Vacheron Constantin

The modern watch world is not immune to fake watches: where ever a buck is to be made, someone is going to try to make it, and faking rare vintage watches (beyond Rolex) is now not uncommon. Yesterday a Patrizzi Auction catalog arrived on my porch and I w... 

minimum requirement whan buying vintage!

Wow, just shows that even the auction house "experts" can be fooled. Thanks for outing this example, lets hope Patrizzi does the right thing and pulls the offending item. Hey Alex, with the cost of a C of A, it just isn't a realistic expectation for piece... 

...and by the way this is frightening from Patrizzi. He had so many vintage V&C to sell those last monthes... Berny

offered for sale is accompagnied by a COA, the buyer would not ave anything extr to pay but the fact that a COA exists wouls surley increase the price of the hammer price anyway

I recently had a VC perpetual calendar certified. If I'm not wrong it cost me around 1200 Euros (aprox 1600 USD). I had to send the watch to VC, and it came back with a small booklet that included photographs of the actual watch, model, ref. etc. and the ... 

That is another one you need to show me Agustín!! ;-)

To see such .... in auction? Strange... Best, Nicolas

Great catch and very astute eye Bill! I see gilt movements on vintage pocket watches, but a wristwatch would be unusual - as I understand the gilting process was stopped before most wristwatches were made. C of As are expensive, but I don't really see a w... 

It's fairly jaw-dropping that this kind of thing was about to be auctioned off as an intact, correct vintage VC. You are great to warn others, and remind us once again -- caveat emptor . Cheers, Daos

with the same information I provided in the post. We'll have to see how they handle this. Bill

Please tell us whatever you can comfortably tell us about the response from Patrizzi. I am curious to see what Patrizzi does. When a bidder intends to buy something from a reputable auction house, that bidder expects the final item to be genuine and free ... 

Bill, Thanks for the excellent analysis. Unfortunately, the auction houses sell watches for people who wish to divest themselves of a particular watch. I would have to assume that the consignor (person selling) would have known the dubious nature of the w... 

We had this kind of post on TZ French, it was about some Vintage and Pre Vendome Panerais... On around 10 watches, 7 were fake... Antiquorum removed them from the auction. Best, Nicolas

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Can't ever trust an auction expert 100% of the time, after all, they're human, and all humans are prone to mistakes. Thanks for the catch!