Please note. I am not a dealer and am not in the business of giving valuations !
What to collect ? Where to buy and sell. Looking after your new Swatch. Points to look out for when buying. Ways to display your collection. A few handy hints and tips for your watches. What makes a "good" Swatch? How can you keep "track" of them all?
The best advice I recieved when I joined the ranks
of Swatch collectors was simple and true although I didn't appreciate it then.
That was to buy what I liked. Forget going for the expensive or particularly
rare gear. Get what takes your fancy and what you can afford. You will get a
feel for the market soon enough. Then you can start hunting out the bargains
and "good" Swatches. Don't go for the most expensive ones you see.
You will undoubtedly lose out financially. I have wanted a Crystal Surprise
since I started. After waiting almost 18 months I found it for its original
price. I'm glad I didn't pay three times that amount last year! If you are intent
on collecting only the "good"ones,
you should watch the forums on the net and judge
whats hot and whats not from the exchanges of news and collectors views there.
Many collectors try to stick to particular types of watches or themes. Some
collect Jelly types, some the artists collections, some collect music related
Swatches and others collect only chronos or scubas. I try whenever to stick
to normal gents models and specials for financial reasons. If I bought ALL the
ones I liked I wouldn't have a chance!
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In the UK we used to have Swatch for sale in most jewellery
shops in most towns. Now Swatch seem to be becoming a speciality market in the UK so not as easy to find. Sometimes you just have to have a particular
model to fill a gap in your collection or just one you need. The easiest way
to get them is through the contacts you have built up locally (if you are that
lucky) or even through collectors shops (I know of a couple dedicated to just
that in the UK). Of course you have access to the net as you are
here and the are a wealth of opportunities availiable to anyone wishing to find
a particular watch. I'm not going to provide yet another list of "links
to more links" but needless to say, there are a growing number of collectors
about with great Swatch related pages and Swatches for sale. Try ebay for a constant supply of reasonably priced watches or any search
engine with Swatch as a search word. If you have the same luck as me you will
turn up hundreds of fabric swatch (a piece of uninteresting material to you
and me) pages on knitting and clothing sites but there are plenty of Swatch
links hidden in the search engines listings. There is a great resorce on the official Swatch site (that link was to http://www.swatch-art.com/cgi-bin/cclub/forum when I wrote this and swatch.com was available to buy!) and Tracey's Jerrys Swatch site which
deserve particular mentions. There you will even find dealers adverts with links
to their pages and some of them provide an easy (and often surprisingly cheap)
way to get that hard to find Swatch. There is
a collectors club in most countries now and the membership provides, among other things, advance
notice of coming watches and access to specials you otherwise wouldn't know
of, a twice yearly newsletter telling you whats going on when, the collectors
club watch for the year, a catalogue of the years watches etc. All for less
than the price of an automatic. Join today (no I'm not on commision).
Another useful way is to check out the free papers and local papers when you
are in the newsagents. If there is something good you can always buy it or memorise
the phone number.
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People have differing
views on what you should do with your watches. Some say that you should never
take the battery out, others say you should always take it out. Most people
seem to leave it in. Personally, I take the battery out after purchase and run
the watches for a week or so every six months. That way it gets "used"
occasionally as a lot of people worry about the mechanicals drying out if left
unused. I don't believe that but it can't hurt to run them once in a while.
At the moment I run them on rotation. Eg as my collection is now over 150 watches
it is difficult to replace all the batteries every six months for one week so
I have one or two watches running at any given time. Each week I will remove
those batteries and move them to the next two watches. They all get "used"
that way and it isn't so inconvenient.
As for maintanence of your Swatches. Well they just don't need it and if they
do go wrong (highly unlikely) they are unrepairable (except auto's which can
be opened up). Some collectors have their pieces in sealed, airtight containers.
Fine if you can afford it and worry (unduly) about them collecting dust and
being exposed to the air but if any of mine get dirty or dusty I just wash them.
They are waterproof after all and to think that washing them can de-value them
or damage them is just plain ridiculous. These watches are designed to last
well over ten years and are made to wear so an occasional wash can't harm them.
