zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

When did the Plo Prof boom hit? Posted By: Kayvan Date: 1/24/08 23:27 GMT

Which one, K?

There have been several...

Did the rise in Plo Prof prices come after Omegamania? or was it gradual?

More like Steppes on the Siberian plateau... They have risen sharply at points, and then flattened out for stretches of time before rising steeply again.

I distinctly remember seeing beat PloProfs for $750-1000 in 2003 that were trading on ebay. The big question was do you buy a beat one and restore for $400-600, so $1500 all in or get a complete kit in NOS condition for $2-2500?

I forget the exact figure Steve Waddington paid for his example a few years ago, but it would make most folks here cry.

Folks were sending them to Bienne, CH, where complete restorations were like ~$450-600 (xtal, gaskets, hands, dial, movement service, bezel, button, refinish case). Some complate NOS cases were even available. Now I saw an ebay page quote $4K for a Bienne restoration?

Considering what I've heard about Omega Bienne today, that wouldn't surprise me, but you have to take everything posted on eBay with a grain of salt.

So what happened? I opened up a Fortune.com website to see they are now $8-9K?

You snooze and the market can change on you.

Is this sustainable or fluke/bubble or is this the New Daytona?

It's really hard to say. Newly minted ZOWIE Forum Moderator Sam Hewitt and I discussed this at length last spring over at TZ OF:

And here we are over nine months later I'm not sure we have any better answers.

I believe that prices have moderated and come down some since Omegamania, but the days of prices we saw before OM and even a few short years ago are probably long gone unless we have a severe economic downturn which forces people to sell.

That's about all the insight I can provide on this one.

-- Chuck

Chuck Maddox

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

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