Gold Prices

[shimside11]

I've been wondering if (with the recent gold prices of over 700USD p/oz this week) gold in watches may get more appealing to the beautiful people and trendsetters.

I know that for the past few years, SS has been all the rage. My Rolex AD cannot give away a TT Daytona or a TT Sub, both of which they have in stock, and both of which I tried on yesterday. Right now they have a three year waiting list for SS Daytona, and you have to be a regular customer just to get on the list. They can't keep SS Subs or Seadwellers in stock.

Has anyone noticed any trends toward gold lately? I'm not in the most cutting edge geographic location so I'm really not exposed to the latest trends (doesn't help being in the conservative financial services business either). My colleagues' ideas of the ultimate cool watch is still an all gold DD (yeah...old guys)

Logic would dictate that as gold prices go through the roof because of increased demand, stuff with gold in it would follow (in a supply/demand paradigm). If it becomes harder to get, will fickle fashion sniff it out and jump on it?

Any observations or interesting musings?

[Kerbus]

I heard that the "trendsetters" at Basel are saying gold ( and I suppose that includes TT) will be making a huge comeback. I'm not sure if the reason is related to the topic above or simply just the nature of typical trends--one look just gets "tired" after a while and another comes in to replace it. This routine just recycles and recycles over time.

[robertrinaustin]

I see a bunch of white gold currently and in jewelry in general, there is a move to platinum. We buy about 4 tons of gold a month and all indications are that it isn't coming down.

I missed Basel this year, but all our designers were there, so I'll see what they think about the gold comeback.

I know right now you can buy a used TT Daytona for about $2 less than a SS and that just doesn't seem right.

[thomasng]

Buying gold watches when there was an SS option just never made sense to me. I would always buy the SS because of the durability, and it is a lot less flashier than gold. Besides, gold is ridiculously marked up in watches anyways. I don't think that the new trend has anything to do with gold prices, because buying gold coins, bars would make more sense.