How long until we see auction only brands?

[Nav01L]

2021 has been the year in which independent watchmaking made its way onto the center of the stage, and deservedly so.

But in an already overheated market, one may wonder how these often very small companies will allocate their products to the exponentially growing masses of people who want them.

Of course, you can do it the Grönefeld way and just close the lists, but that means you’re going to say no to many very interesting clients, and get only the revenue you priced into the products you can produce.

A much better and more profitable way to do it would be to forego list prices altogether and sell off the yearly production in one or several recurring auctions.
This has been common in the art world forever, the same with horses and other rarefied assets. So why not sell watches that way? I mean it’s not as if auctions were generally unpopular for watches as things are - so places like Phillips or Sotheby’s could easily become ADs of sorts for a brand with few enough products to allow for the logistics of that to function.

I doubt I’m the only one smart enough to think of this, on a Sunday night while washing the dishes, so when and where do you think will we see the first brands moving to such a model?

Would it be a good thing, or a bad one?

[FrugalGreubel]

I hate this idea. But I’m not rich so I’m sure opinions will vary.

[Nav01L]

Originally Posted by FrugalGreubel

I hate this idea. But I’m not rich so I’m sure opinions will vary.

Wasn’t it you that said he feared about Grönefeld availability now they relegated all of us to the secondary market?

If the watches were exclusively sold at auction, there would be no delta between list prices and market prices and all flippers and speculators would tune out, as no out the door profit would be available to them.

If anything an auction only model would make these watches more available to you, not less. The price then would be what people who actually want the watches are prepared to pay, whereas now, the price is whatever the flipper wants as an upside.