zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

There's also a "grail" in the German eBay just now Posted By:SteveW62 Date: 11/25/0712:23 GMT

In Response To: John... There is a "Poor-Man's" Grail up on eBay… (Chicagoland Chuck Maddox)

Hi John, they do come up now & then for the "right"price.

There's on in the German eBay just now ( at the time of writing this, it has about 7 hours left & the price is 3380Euros )

This one:

Priced [currently] at EUR 3.380,00 andending at: 25.11.07 20:27:47 MEZ...

Which has the wrong dial and wrong bracelet...

It appears to have generated quite a bit of interest ( about 1200 hits ) & quite a few questions from non-German eBayers, so I'm expecting the price to rise quite rapidlytowards the auction end.

The watch itself looks OK to me, the box is one of 2 possible boxes that I've seen people claim their brand new "grail" came in. ( Gino B from Italy bought his new "grail" in the80's in one of these boxes ).

The only point I'd make is that the bracelet is NOT the original 1450 the seller mentions that he bought a new bacelelt for the watch in 2005 ) & it will be quite difficult to find a1450.

Agreed, but the dial is incorrect as well, the minute track has a gap between it and the inner/under-crystal bezel and is missing the "10" minute arabic indication.

The original dial is exceedingly difficult to source, and I'm sure that between Steve, Pascal and myself, we've exhausted all known sources for the originals.

I'd prefer not to put a direct link to the auction ( just yet ), but a quick search of the German eBay using the common search words for this watch will find theauction.

I searched on "Speedmaster 1045 5100" and it came right up on eBay.de ... Along with a fourth example [different from either of the two that John's mentioned and the one above Steve indicated] which looks like this:

This one also has a non-original bracelet, but at least it has the proper dial and the current bidding price is reasonable...

( Geben Sie mindestens EUR 1.671,00 ein )

I will say that the $12,500 asking price example which John pointed out at least has the correct and proper bracelet, which is surprising considering the seller is known for spilting up complete and original watch sets [watch head, bracelet, papers, etc.] separately just to make a few extra bucks.

One last thing the seller says he will NOT accept PayPal. He will only accept a Bank transfer in Euro into his German Bankaccount.

On the EUR 1.671,00 ein Grail, the seller says he will only sell to the EU and Switzerland, but arrangements could be made with willing forum conspirators in the EU to act as middlemen. I don't see any indication of the seller accepting PayPal, and Bablefish is refusing to translate the auction listing for me, so I'll send the link to Steve so he can look it over.

I nonothing of the seller

I know nothing of any of these sellers save for the seller of the Grail being offered at $12,500.

I knowPascal ( a Lemanian 5100 fan/collector ) has a chart of "grail" prices from before Omegamania, to today. I'll ask him to post an updated version here, after this auctionend.

I'll pass a list of all of these auctions to Pascal, Steve and John... I expect that Pascal will be interested in tracking them all.

Steve

and:

Re: There's also a "grail" inthe German eBay just Posted By: JohnK Date: 11/25/07 14:36GMT

In Response To: There's also a "grail" in the German eBay just now(SteveW62)

These prices are prompting me to pursue other things before they get stupid as well. For example, an ST 345.0809 is starting to look like something that I should be chasing harder than a Grail. A month ago I passed up an original, one owner Moonphase for $5.5KUSD...I'm beginning to think that was a badidea.

I'm a bit surprised that prices are still increasing on the 1986 Speedmaster Pro Moonphase/date... I know they are rare [1,300 examples] but Omega makes [or at least made] a replica which is nearly identical which one could purchase new in the $3,000 range. I would have thought that offering would have had some governing effect on the values of the original. The only difference in the dial are the metalic rings around the subdial [which are very restrained and well executed], then there is the display back showcasing the c.1866 movement [instead of the original's c.866]...

I'm also to starting to look REALLY hard at a Sinn 142, a Fortis Stratoliner or both.

Compared to the Grail, either the 142 or the Stratoliner are easier "get's", the 142 especially so.

and:

The "Un-Holy" Grail... *LINK*Posted By: JohnK Date: 11/25/0714:27 GMT

Things are going from bad to worse this week. There are 2 "Grails" for sale on the Bay...one is clean looking with an asking price of merely$12'500.00USD.

Actually, I can point to no less than FOUR Grails up on eBay currently... The two you've noted, the one Steve pointed out, and one I found on my own. See the eMail I sent to the various interested parties separately for links as we probably should refrain from posting them all willy-nilly here in the forum.

Now another listing has popped up and this time it's an incorrect re-dial for$10'000.00USD.

Incorrect [but close: 1479 vs. the correct 1450] bracelet too...

Life sure does suck in thepost-Omegamania world.

Welcome to my world, John... There are still some Speedmasters and Seamasters I would like to land, but since Omegamania, I've managed to only purchase two, non-book, Omega items... A 176.0012 case and a Omega Titane [from a private seller] everything else has either been in lousy shape, too expensive [or most frequenly ] both in lousy condition and overpriced. What's worse is that it's had a ripple effect on other brands... Heuer's are selling for multiples of what they used to, Tissot and Longines too.

They say a rising tide lifts all ships, and many collectors are being priced out of the market lately.

Best of fortune with your quests, Grail, 142 and Stratoliner. I stand by willing to assist.

Good Hunting!

-- Chuck

ChuckMaddox

Chronographs, like most finer things in life,only improve with time...

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