Swatch X Omega

cuttingtimber22

Is this stupidity still happening?

Wibbs

One of the members of another forum I frequent has a few contacts in the Swiss industry(fairly heavy hitting vintage collector) and he was told recently by one in Swatch that these won't be an ongoing unlimited run and they'll stop producing them towards the end of the year, but are looking to other similar tie ins. Also that they were caught completely off guard by the popularity frenzy around them. The same chap was ahead of the game in noting that Swatch had backtracked and they wouldn't be selling online after all, so there might be something to this.

Ryath

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119027738#Comment_119027738

That's going to keep the frenzy going for a good while then. I've a brother in law in London I was going to ask if he could pick one up for me but not going to while there's still queues like that.

unkel

Looks like Omega had no idea what a masterstroke this new moonwatch was going to be 😁

sparrowcar

If that's all true then those ones reselling for €1k might seem like a bargain in a few years 🤔

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119028496#Comment_119028496

I'm not so sure SC. They're very of the moment, beany babies for the wrist and while there will no doubt be niche collectors like for anything I doubt they have any legs in the wider collector community. Even if Swatch stop production at the end of the year they will have made squillions of them by then, never mind the fakers rattling them out.

They're also a very cheap watch in the flesh, like 100 quid's worth and 150 for the name and overall design. Yep I saw one last week and had it in the hand(Mars one). Client of mine and felt a bit daft asking her for a pic of it. I expected it to be cheap, but it felt very flimsy and the strap was already starting to show wear and tear.

No doubt brand new in box unworn will hold some sort of premium, but less than in the past when people weren't looking to "future collectablity" nearly as much as today.

T-Maxx

I reckon the market will be flooded and the prices will drop below retail due to all the speculative buyers trying to offload theirs.

Marcusm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119029666#Comment_119029666

Thanks for the info; i hadf hoped to pick up a Mission to Mars to pair with my Alaska Project. The flimsiness would probably be all the more obvious if I wore them alternately.

unkel

Adrian is spot on in his comments / review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP-SNSRYGFc

Watch looks a lot better on one of his NATOs too, that was a grand plug for himself 😁

Bus Boy

Are these still available in London and are the queues still nuts if so? Passing through over the next few days.

TIA

Lorddrakul

The Mission to the Sun version on Adverts has just sold, after quite a torrid back and forth, for €400. Not much of a premium compared to what is being seen online.

Interesting.

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119106521#Comment_119106521

Just like in cars and other areas the Irish market is an oddball one and doesn't tend to compare to other markets, mainly down to its size. In speciality stuff like watches the market here is tiny. You just won't get the same number of interested people, so I'm not that surprised tbh. If I had one and was one of those PITA buying to flip types(which in my humble have fecked the market and hobby) I'd be selling on ebay not adverts.

These came up this not an hour ago when I was with a client. His teeenaged daughter copped my Heuer Bund and asked "is that one of those cool new Swatches?". She made a decent job of hiding her disappointment when I told her it wasn't, but she thought the NATO strap was cool. 😁 It seems they're spreading the fashion for watches anyway. At least fashionable ones.

Edser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119105295#Comment_119105295

None in Covent Garden last weekend. They said they come in randomly and sell out quickly, so probably pot luck.

They had the display case, and while I didn't hold one, they seemed a little underwhelming.

scruff monkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119025042#Comment_119025042

There’ll be no official online selling, they’ll keep them in the named boutiques apparently for a few months more and that’s it.

Birneybau

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119114546#Comment_119114546

You heard this where?

scwazrh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119115088#Comment_119115088

I heard that as well , It was from Omega .Im not 100% sure but i think it was their response to some questions on instagram

scwazrh

Must have been from swatch not omega

Birneybau

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119114546#Comment_119114546

It says nothing about them being limited though

fat bloke

The more I've read and seen of these watches the more my interest has waned. At this stage I'd just about cross the road to look at one in a shop window. They look dreadfully plasticky in the video reviews. - Like something you'd get in a MacDonalds Happy Meal, according to one lad :)

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119120689#Comment_119120689

They look funky and charming in the flesh, but a large part of that is the Swatch plasticky effect. The strap is awful and seems to wear quickly and they look like a hundred quid watch, where you're paying 150 for the name and hype. For the same money, minus the hype and name you could get one of these.

A pretty cool mashup in quartz of WW2 Gallet and Hanhart chronos with a touch of Zenith on top. In a steel case with movable click bezel, superluminova, date/no date option, sapphire crystal with anti reflection, a smooth running chronograph hand, leather strap and comes with a watchroll. Just don't look at the caseback embossed Spitfire that looks like it's had a stroke. Never mind that the watches it's inspired by were trying to shoot down the same Spitfires, but still...

If I had 250 quid burning a hole in my pocket for a cheap and cheerful chronograph I'd be buying the Dan Henry way before the MoonSwatch.

