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Omega’s Most Expensive Watch Ever Was A Fake!
What I learned from the rather embarrassing Phillips Auction fiasco.
Buying vintage watches is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you get access to incredibly rare and beautiful watches which can fetch for a pretty penny if enough time passes. But on the other, you risk losing thousands of dollars as well as total humiliation if the watch you purchased ends up being as real as Donald Trump’s hair.
Sadly, this kind of thing happens all the time to people who have no prior experience acquiring vintage pieces. Just like with any art form, some noob jumps on the bandwagon way too early and before he or she knows it they are stuck with a totally useless item that’s worth nothing. All because they didn’t practice due diligence.
But what watch nerds didn’t expect is that such a thing would happen to one of the most respected watch brands in the game as well as to one of the most prestigious auction houses in existence.
Believe it or not, Phillips Auctions authorized the sale of an Omega Speedmaster for 3.4 million dollars.
And it turned out to be a fake.
How did this happen?
Long story short, Phillips Auctions came across a very unusual Omega Speedmaster watch from 1957. One of the earliest examples of…