Quote:
Originally Posted by tng11
I think the reality moving forward is that manufacturers are going to have to accept that the premium for gold over SS is going to narrow. It always seemed crazy to me that manufacturers were charging upwards of $20K for at most, $3-4K worth of gold in bracelet pieces (fine, you could quibble that gold may be harder to finish or work with), and the market has pretty much spoken to that.
See for instance the delta between a BNIB 116500 and 116509 - the SS is going for a premium while the WG is going for a substantial discount such that the difference is now around $8-10K, when the MSRP difference is more like $20K. Or the 5711 where SS is going for $40K while RG can still be had at the $51.5K MSRP when the gap in retail is more than $26K at the old prices.
It would seem bizarre if the 5712/1A is more expensive than the 5712R/G - but you could rationalize part of it in that the 1A has a bracelet which requires a lot of extra work assembling and finishing. I would expect an increase for the gold models - but not by the same 20%. The 5712G is a slow mover and you'll get taken to the cleaners on resale (the R does much better.)
There are many days where I've definitely turned my mind to the gold versions of watches I want as now they seem like comparative bargains to the SS brethren. Ultimately, I still end up going SS as it better suits my lifestyle.
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Good points. Then in that case more people will be buying the g models if they see them very close in value to ss as they look very similar (white metal) and you get gold rather than steel. Or am I missing something?