EDIT, just checked on ebay, they also seem to hold their value, even increase it. Buy it for 250, sell it in a few years for 3 or 400.

unkel

Yeah but that's not an Omega Moonwatch, now is it, Wibbs? 😁

I haven't had one in my hand but from the reviews the strap looks awful alright, but that can be fixed for €20-30 with a good quality NATO (from the likes of Bark&Jack)

Fitz II

The problem with Dan Henry is that TGV shills them....an unforgivable trait in the watch.

Ian OB

This might be of interest to some of ye. Haven't watched it yet myself. Hopefully will get a chance sooner rather than later.

https://youtu.be/Y79z2MBGaL0

scruff monkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119118537#Comment_119118537

I never said they were limited but if you are artificially constraining supply by going brick and mortar only in a few select locations for a set time period then that is de facto limited.

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119132834#Comment_119132834

It really shows the cost cutting and throwaway aspect. Understandable for cheap tat like the MoonSwatch, but more expensive watches have the same lump of welded plastic inside. Also shows how much quality and design was in the older 27 jewel quartz chronograph movement. Then again the Swiss played a blinder here too as their marketing of "quartz has no soul" means they can get away with costcutting it down in ways they wouldn't dare with a "soulful" basic mechanical three hander, which would be cheaper to produce than that old quartz chronograph movement.

Lorddrakul

Well, well,

it had to happen.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175311602253

Fitz II

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119174764#Comment_119174764

Jesus wept.

unkel

LOL. I honestly hope he will get his asking price or something close to it!

Birneybau

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119174764#Comment_119174764

Totally b.s.

unkel

If a popular rapper would show that case in one of his vids, it would double again in price 😂

893bet

Zero chance IMO watch market is about to be on its knees in the next few months. There are no greater fools left.

Wibbs

Or you could go to this yahoo and buy them individually for less. Well, not much less. Interesting how the different planets havee very different "values" to the eejits. Pluto being the least fave, Neptune way higher and hovering around three grand. 😮🤣

njburke

I see my guess that they would not be released for general sale on the internet has come to pass. It was too much of a good thing to give up.

20K gbp for the full set, why not ask that? Spirit of free enterprise at work. I suppose it will sell at some margin. At least swatch have not made one like an impossible to get pokemon or base ball card. IIRC those baseball cards came free with cigarettes.

Fitz II

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119175440#Comment_119175440

20k is a bit tone deaf....watch prices are tanking at the moment, like properly tanking. Watchfinder are slashing 10% off Rolex. Dealers not buying anything unless its half chrono prices and private buyers spooked and rare as rocking horse poo. Moonswatches cannot be in some bubble of their own. Hate to say it boys but the sky my be falling in. The Fitz prediction is that prices will rebound a little followed by a sharp dropoff.

Wibbs

Just before covid hit I reckoned we'd hit peak watch(covid was the shot in the arm to keep it alive for longer), to some resistance from some. Well when you're living in a bubble and invested in it, it seems it'll never end. Another sure litmus test to add to the others of every bubble in history. That prices are tanking at the same time as we're looking down the barrel of a possible recession, even depression because the czar in the Kremlin has a tiny one, is not a good sign. That's usually when people look at investments other than the usual.

I would say the Moonswatch in a lot of ways is the "rebound" Fitz and the rock the wave crashes on. While of course a steel sports Rolex is an eleventy bazillion times better watch than a Swatch, buyers - when there were actual buyers, rather than dealers, flippers and "investors" - were paying over the odds for steel sports Rolex for the exact same reasons; perception of rarity(which isn't), perception of "investment"(which works, until it doesn't) and flex appeal and the madness of crowds(a given). The cheap placcy Swatch gave you that for a twentieth of the price even at "investment" prices and at the same time lays bear the ridiculousness of paying well over the odds for an industrially produced item that's anything but rare. Rolex production figures are around a million watches per year. I'd bet Swatch haven't produced close to that with this MoonSwatch, yet some models are going for multiples of retail that no Rolex is by comparison.

As for the future I see it playing out the way the vintage watch world has. Stagnation. Dealers and flippers getting out with as much dignity as possible. A few hanging on for dear life at the old prices, but forced to give discounts on the quiet. Fewer on sale on the grey market and far fewer buyers and a serious contraction in interest in the mainstream(youtubers move to widen their interests). A return to the mean before the wave. Like my Doxa issued DH I mentioned on the "what watch you'd bring on holiday" convo. Prices ten years ago? 2-300 quid. Prices at the peak? 6-1000 quid. The few dealers left today? Still 6-1000 quid. Auction reality? Back to 200 quid again.

njburke

Fitz are you saying the 20K price is just badly timed, like at some point in the recent past you could ask that price and someone somewhere would hear the music and feel the beat?

Wibbs, I get what your saying on what a buyer might think he is getting when puts his money down on a moonswatch.

Do you think the moonswatch with it's hype has contributed to the overall softening of the watch market? Have swatch gone and disrupted things again.

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119180248#Comment_119180248

In many ways I think they know pretty much exactly what they're getting NJ. The In Thing(tm), that nobody else has so they can flex that. Only they get the same feeling for a lot less than the cheapest Rolex. Or Speedmaster for that matter. The cheap placcy "throwaway" Speedy is currently far more popular and in demand than the real deal. I've seen them go for not too far off the price of a secondhand basic actual Speedy.

