Omega

As you may or may not know, I have a bit of a penchant for Omega Constellations and particularly gold ones.  The latter have become very expensive of late as the value is linked to the (scrap) gold price which is a shame as it makes collecting these beautiful watches a major investment.

Recently, I’ve had my eye on this one which was progressing through the bay of thieves:

It is a ref 2652 with a 12.72million (~1952) cal 352 bumper which is rare enough but it is also 14kt gold and appears to have a lovely original dial.  I watched this steadily increasing in price for several days and had in mind a maximum I would pay. - I didn’t bid as I think bidding in all but the last few minutes is a waste of time and just raises the price.  However, at the last minute, I pulled out – why?  Well, there were just so many things I wasn’t too happy about:

1        the case seemed to have been overpolished – the lugs should have a visible edge and they didn’t

2        the seller didn’t include a movement photo – I ask him to provide one and he said he didn’t have one.  I would have thought that for such a rare beast as a cal 352, you’d want to show everything was in order – how can you tell if the movement is genuine without seeing it?

3        The bidding was being led by two individuals – when I looked into their history it appeared that the first one had made 104 bids on 28 items in the last 30 days and had a feedback of 5.  The other had made 364 bids on 23 items in the last 30 days and had a feedback of 6.  I’m no expert here but I was suspicious of shill bidding.

The watch eventually sold (not to one of the suspicious bidders though) for £1020 (~$1600).  OK, on the one hand, I was unhappy to lose such a rare Connie and a gold one at that but on the other hand, I feel glad that I wasn’t sucked into this deal.

I’d love to know your opinions though as I'd like to put my mind at rest one way or the other - did I do the right thing or was I a fool to let this one past?.

Cheers

Andrew