I've had a few e-mails about this watch featured on the auctions page:
Current status is:
- 80 Bids
- 5 Days to go
- EUR27,450 current bid.

So what's going on?



If you read the Ultimate Guide to the Autavia, you'll know that the rule is the earlier the better when it comes to the Autavia- and this one's early. Note the oversized registers, all-lume hands and lume markers.

You may think that it looks a little beaten up, but I reckon that a better (doesn't have to be new) bezel and crystal would really lift this one- the dial looks to be very nice indeed.

Oh, and the cherry on the cake is the "Fab Suisse" marking on the 6 o'clock register. Not a huge value driver in my view (these are French market watches), but another point of uniqueness.

For those who don't know how this works, there will be a flurry of e-mails trying to get the vendor to end the auction early, so don't be surprised if it doesn't go the distance!

 

Apparently not- I see that Hodinkee has covered this today, so let's see what happens from here.

Personally, I wouldn't pay anything near this- I prefer the later iterations of the First Gen. Autavia with the steel markers (photo)


I recall writing this back in 2010:

http://www.calibre11.com/bonhams-haslinger-40000-question/


"One of these sold on eBay a few weeks ago for almost USD 5,000- a real eye-opening price to some, but no shock to those who know how rare this 3 register variant with Dauphine hands really is. That watch was not as nice as the Haslinger example, so I’d expect this one to go for a fair bit more than the stated range. And so it should, because this one is the “best in show”.

Someone's memory will be better than mine, but I think Arno's watch (above) went for ~$12,500. It's in better condition than the watch we see for sale now, but with later (and less valuable) hands.

 

By the way, was I smart enough to put my money where my mouth was 5 years ago? No, i was not.

 

Its now E24 M6 money lol

 

Hah...love the Autavia but not sure I'd swap. It's getting close to Daytona 6263 money- love that Silver dial Daytona with black Bakelite bezel and red "Daytona"

 

We're now over EUR40,000

 

45 minutes to go!

 

Surely it can't jump at the end... can it o_o Can it? O_O

Thing is while they don't come out much, as soon as this one sells, the collectors that do have these and just didn't plan on selling them will start reconsidering that position and we'll start to see a few pop up, that's happened in the past with a few very rare Omegas, once a new crazy high benchmark was set several people sitting on them decided to cash in and suddenly there were significant numbers in the market driving the price back down.

 

No doubt. I'm in a very uncompromised (if unfortunate!) position of having sold all my vintage Heuers, so I have no barrow to push!

 

Nope- that was the winning bid- EUR 41,027.

I have mixed feelings on this one: very pleased for the seller and pleased that the new owner got a special watch...but I have to say that the price is out of this world and what that means for precedents and future prices..I just don't see the Autavia as regularly being at this price, but maybe we'll look back in a couple of years and wonder how we got it so cheap!

 

I just can't help but feel when that guy finally sells it he's going to be trying to promote it as "the watch that was featured on Hodinkee" in order to minimise the damage. Nice watch but I just can't really see it, now or in the short to medium term.

 

Especially as I'm 100% sure some of the guys sitting on them probably have mint examples in NOS or close to it shape. This is a great original example but its by no means mint.

 

Exactly. Here is a dial from Abel showing the Val. 92 version

..and here is the same watch as the one the one that just sold from @VintageHeuer/ Rich C

So, how much would that one be worth

 

Could be...but unlikely.

TAG Heuer did buy a few watches in the well publicised 2010 Bonhams auction- but I'd be surprised if this one linked back to TAG Heuer.

May make sense to push up the value of the Monaco and Carrera given those models stay in the collection, but hard to see the incentive behind a one-off Autavia sale.

I reckon there's a fair chance we'll hear more about the buyer...give it a couple of weeks