Post pics of your watches ***Please NO QUOTING PHOTOS***

Cell1010 wrote: »

I totally get the point and we will see a correction, that's for sure but I can't see that vintage watches lose their value like stamps, tulip bulbs etc. The most people that bought together a collection over the years don't need to sell their watches to fund anything else. So they will most likely not sell when losing out 50% of their initial investment. This will keep the supply tight and the prices up. Anyhow, I'm no clairvoyant and time will tell...

Folks in the hobby for years before it blew up with new folks coming in(circa 2011-present) won't lose alright. They got their watches at much lower prices. Even in my collection of oddballs, some of which go back to the eighties and nineties, There would be none I'd not get at least double what they cost me(and in a few cases many times more). If I was to try and reassemble the same collection today, I'd need much deeper pockets and would lose more if the market reset. EG I got my Heuer Bund for a grand and not that long ago. Now they're running 3-4 grand. Cheap for a "iconic" Heuer these days mind you(for good reason. Lots of dubious ones about).

Some niches stayed remarkably stable over time though. Early Trench watches were one such, as were early LED digitals. Tiny niche collector bases that never really went mainstream. On the other hand 1970's watches went nuts. There was a time you couldn't give them away, even with say Heuer on the dial. Other niches came and went. EG early Rolex oysters/bubble backs. They seemed to peak in the late 90's, early noughties, but rarely get any attention these days. Only time I made decent cash on selling actually. By mistake.

I always bought watches that I liked in the first place and invested some time to do my homework. Of course I hope that they at least keep their value but anyway I have something that I enjoy and keeps me busy.

+1 That's the main thing C. It's only those relying on investment, serial flippers, or naive Dink inspired newbies that will take any hit that's coming.

Thanks for the link. Will order one for my 40s Heuer chrono.

Ohh I reckon it'll look very nice on one of those. Can't go wrong for a tenner. I was surprised it isn't a wrist hair removal device. Very comfortable in fact. And defo adds to the vintage look as appropriate vintage straps will. Crazy how Bonklip bracelets went up in value(the UK MOD watches issued with them helped). Lord knows how many I actually threw away in the past. Yep, straight into the bin

beauf wrote: »

That has me all sorts of conflicted....

It lead me to this...
https://www.botterweg.com/Tallon_Roger/Lip_Frankrijk/tabid/234/lotid/10626/Lot-10626.aspx?language=en-US

That's the designer chap alright. They got a few on board. That's a good example of rising prices. Under 300 quid in 2011. You'd be lucky to get a NOS example today for 1000-1500. Very lucky. Add 500 for dealer prices and Hodinkee hasn't featured them. Yet. Surprising actually as they like French stuff and have showcase LIP before and the chrono, weird as it is would have legs in the market. Hell, even Farrah Fawcett wore one in the 70's*.



So for men of a certain age...

Which got me thinking...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/leftyimages/3369995718

:pac::pac::pac:

blue5000 wrote: »

Wibbs reading a bit between the lines here are you selling a few?;)

Nope. Or not at the moment. I know of a few very long term collectors that are, or have been thinking about thinning their herd because of the rapidly rising values(and the equally rapidly rising costs of servicing).

Best advice I've seen is buy what you personally like.

So much this.




*how very humbling to see my wrist is smaller than hers. :-o They are not a small watch.

Yeah C, they come as both black Chronos with colorful pushers and plain black pushers. The former get more attention these days.

Going on memory here C; Dugena are a German watch brand(connected to Alpina?) who often bought in other brands from overseas and co labeled them as their own for the German market. LIP was one such brand and they had a long association with Dugena. Particularly in the 60's and 70's with LIP's wackier designs. It was beneficial to both, as LIP then had the huge distribution network of Dugena in Germany.

LIP themselves did similar with co branding in the French market. For example the Blancpain LIP 50 Fathoms(the first BP FF available to the general public IIRC*) and the Breitling LIP chronograph made famous among fellow watch geeks by Raquel Welch.


Oh oh, it's got contrasting colour sub dials, Hodinkee will call it a Newman. Me, I'd be calling it a "Raquel".

