Vacheron Constantin

As reported in The Guardian on 18 May: ...  

Its an interesting read.. Yang

All those lovely unsold watches. Perhaps if the pricing was correct in the first place, they would not have had to resort to this!!

that the price is too high and you can have a watch at $50,000 and the perception could be you are getting a great bang for your buck!

NaturalyVacheron Constantin Perpetual and Minute Repeater will be Expensive , no way they can reduce its price . Too bad such a beauty was not sold . wish I could afford it .

Most watches are currently overpriced due to profit margins of the company and the ADs. The prices of watches have gone up a lot more than the cost of making a watch over the last 15 to 20 years. Any watch not sold is really the fault of the company marke... 

Have to agree with redcorals reply , people are following marketing ads . and not looking at the worth of their money with pp who are overpricing their watches and people keep buying them , although the quality of their finishing is inferior to Vacheron C... 

one might argue that one should forget about Vacheron and Patek and focus on brands like Grand Seiko and Lange which have superb finishing at a lower price. Vacheron and Patek rely on their history and produce quality watches although at a price. Another ... 

Not overpriced for the Greatest member of Haute Horology with their unmatched Royal Heritage . Does a minute repeater cost a little to manufacture ? They cost a lot and naturally they are expensive .

because I am pretty sure that many purists here will agree with me that Vacheron Constantin is over priced especially of late (I will exclude the new range of cheaper VCs). You are obviously a great fan of the brand. I am a fan of Patek but I will admit t... 

Or perhaps they disassembled them for parts that could be of use going forward?

they have an outlet shop in the outlet village in Roermond (NL) where they blow everything away with 30% discount for everybody on all the watches they sell there, even LE's and models of current production. Nice move for their Retail Agents...

But it is surely a good move, hopefully they destroyed some Lange watches as well since they seem totally worthless today in the grey market. Look at the Langematik Perpetual, the Zeitwerk and Datograph. Unbelievable how these icons end up on Chrono for t... 

At 40k seems far away from being called a “destroyed” watch. So seems the datograph .. perhaps a second hand one , but anyway, if you apply this reasoning , no brand is safe today. Rolex is a different game , they don’t sell watches , it’s another univers... 

IMHO

i think they d to make it more WR and it d be a great beachside watch with 30m obviously not as versatile as someone d consider such a task.

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Honestly, I've received more pleasure from my modern Submariner than my 5711a. No knock on Nautilus, but the most overrated Watch of the "day" IMHO. Forgetting resale there is zero comparison between a 5711 and a Datograph original or current edition.

There’s a unworn WG RL PLM for slightly below $60k and one time I saw a Grand L1 Moonphase Lumen for $55K but it was gone quick before I can act. On the other hand, it’s good for people who wants to own a Pt Langemarik PC or the others you mentioned. I re... 

I remember. A real "stupidity" if you ask me. This watch shouldn't have been released in the first place, but what to expect from a management team that has no more ideas....but I guess the whole world was eagerly waiting a Triple Split, euh....euh....🤔 ... 

The trick is: one has to see the potential of the watch! Regarding VC: the watches are very high quality and very, very nice but too high in price. Pricing is the problem, not the watches.

But it took them a long time (5-10 yrs?) vs some PP/Rolex watches that are instantaneous. Again I’m not a flipper but it feels good knowing what you own is desirable. With their superb quality and execution, I wonder what’s missing, heritage? Auction resu... 

The brand has not gone into the auction market and bought back its pieces. Perhaps, as part of a bigger concern (Richemont) it can't do that. Anyway, the reason doesn't matter. They have not helped to create a secondary market. Patek has been doing that f... 

...helps them corner those prices and maintain the perception of extrinsic value when there is no more (sometimes less) intrinsic value than VC/Lange.

Langematik Anniversary 1815 Hommage 1815 Emil Datograph Pisa Zeitwerk Phantom Zeitwerk HWK 1815 Tourbillon first edition Maybe I miss one or the other. But that is in 25 years of watchmaking.

I think it is a great achievement from Lange to have produced such desirable pieces in such a short period of time. I can not think of another manufacturer with such short history to have done the same.

Despite it's "history" Lange has been making wristwatches (excepting the WWII Pilots) for a very short time. It is nowhere near as old as any of the brands it is compared with.

complained loudly about how much stock they were obligated to buy and when the mainland Chinese buyers disappeared, they were not officially allowed to take measures to sell down their inventory (deep discounts and/or grey market). Anyway, Richemont’s ans... 

When they began taking away from ads who lowered their discounts

at least they should keep enough to distribute as loaners when your watch is in for service for such extravagant lengths of time, or have stock on hand to replace a defective watch rather than waste the owner's time while they problem-solve. Then they cou... 

Anyway, every 3 months they (Richemont & others) celebrate or complaint the figures. They earn millions, but they are not able to manage a 5 years business plan that is not driven by a double digit raise. Greed is the leading force. When you mention Rolex... 

The long term does not matter, every quarter is key.

But in my opinion that should tell the brands they are priced out of the market and reduce prices or offer better products. Doesn’t surprise me that IWC is on that list. Kings of offering less for more! Makes me wonder how many new watches are using recyc... 

they could have then killed many birds with a single act, create some brand awareness and keep the watches in circulation. It's a wasted opportunity in my opinion.

The archives of V&C are full of stories. 1921 a "Hindu prince" purchased a small fortune's worth after his private secretary was bribed to bring him by the Maison.