The Alpha And The Fake Omega
As you might’ve guessed, vintage Omega replica for sale was soft too. Only a handful of Omegas sold in New York, but all well within estimates: A Broad Arrow Speedmaster 2915-2 passed at Sotheby’s, while another sold for $53,340 at Phillips (towards the lower half of its estimate). One of the highlights of the weekend for me, Apollo XIII astronaut Jack Swigert’s commemorative gold Speedmaster, sold for just $152,400. A number of these have appeared at auction over the past year, but over time I think this will prove to have been a deal, perhaps one of the best of the season. Sure, UK Swiss made fake Omega‘s had a rough go of it, and the high-water mark for these Speedmasters, set back in October 2022 when the Omega Museum won Wally Schirra’s gold Speedy for $1.9 million, feels a little different now. But these are still unbelievably special super clone watches, some of the most important Speedmasters ever.
“Vintage 1:1 replica Omega UK and vintage Rolex really underperformed compared to two years ago, but also to five years ago,” Gustafson, who attended the NY sales, said. He explained that he tries to benchmark five years ago because the last two years have been such a blip, but even on that timescale, results were soft in the world of vintage Omega super clone online and Rolex. Look across auction results, and you’ll see this is largely correct.
What’s Eating Gilbert Albert
While the traditional “collectible” watches from vintage Rolex and aaa quality fake Omega are a bit soft, quirkier things continue to climb. A mega-cool high quality replica Patek Philippe 3424 designed by Gilbert Albert sold at Sotheby’s for $203,200 (estimate: $20,000 to $30,000), a month after a white gold example sold at Phillips for about $238,000.
“Albert was very fortunate to be working for cheap fake Patek Philippe under the presidency of Henri Stern, who was himself an artist at heart,” Collectibility’s Tania Edwards said to me when we spoke for a Hodinkee Magazine article about asymmetrical watches and Gilbert Albert last year (she previously worked as the Marketing Director at luxury copy Patek Philippe USA). “Stern was happy to invest in prototypes and produce many of Albert’s designs that were not the traditional DNA of the company in terms of simple, elegant design, and offered no guarantee of strong sales, but they were innovative.”
Edwards said that Albert’s designs – crazy, exciting, and full of post-war energy – didn’t sell well during the 1950s and early ’60s. Swiss movement replica Patek Philippe had long won awards for its movements, but these were some of the first watches that truly set Patek apart for its design. And since they didn’t sell well, Albert’s wristwatches and pocket watches are terribly rare today.
But here’s the thing about Albert’s designs: They’re not just expensive, headline-grabbing replica watches for sale. Even the Patek pocket watches he designed are more affordable. Or take this gorgeous little high end fake Omega designed by Albert that sold for just about $4,500 at a small Swiss auction over the weekend.