I Wish I Had A Time Machine, Part II

by Nicolas Zalles

For this edition, we’ve chosen a year probably all of us remember clearly, 2000. It was the start of a new millennium, with people worrying about computer crashes and what Y2K might actually do. CDs and DVDs were still the main way to listen to music or watch a movie.  It was a different world, so let’s see what the watch world looked like back then.

Worth keeping in mind, this is a year when the dot-com bubble had just burst in March, so there was uncertainty everywhere. Before we dive in, a quick disclaimer: this blog aims to be price-objective and capture the trends of the time. Since photo quality isn't great, it's hard to guarantee the originality of all pieces. If you haven't already, you can read more about the idea behind this blog in our first post here. Keep in mind, this is all based on auction results, which may not tell the whole story of what the market was doing, but they should still be a good snapshot.

So what was actually happening at watch auctions back then? We dug through the results and found some pretty interesting patterns. To better show that, we thought it would be cool to break it down into these subtopics and compare it to today's world:

• The One(s) That Got Away 

• What Were They Thinking??

• Before It Was Cool 

  
  

Let’s get right into it.  All photo credits in this report go to Antiquorum. 

The One (s) That Got Away:

Starting with the obvious one, and a fan favorite: vintage Daytona’s. You could have bought all 3 of these for only USD 55,000. And yes, that includes not one but two Newmans!

At the time of the auction the exchange rate was CHF 1.77/USD.

Ref. 6239 PN, sold for CHF 46,000 / USD 26,000

Ref. 6241 PN, sold for CHF 32,200 / USD 18,200

Ref. 6263, sold for CHF 19,550 / USD 11,000

And look at this: Can you believe Milgauss 1019s were selling for MORE than regular Daytona’s?  Each of these went for CHF 27,750, or about USD 15,700.

Just as perplexing,  the OG Milgauss 6541 sold for just a hair less at CHF 27,600 / USD 15,600.  No premium there, who would have thought!?

And speaking of prices that make no sense….

What Were They Thinking??

This Ebel caught my eye when it sold for $6,900. Yes, it's white gold, but what a weird result. You barely see these around anymore, and for context, here's the kicker:  this Day-Date Ref. 1803 went for only $4,830, while this Aquanaut Ref. 5066A also sold for just $5,290. Both cheaper than the Ebel.

Sometimes the market just does weird things. But at least one bidder was onto something and bought something incredible when APs were completely overlooked, take a look below.

Before It Was Cool:

Not to break your hearts, but nobody cared much for Royal Oaks back then. These two complicated APs passed with estimates of only USD 20,000-24,000. And the two-tone was case No. 1!

2 Tone Complicated Audemars Piguet Royal Oak No.1

Finally, this skeleton did get some love and sold for USD 28,750—No. 11/25. Surely a bold purchase at the time, but that worked out well for the buyer.

And that wraps up our first trip back in time. You could have bought all those watches for less than $150k…wild to think about now. Some of these results aged incredibly well, others... not so much. But that's exactly what makes collecting such a fascinating game. Thanks for jumping in the time machine with us. Until our next destination.