He'd bought it at an army surplus sale for a few hundred quid, and had no idea what the thing was worth.

[Stuart]

Actually I'm an arse, there are a couple of interesting bits and bobs along the lines of our discussion:

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp...

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp...

[CommanderJameson]

Am I right in thinking that the only thing that makes the Comex subs special is that they have Comex printed on the dial?

Did Comex have Rolex make any special, bespoke modifications?

If not, I guess you're buying the history and rarity of the dial, rather than a piece of horological interest?

[Stuart]

CommanderJameson said:

Am I right in thinking that the only thing that makes the Comex subs special is that they have Comex printed on the dial?

Did Comex have Rolex make any special, bespoke modifications?

If not, I guess you're buying the history and rarity of the dial, rather than a piece of horological interest?

Not sure actually. The Mil-subs have fixed bars in place of spring bars, but I think that the implication is that the standard watch is absolutely fit for purpose, and that it therefore needs no further modification. Part of the appeal of a Rolex for the bloke on the street I guess - unlikely as it is to ever happen, one could tell the time with it from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean...

Actually for me the dial is an integral part of the horological interest, and it seems to radically affect values.

ETA: Dominic can probably answer with far more authority than me...

Edited by Stuart on Wednesday 3rd December 12:42

[Mr POD]

No. Give the £72K to charity and show me proof and I'll get you a watch from argos.

It's function is telling the time FFS.

[heebeegeetee]

That has to be mistake? Surely?

Hers's my thoughts on prices now though: Every time you open a car mag now there seems to be a page of watches costing £20k and way more. Surely, these cannot be tasteful? It is not possible to reflect taste and elegance with the current breed of 'superwatches'.