OUR CATAWIKI FAVORITES – EDITOR’S CHOICE: IWC, Longines and Rolex
We selected three interesting watches from recent Catawiki auctions: an IWC Mark XII, a Longines Legend Diver and a Rolex GMT-Master II.
As always, let me start by saying that before you bid on a watch, you should have done your homework. Especially when it concerns vintage watches. Some brands can help you identifying them, but most of the time it might take some more effort. From this week’s brands for example, Longines is known to have a great museum and archive that can help you to authenticate a watch. IWC has a small museum in Schaffhausen and should be able to give you some help as well. With Rolex, it will be difficult to get some official help from their offices in Geneva, but there is so much out there on their watches (including the GMT-Master), it shouldn’t be difficult to source a good GMT-Master II. With vintage Rolex, it is a different thing though, that will require much more effort to get things authenticated.
The selection I will show you here, are recently sold items. Yes sold. The thing is, the turnover on Catawiki of auction items is so quick, it leaves us with little time to do a proper write-up. So I show you some watches that I liked of the previous auctions, which might inspire you to look for the same or similar watches. Each watch gets a bit of description, which I hope helps you in making the right decisions.
Catawiki Favorites
Only the IWC Mark XII is the oldest watch of this selection, the Rolex GMT-Master II dates from 2006 and the Longines Legend Diver was originally sold in 2012. The Mark XII was introduced in 1993, so officially we could call this vintage but purists might have different ideas about the age of vintage watches. In the last Catawiki Favorites we also featured a Longines watches, a vintage chronograph from 1972, but this time we have a modern watch, be it one with a very short production period though. Without further ado, let’s have a look at the selection.
IWC Mark XII
IWC’s Mark XII was the long awaited successor for the Mark XI, a professional pilot’s watch that was used for decades. The Mark XII has a diameter of 36mm and was in production from 1993 till 1999, so only a relatively short period. IWC’s Mark XII uses the Jaeger-LeCoultre caliber 889/2 movement, which was the first self-winding movement for the Mark-series (The Mark XI was equipped with a hand-wound movement, caliber 89). The Mark XII was succeed by the Mark XV in 1999, which was fitted with an ETA 2892-A2 based movement.
The actual production year is not entirely clear from the Catawiki description, but we are sure that you can find out by contacting IWC in such cases. The Mark XI that we have here, sold for €2149 (excluding premium), which is actually a low price for one.
However, the condition of this watch – as you can see – is not that great. Although the seller rated the watch an 8 out of 10, we find that there are no official papers with this watch, no original strap and buckle and we noticed quite some wear (scratches and even some dings) in the bezel and lugs. To get this watch back in good condition, it will probably need some TLC from IWC in Schaffhausen. This will definitely set you back a couple of hundred Euro, especially if you also want to have an original strap and buckle for this watch. Paperwork is missing and is something you can’t replace. In cases like this, it might be more wise to spend a bit more and get a watch that is actually in good condition and complete with box and papers.
Longines Legend Diver
We did an in-depth review of the Longines Legend Diver a couple of years ago (click here). However, that was the model with a date window. Actually, that is the only model still available right now. The version without date, that we have here from Catawiki, was discontinued soon after its initial release. Not too long ago, we talked about this specific version here. The reasons why is not entirely clear, and also Longines couldn’t explain it to us, other than that they just made the decision to cancel one of the two models. The date being still important to a lot of people, a very practical complication, was kept with the Longines Legend Diver. The no-date version is hard to come by, you will rarely come across one for sale. That also makes it difficult to put a price tag on this model. When new, they were around €1300-€1400, but since they are simply not available, it makes things complicated. Especially since there is quite a demand for the no-date version. Furthermore, this was a BNIB Longines Legend Diver, which means it was unworn.
This lot was sold for €2565, excluding the buyer’s premium. That could sound like a steep amount, but keep in mind that this watch comes with all accessories and paperwork.
Rolex GMT-Master II 16710
A full set GMT-Master II reference 16710 is up next. There’s little to explain about this watch other than we already did in our Rolex GMT-Master History Overview article. It is amazing how quickly these watches went up in price, as I recall selling mine (also a 2006 produced model, just like this one) for 4000 Euro in 2010. The prices of these watches are now well over €8000 and in case of this particular full-set offer on Catawiki, the buyer paid €9000 excluding sales premium. The watch you see here is also known as the stick dial, referring to the type face on the dial (ll instead of II). The high price is mainly explained due to the fact that also here, like the Longines Legend Diver, we talk about a watch that has never been worn. The Rolex GMT-Master II 16710 was succeeded in 2008 by the 116710LN, the first GMT-Master with ceramic bezel and beefier lugs. The diameter remained the same since the reference 1675, at 40mm.
In 2006, the Rolex GMT-Master II 16710 had a list price of €4050 Euro, so it has been a better investment than you money in the bank (over 10 years of interest wouldn’t have doubled your amount). If you really have one of the last 16710 references, that was shortly produced with caliber 3186 (instead of 3185), the price would be much higher even.
Want to see more watch auctions from Catawiki? Click here!