LIP were an interesting company. I've seen them described as "the Ford of France" in watch terms. Solid and dependable and good value watches for the "common man" and woman. They very rarely went high end and often went low, but also innovated in a few areas. The aforementioned bring in outside notable designers to think out of the box, quirky watches like those that had a timer for parking meters and they really took up the mantle of the early battery powered movements and improved on what Hamilton in the US had been doing with their own in house movements.

The now most well known of which was the LIP R184 that ended up in the first "electronic" Diver's watch, the LIP Nautic-Ski. Installed in the two crown EpSA Super-Compressor case as used by JLC, IWC and Longines(the LLD is a modern take on their original) among others at the time. Here's my second series example from circa 1969.



Mine still passes the original depth rating with ease. As used by French sailing legends like Eric Taberly and a fave with the Jacques Cousteau team(and by far the cheapest watch with that association). Odd factoid: it was called Nautic-Ski, because skiing was a favourite pastime of one of the owners of lip daughters and skiing is quite a "wet" sport and her watches regularly got waterlogged and damaged.

They also developed their own in house quartz movement at a time when the company was in a parlous financial state and quartz technology was still cutting edge and very expensive to design and make.

They also have a very interesting social history aspect too. They were like Guinness in Ireland in that they had an extensive social plan for employees. A second tier social welfare system. Things then got interesting in the 70's with a famous in France strike and lockout at the plant.



*an uncle of mine bought a LIP BP Fifty Fathoms back in the late 60's early 70's while on holiday in Spain. He was/is mad for the oul swimming and being a lazy bastid like myself(t'is genetic :-)) he often jumped into pool, lake, sea and river forgetting to take off his watch. With the result that most ended up looking like spirit levels. So while on said holiday and after buggering up yet another watch, the aunt suggested he buy a "divers watch". Sensible woman and the brains of the operation that she was. Anyway they found some local divers shop and he looked at a few. He remembered thinking they were all too big and daft looking. He did remember trying on a Rolex, but thought it too bulky and obvious(and recalled it wasn't the dearest), but settled on the BP, because it was smaller and less obvious. He still wears it to this day. On a crappy spidel expanding bracelet. Yep. I suggested he leave it to me in the will, but before I told him what it was worth, because I figured best to sign it over now, before the shock would render his will all the more current. :-) He was flabbergasted. "this yoke?. Though it is a great old timekeeper" His words. Never been serviced either.

That's a Very nice Heuer C. I'd have that over any of their 60/70's models TBH. I reckon the strap will work well on it.

Cell1010 wrote: »

LiP was really innovative at the times although my understanding was that they basically bought together from other manufacturers and assembled watches from that stock.

For the most part throughout their history LIP designed and built their own movements, only looking outside(Valjoux) for their chronographs. Also mostly produced their own cases and dials too. They even helped restart the Soviet watch industry in the 1930's, by selling their movement designs and sending over advisors to help start up production. Later on they got into the electric end of things(though early enough with their first electric clock in the late 30's) and produced a much more reliable electric escapement than others. Then they produced the first French quartz movement, which I'm pretty convinced they also sold the design for to the Russians, as the first Russian movements look far more like the LIP layout than the ESA quartz it is usually claimed the Russians copied. They also got onboard pretty early with LED digitals.

Compared to the Swiss who had to face disastrous currency exchange issues, very cool, but very expensive Swiss quartz movements and a total lack of quartz digitals which were to take over the market*, LIP should have been in a much better position to weather the storm, having had a longer time with their foot in the emerging market. It was industrial unrest and bad company decisions that ultimately doomed them. There have been a few who tried to revive the LIP brand, but all faded away in short order.






*for me the quartz crisis didn't decimate the Swiss industry. They were hung ho for the tech from the start(though they don't mention that in advertising these days). It was the digital watch that really did them in. And they knew it. Even Rolex prototyped a digital of their own to try to get on board. Add in their high prices and they were doomed. And what saved them and created the fashion for high priced "old tech" Swiss mechanical watches? A cheap plastic quartz, the Swatch. Quartz was their nemesis and saviour.