Robert Carrigan
21
Remember: Auction house is selling for someone
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 watch. Just who is that person?? The fact that the auction house failed to recognize the problems is a big concern.
From what I have heard, there is not an auction house in existence that has NOT had a problem of offering a franken watch to the public. The fact that all of the offers are now available over the web makes buying a damn risky proposition.
Robert
Buyer beware!
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...
yikes! good eye, I agree with you that a certificate of authenticity should be the
minimum requirement whan buying vintage!
Great catch, Bill
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...
I totally agree with you...
...and by the way this is frightening from Patrizzi. He had so many vintage V&C to sell those last monthes... Berny
I thhik Vc and auction houses should reach some kind of agreement where each VC
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
VC certificate is expensive but goes beyond what Patek offers
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 ...
Thanks for the warning, and must I add that I'm very surprised
To see such .... in auction? Strange... Best, Nicolas
I agree, its really shocking this type of franken got to the auction catalog
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...
Amazing catch, Bill!
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
I left a message with someone at Patrizzi....
with the same information I provided in the post. We'll have to see how they handle this. Bill
I'm curious to know how they respond...
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 ...
Remember: Auction house is selling for someone
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...
A few years ago...
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
Never really trusted those auction experts...
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!