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Sell half of my watches to fund a gen Rolex - would you do it?


Whatever123

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Hi guys,

currently I have 14 watches in my collection, 6 gens and the rest are mostly highly modded reps and Frankens. I like them all and it took me a long time to get them / assemble them. Still I don't wear them very often. I wear about 3 or 4 watches regularly, the rest only from time to time.

Right now I'm thinking of selling two of my gens and 4 or 5 of my Reps/Frankens to fund a gen Rolex GMT Master II. Would you do it? I mean, a gen is a gen and a Rollie is a Rollie... but I know I will miss my Reps. I'm really not sure.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks,

Whatever

P.S.: The funny thing is, when I started collecting watches I wasn't into Rolex at all. I looked for almost every brand except Rolex... and now I really want one... strange.

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P.S.: The funny thing is, when I started collecting watches I wasn't into Rolex at all. I looked for almost every brand except Rolex... and now I really want one... strange.

It happened the same to me although I currently own no rolex watch.

I thought rolexes were overpriced (ok, they are :D ), overestimated.

Now, after buying sevreral reps, I reckon they have a unique understated beauty that lasts forever and almost perfect measures.

At the same time they attract too much attention and I wouldn't be comfortable wearing a rolex rep.

My next Rolex needs to be a gen....

As for your question, I'd say go ahead, sell part of your collection if you don't wear and enjoy your watches that often.

Now I'm curious, would you please list the watches you wear the most? :D

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Now I'm curious, would you please list the watches you wear the most? :D

Yeah, that'll be my Bond SMP, my gen PAM 112, my WM9 v2 Sub and - for special occasions - my gen Navitimer.

The others get little wrist time, although I really like them all.

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If in doubt, don't do it.

If it was my own decision I would do it. Several reasons, a gen is a gen, can't go wrong with a gen Rollie (don't like after a while you can sell it without a loss), would like to have something to pass on to my kids (can't do that with a rep), they live for ever, my mother has a gen Daydate for more than 30 years (her watch has had only one service, last year!).

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Unfortunately I can't afford to keep them all atm...

The big problem with reps is that you can never be sure of their value. Take the WM9 Subs - right now they sell extremely well, but maybe in a year a new super-Sub comes up and suddenly no one wants WM9s anymore. We just saw it with Little Hero's PAMs... after the new PAM batches the LH prices have dropped massively.

So value-wise you cannot go wrong with a gen Rollie imo, like FxrAndy said, it's a good investment.

The other thing is what chris5264 said... will I be satisfied? Hmm, who knows. My priorities are shifting atm - I'm building a house with my wife and don't think about watches as much as I used to do. I do think I might be satisfied with what's left of my collection and a gen GMT Master... at least for some time... :whistling:

I think I'll go for it... let's see if I can raise enough funds, might not be that easy to recoup what I paid for some pieces... watch the sales area! 8)

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Late to the party but thought I would add my 2 cents anyway.

I have actually started thinking about doing the same thing. I am in a very similar circumstance when it comes to the collection. Also, I find myself on the fence in regards to what to do. It is not like it is a pressing issue however so I figure I can sleep on it for a while. There are arguments on both sides variety vs. value etc. In the end you have to do what is best for you so if the feeling is strong enough then you should just do it. Besides if after you clear the box and are not satisfied you can always start again. Looking, searching and collecting is half the fun anyway ;)

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Unfortunately I can't afford to keep them all atm...

The big problem with reps is that you can never be sure of their value. Take the WM9 Subs - right now they sell extremely well, but maybe in a year a new super-Sub comes up and suddenly no one wants WM9s anymore. We just saw it with Little Hero's PAMs... after the new PAM batches the LH prices have dropped massively.

So value-wise you cannot go wrong with a gen Rollie imo, like FxrAndy said, it's a good investment.

The other thing is what chris5264 said... will I be satisfied? Hmm, who knows. My priorities are shifting atm - I'm building a house with my wife and don't think about watches as much as I used to do. I do think I might be satisfied with what's left of my collection and a gen GMT Master... at least for some time... :whistling:

I think I'll go for it... let's see if I can raise enough funds, might not be that easy to recoup what I paid for some pieces... watch the sales area! 8)

If you want to invest, buy gold... A watch is a watch is a watch, they're for telling the time, not acquiring with any intent of re-sale or consideration of re-sale value... As Chris5246 illustrated, buyers remorse means being down the watch you acquire and the watches you sold to raise the funds for the purchase... If you don't wear the other watches often, then by all means sell them on, but personally, I wouldn't consider selling a collection just to by a single gen, overall, it is just not worth it... IMHO of course ;):drinks:

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^ but that's considering that you can predict which rolexes will be popular in the next 50 years. You can predict the potential buyers of such an item. For example, will the guys that are interested in vintage watches (1950s-1980s) rolexes be interested in this stuff? No. Then who?? the buyers of 1990s 16610 ; they're willing to spend (around 3k) which is about half of the price of a new mint 16610. Unlike vintage rolex watches, the new watches are mass produced and so it will never be as rare as the vintage watches or be as highly priced. Thus, you can reasonably predict that in about 20 years, the price of a used GMTII master will be around half the price of whatever GMT Master version rolex will come out with.

