A Vintage Watch Broke Auction Records. Then the Rumours Started.
January 13, 2026 at 05:20PMA lucrative niche market? Check. Intricate objects that attract thieves and forgers, skeptics and purists? Check. A brazen, self-appointed detective who suspects a covert effort to silence him? Check. Emma Irving structures her overview of the luxury-watch world and its peculiar characters around the record-setting auction of a 1957 Omega Speedmaster Broad Arrow (which certainly sounds expensive). It’s a fascinating glimpse of a fraught world, one in which the components of trust are as intricate and susceptible as the precision parts of a top-notch timepiece.
Perez’s encounters with the watch world are often combative. Many watches have sold for far less than expected, or not sold at all, after he identified them as problematic—raising the ire of dealers and auction houses. He told me about a Rolex Oyster “Sotto” Daytona that had been put up for auction in 2021 with a starting bid of HK$8.5m. Perez, who suspected a dealer had installed a more desirable dial in order to quadruple the watch’s value, flagged the watch as suspicious. “When it finally came to auction, it didn’t get one single bid,” he told me gleefully.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2026/01/13/luxury-watch-fraud/
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