NOTE. Always make sure the watch has the small rubber seal in place before immersing
in water! It should follow that the seal is in place from new but if it isn't
you will have a dead Swatch in no time. It has been known for a shop or a private
seller to have replaced the battery and dropped the rubber seal in the process.
The first thing you will notice is a water filled Swatch rather than a water-proof
Swatch.
When keeping a Swatch in it's original case there is a really handy tip I learned
recently. Find an elastic band which will fit over the two bits inside the box
which hold the strap down. Not too tight but so it will stay there. Now your
Swatch won't suffer from the scratched face problem. A lot of watches are slightly
marked on the face through making repeated contact with the box. The elastic
band is an effective "buffer" between the face and the box. This is
really useful when transporting Swatches in the mail or overseas. Another tip
is to protect the straps from the hard edges of the two strap holders (the bits
on the box that stop the strap curling or moving and keep it flat). These two
bits of plastic can damage the strap when the watch moves slightly up and down
in the box during transit. Get some overhead projector sheets and cut a piece
of good enough size to put between the strap and the retainer. No more scratched
straps yet you can't even see the piece of clear sheet! Another technique is
to file or sand down the often sharp edges on the box strap holders or some
people just snap them clean off. I think that's a bit drastic.
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If you are buying
from a shop, it is worth noting that they very rarely (in my experience) give
you the correct guarantee slip for the watch. Almost all the guarantee slips
carry a code no. for identifying the model, eg SLB 101 or GB 705, and some people
just accept that. I always find the code no. (usually in the latest catalogue)
before I buy to be sure. Usually I get given a guarantee slip for the nearest
box to hand. It may not bother you but if I'm buying a product, the least I
expect is the whole package with the correct paperwork.
I always check the box too. The box will usually carry the code no. on the lower
left hand side of the rear of the case. Not always but it is another thing to
expect as part of the whole package, as it were. Make sure the box is undamaged.
I have been given umpteen cracked or broken boxes. They go straight back. It's
not just being picky. Would you buy a car with the wrong wheels attatched or
a cracked windscreen?
Avoid buying a model out of the window. I'm constantly given "the one in
the window" without being asked. I'll refuse it every time (unless it is
the last one or quite rare). To draw on the vehicle analogy again, I would expect
a hefty reduction for an ex-demonstrator. A watch on display in the window is
very likely to have a damaged or at least bent or twisted strap as it tends
to be buckled on a display stand. They don't come straight or flat again. The
watch in the window is likely to have suffered from the exposure to bright light.
It isn't always obvious but when checked against another watch, a white one
for instance, it will be more yellow. I bought Time to move last year, from
a shop window, and 12 months on the strap is still trying to keep the shape
it had while on display. I bought it anyway as I hadn't seen it before and knew
it was an older watch which I wanted so was prepared to make the sacrifice.
It wasn't as if they had any more in the back.
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Of course it's no
good having all these Swatches (even if you just have one or two) if you are
going to hide them away in a drawer or even in a bank vault for some watches.
I know of collectors who have entire rooms devoted to their collection. That
is nice but not entirely practical for most people. Some collectors just have
the watches in their boxes along a shelf. I have some of the official Swatch
collectors display boxes (you can see a small pic. on my gallery page) which
are simply excellent. They hold fourteen watches (more with the flexi bands)
and come in plain see through (obviously) perspex and take up very little room.
The only trouble is that you cannot fit a Magic Spell in it! It is shallow enough
to hold a watch and thats it. Quite slim (about 2.5 centimeters) and with a
discreet Swatch logo on the lower right. They cost about the same as a Swatch
standard and are very nice on the wall. UPDATE - these display boxes are no longer available. A great idea (and cheap) I have heard
of is to run a "shelf", of perspex or similar, along a wall. The shelf
as I imagine it would be about 3 centimeters wide?, just enough to hold a box
and as long as you require. Then buy some Velcro or similar and stick one side
on the back of the box and the other on the wall. This way the box will not
fall off the shelf if knocked. I guess you could do without the "shelf"
altogether but I wouldn't for safetys sake. I guess it would look great and
would cost very little. I'm thinkind of trying it and I will let you know how
I get on. UPDATE - I never tried it but I do fancy taking a couple of centimeters of plaster out of a wall and 'sinking' the display into the wall.....