Certainly not off the price of a reduced. 2000. and at the peak of swivel headed lunacy well over the price of a Speedy, inc the myriad of special editions. Here's one where some gobdaw paid nine and half thousand for one. Now prices have fallen right down since the mass insanity, but only today twenty two people, who one supposes are not in rubber rooms paid over 2000 for one. What worries me is people like this can vote, have kids etc. Fools and their money. What vexes me is how they get it in the first place. 😁

I think what will affect the market(along with it being more dealers than punters) is the wider world seeing the hype, the queues, the madness, the "values", the fliippers "investing", the lack of supply. Basically the same as the Rolex bubble(minus the dealers that have sprung up like weeds in the last 3-5 years), but in cheap plastic microcosm and it will show up how daft that bubble is, only you're paying twenty times the money to get into it. The rapid tapering off of the Swatch values and the hype won't reflect well on the wider watch market either.

njburke

The 9 grand for the mission to the moon was an eyeopener. 74 days later they are only making two grand, the world has changed a lot in 74 days.

To me the moonswatch shines a light on the whole paying over retail, when swatch didn't make them available online they just threw fuel on the fire, to keep it going for some reason. I mean they only saw 250 euros from that 9 grand mission to the moon.Look they make fashion watches, fast fashion if they can help it.

All these bubbles end in some excess that people can't rationalize like a one bedroom labourers cottage in Toronto or Stoneybatter for 700 grand. It shocks the system and corrections follow. What I wonder is has the moonswatch contributed to the correction and did swatch know that might be the outcome.

Fitz II

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119180248#Comment_119180248

Never been a good time for a 20k ask....even 1 hour after launch....but its worse at the moment thinking you can get that mean you dont have a notion whats going on.

njburke

I suppose the sellers saw what wibbs saw today an individual moonswatch selling for 2200 and figured a set of 11 was worth 11 times that. The mission to the moon would be my pick, if pushed.

Deep Thought

Ludicrous…

C0N0R

So does all this mean there is a slightest chance of getting a sub at retail in the next 12 months or not!?

893bet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119181454#Comment_119181454

Yes. I think it could be on the cards. But hard to say really.

It’s easy to get people pay list when there is a chance of profit and their investment protected. If that goes then it’s a different dynamic.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119181454#Comment_119181454

Without any history? I'd say the only chance of that is if world war III has started. And then you'd either be dead or otherwise not really interested in buying a Rolex in an AD at retail 😂

scwazrh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119181454#Comment_119181454

You can always be lucky . My wait for a sub in weirs was from march to September last year with very little history

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119181454#Comment_119181454

I'd reckon what's more likely to happen is stagnation. Too many people, actual buyers with actual cash rather than dealers/flippers played man maths over the covid period and are invested at values way above retail. They'll be in no rush to sell at a loss, so will likely hang onto their watch(s). Which means fewer coming to market at normal prices. Dealers and flippers bouncing from one deal to the next with other dealer/flippers are in much more precarious positions and need the rodeo to keep running. That end of things looks very shaky. Enough actual buyers with actual cash will see the market softening and not want to buy at their dealer prices and we'll get stagnation there too.

Like I was saying this already happened in the vintage world. The singular difference between that world and the current Rolex/AP/PP world is that the latter are still being produced. Thousands per day in the case of Rolex and not far off a thousand per week even for a brand like Patek. I suspect we're going to see a gap opening between new watches in AD windows and current/new in box/slightly used watches in owner's watchrolls.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119181931#Comment_119181931

Maybe you look like Conor McGregor? 🤣

Plenty of regulars in here have spent tonnes of money in Weir's and never got a desirable Rolex / Patek at retail. I wouldn't use your experience to get people's hope up. Chance of getting one at retail with zero spending history at the moment is near zero.

scwazrh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119182961#Comment_119182961

Well this regular did so it does happen.A lad in work got a 41mm azzuro datejust in 3 weeks earlier this year as well.Think positive and put your name down.

893bet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119182961#Comment_119182961

Agree. But it looks like things are changing.

its important to remember and not get blinded that the last 3-4 years are the anomaly in the watch world and not assume it will always be this way.

If there is no profit to be made then lists will evaporate. Now do I expect to see gmt in the window anytime soon? Nope. But getting a steel sub or datejust without having to invest half your house value in **** you don’t want. That’s a possibility. Time will tell.

Watches sales above retail are very slow. Buyers have lost confidence. Dealers already breaking ranks with watch sales etc. There is an incredible stock of “hype” pieces in safes that are dropping like stones.

The way over hyped pieces like sports Patek, AP, Daytona, blro are leading the way with massive corrections in progress. These are the leading edge. The rest will follow suit. Same as a rising tide lifts all boats. When the tide goes back out…..

This is unsellable in the current market.

unkel

Agree 100%, @893bet

I think you might agree though that it is very unlikely you'll be able to walk in anonymously and pick up a brand new 41mm sub no date from Weir's there and then or from any grey dealer in Ireland second hand for the list price of €8650 this year.