Roger Smith Auction

[kunlun]

Originally Posted by Ichiran

This Series 1 fetched well over double the reserved price (£297,500) at the auction. That’s a stunning result.

Well, although I do like RWS' work, his tendency to re-price his watches based on auction results means there will be another price jump when he opens his books again.

Of course, I wish him well and want him to be successful...but the price increases have been a little crazy.

Price aside, I do want to say that I think people should value very highly having a non-Swiss lever escapement and really developing that escapement further, as Roger has with the co-axial.

That's real horology. Having shiny polishing on a not so interesting watch (GF Handmade 1 for example, just to stir the pot) is exactly what George Daniels criticized.

I say that having tried the Handmade 1 on my wrist several times, I would be happy to have one. And I do respect what it represents and the preservation of hand work skills in horology. And, in a weird way, the HM1 is a better value than any RWS which went for a quarter of the current price a few years back or whatever the markup has been. But hopefully collectors can realize that going beyond a swiss lever is a big deal and also that the British style of finishing has a real understated beauty to it and a Philippe Dufour is a deeply boring watch, horologically.