World financial crisis....

[langnam]

must be hitting some Wis's quite badly. Over on the PuristS, I see three Phillipe Dufour Simplicitys for sale and one Philippe Dufour Duality. All within the last 24 hours!

[Archer]

I see 3 Simplicity models but no Duality. A Duality would be rare indeed as there are only 9 in existence....

One of the Simplicity sales looks pretty fishy to me - $58K even for the 34 mm is far too low.

Anyone offering to give me $80K so I can get the 37 mm version in platinum?

[langnam]

Mr. Purist himself, Dr. Mao is selling his:

www.network54.com/Forum/472781/thread/1228982672/last-1228982672/Ph.+Dufour+Duality

I've met Dr. Mao in NYC once. He is the most pleasant man you could ever imagine. From what I've seen, he seems to put his cash into "things" and not banks. Now's a tough time for liquidation.

[Archer]

Thanks for that - it's under the old format pages so that's why I missed it. I rarely visit the old pages and actually didn't know that they still had the collector's market going there still.

Well that makes 5 Dufour pieces for sale there because he is also selling a 37 mm WG Simplicity, and that is not one of the 3 Simplicities for sale on the PuristsPro collector's market!

Times are certainly chaning as these sorts of pieces usually change hands in private among that level of collector, and the fact that now 5 of Mr. Dufour's watches are openly for sale is just amazing. I seriously thought I would never see this day...

[Ben]

Well, I think it's interesting that you mention the financial crisis. This afternoon I was in the mall for a while and went into the jewelry store where I bought my GO a year ago around this time to take a look around.

The same salesman that I dealt with was there and his eyes lit up when he saw me - figuring I was coming in to buy another "Christmas Watch." I wish. I told him that sadly I was just there to look around and that I didn't want to take up his time if he needed to see other customers. He said he had a few minutes and we had an interesting conversation while he let me try on the Jaeger LeCoultre AMVOX1. DAMN! I want one of these.



Anyway, he said that business wasn't all that great overall and that luxury watch sales were down quite a bit. He said that JLC was the first Swiss company to rescind their price increase. And when I bought my GO a year ago, their best discount was 25% off list. He told me today that I could have the JLC AMVOX1 for 30% off and kind of intimated that I might be able to negotiate a few more dollars off. I told him that if I could justify the $7k that I'd just wear it out. What a nice watch. I felt kind of sorry for him that I didn't buy anything.

Tough times.

-Ben

[langnam]

I tell ya, AMVOX 1 is on my mental short list. I can't quite wrap myself around a purchase right now as my son starts attending a 50K/year college next year. My daughter starts three years later. The joke I tell my wife is that while I won't qualify for financial aid in 2009, don't worry, I'll qualify for next year.

All in all, I think my watch purchases are over for a long time.