Edited by praetor
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its funny, I was totally the same...rolex was the last thing I was interested in,,,,then suddenly I had to have a gen.....I guess you have to do it....only to experience yourself it isn't a big deal,,,like so much in life...but the words here will only do so much compared to an experience on the wrist....if you think it is worth the money then you win,,,if you don't you can sell it for the same price and again win,,,so if you get it at a good price,,,a win, win.

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A watch is a watch is a watch, they're for telling the time,

What a tired,silly argument. If this was the case,you would own a Timex and this forum wouldn't exist.

A gen is a gen. Nobody in China can replace that no matter how hard they try,and if you just need the time,get it off your phone like the rest of us.

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What a tired,silly argument. If this was the case,you would own a Timex and this forum wouldn't exist.

A gen is a gen. Nobody in China can replace that no matter how hard they try,and if you just need the time,get it off your phone like the rest of us.

Don't think that's what Tee-Jay was saying Dave. I think he was just pointing out.. that a watch purchase shouldn't be made as an investment decision.

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I tend to side with thiose who say sell off those you don't wear. i have been through this cycle several times over the years.

I set a limit of say 10 watches, and then all of a sudden I have 14-15. I have several genuine Rolexes, and they could probably be sold for at least what I paid for them, which isn't the case with reps, especially those super frankens that end up costing you 1.5 to 2 X what you budgeted. I have several nice replicas in my watchbox right now that never see any wrist time. Most of those are reps with a minimum of mods, movement service, relume, possibly a better crystal, etc.. Unfortunately, those will probably bring half what I have invested in them. They may end up in the sales forum some day. Right now my watch buying is pretty much on hold, since I just made the final payment on a MKII Kingston and ordered a new Ocean 7 LM5 which is a homage to the Blancpain Fifty fathoms. I probably wear my genuine Rolex 16610 about 75% of the time and the other 25% is spread over 4-5 others. If I saw something I really wanted in a genuine watch, I would not hesitate to get rid of several of the low end reps to fund the new genuine.

As someone above posted, you can save the genuines for your kids, but I'm not sure about passing on the reps.Another thing, if you get in a bind financially, you can get rid of the genuines pretty easily, but if you have a "super franken 1665 that cost you 3k to put together, good luck trying to get rid of it quickly. With your genuine watches, you have a lot of avenues for sales, such as Ebay, genuine sales forums, Craigs list, etc. With reps, you are pretty much limited to selling on about 3 rep forums that all combined probably have a pretty limited number of folks looking to buy high end reps.

So long story short, buy the genuine Rolex, it might never appreciate like a 6538 or 6542, but it will at least hold it's value, provided you keep it in nice condition.

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The other thing is - can I really recoup what I paid for my reps? Or at least sell without a significant loss? If not, I'd rather keep them.

If I end up selling all my reps for only one gen I might be a bit disappointed...

And: Rolex prices have increased ridiculously over the last years. I doubt it will go on like this.

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Only you can decide. We all go through phases many versus few, rep versus gen, favorite brand, etc. So it really matters what is important to you at the moment. The only advice I would give is that if you do buy the gen pick it up second hand and at a reasonable price because you never know when you will change your mind again. :whistling:

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What a tired,silly argument. If this was the case,you would own a Timex and this forum wouldn't exist.

A gen is a gen. Nobody in China can replace that no matter how hard they try,and if you just need the time,get it off your phone like the rest of us.

I never said a gen wasn't a gen. My point, as another member pointed out, was that buying that 'one watch' can just lead to buyer remorse and the loss of previous collection if that was how funds were acquired. The question from the OP was "Would you do it?" My answer was no, and I expanded on why. Your reasons are your own :drinks:

Don't think that's what Tee-Jay was saying Dave. I think he was just pointing out.. that a watch purchase shouldn't be made as an investment decision.

Precisely what I was meaning, thanks, bro :drinks:

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The other thing is - can I really recoup what I paid for my reps?

It depends on what you're selling... Some watches, like a SOSF will always command a good price, because they're hard to come by, but others, probably will not sell for much.

Or at least sell without a significant loss? If not, I'd rather keep them.

If I end up selling all my reps for only one gen I might be a bit disappointed...

If they're ones you don't wear much, there's not much point in holding on to them, but I would advise against selling for the sake of selling, as I suspect the new watch would fail to live up to the expectation, and you'd wind up with buyers remorse. Sure, you could then flip said gen for what you paid for it, but you probably wouldn't be able to replace everything you'd sold which you might start missing... :whistling:

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