I work in the second-hand jewellery trade and one of our specialities is dealing in second-hand Rolex watches (and some other brands).
We spend a lot of time checking and cross-referencing any watches we buy and the amount of rubbish we see being sold by auction houses and dealers is quite shocking, especially as it often falls to us to be the bearer of bad news to the client trying to sell the item.
I noticed that you had shown in ‘Bid Barometer’ in ATG No 2331 a poor-quality, quite obviously fake Heuer Monaco watch sold for £480. I assume the auction house knew it wasn’t real as they estimated it at £40-60.
I’m not sure what bothers me most: the fact that an auction house is selling this or the fact that some poor soul has paid over £500 for something that is essentially worthless.
Michael Williams
Chester