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Thats almost un-answerable but I'll try anyway. Firstly,
if you are "collecting" for profit, forget it. You would need to be
rich and extremely well connected (or own a shop) to make a regular profit on
them. I know plenty of collectors who tell me that their collection is worth
xxx amount of pounds or dollars. Well they aren't. Your collection is worth
what it is worth to you and you only. I have spent a small fortune on my modest
collection and it would net me good money, I'm sure, if I sold them all and more importantly could find a buyer to take the lot but
that rather misses the point. As I have no intention of selling most of mine
they are effectively worthless. Sure I have a Time Cut chronometer, an Access
to Space and all the collectors club watches but I don't intend selling my Access
to Space, therefore it is worth precicely $0 just now. If you want to make money
on them stick to the specials and limited editions. You will USUALLY make a
profit if you want to sell them later.
That said :) If you want to know what will "come good" in the future,
you will have to develop a "feel" for it. A lot of people knew that
the Black Sheep Swatch, for example,would be good before it hit the market.
Why? Well not one person I asked can give a proper answer but it is largely
a case of understanding the psychology of buyers. Black Sheep appealed greatly
to young girls due to its "cute" looks (no apology for this sexist
comment as its true!) and therefore a lot of parents bought it for teenagers.
The same goes for Sweet Baby. Teenagers wear them for a while, break them and then discard them for the next
"cool" item. I know, I was one once. So, the shops sell out quickly, the
watches come into demand but most of them are worn or damaged. Hence a collectors
market springs up and prices rise for the remaining unworn examples.
Another example could be the Sextease Swatch. Again the reasons for it's upward
financial spiral are varied and many but largely due to the fact that, as the
story goes, it wasn't released in some of the more conservative markets for
fear of upsetting the locals . Straight away those who can't get it want it
from the other markets. Censorship always creates demand. People want to see
why they aren't allowed to see it. The other markets provide the pieces (with
a little premium) and soon they sell out too and the new collectible status
of a heavily demanded piece is in place. The rise in price alerts the market
to the fact that it must be a "good" piece to have and then we all
want it and the price rises further.
Those are just a couple of examples of course but there can be exceptions even
to that. Take Sweet Babies from the 1996 spring/summer collection. When I saw
that I knew I should get it. It is so hideous and cutesy that it would either
sell out or not sell at all. Either way it should rise in value as there are
either not a lot left in years to come or there is a too heavy demand on a particular
market. I had it half right as the Indonesian / Singaporean markets sold out
extemely quickly and started wanting it from other places. Collectors traded,
sold and bartered until all those who wanted it had it. There were (it seems)
enough to go round and now everyone seems happy. Not a great success for me
but it reminded me that one shouldn't collect for profit. Sweet Babies is still
availiable in some UK stores :) UPDATE - I sold my Sweet Babies and have had twenty plus offers for it since. I should have bought more!
It is almost always worth buying a special or limited edition when you can.
The queues for the christmas specials bear testiment to that. London, December
14th 1995 . Well over 500 people queing from 12 hours previously to buy a watch
they have, at best, seen a partial picture of. No one knows quite what it looks
like or what kind of packaging it's in but they still queue through a bitter
London night in the street to make sure they get it! As one walked away you
were offered up to three times what you paid by dealers but I didn't sell after
my six hour wait. Passers by ask what is being given away and look on incredulously
when they hear that people are queing to pay for a watch they haven't seen.
This is what being a collector is all about. Standing for hours waiting to see
if you get lucky. Of course it would be easier to buy one later (at a higher
price from a dealer) but where is the fun in that? Where's the "provenance"?
All my watches have a story behind them. One was bought while with a dear friend
from the USA who was visiting breifly. I can't buy the memory that goes with
them. Sure you can make an almost guaranteed profit from some Swatches but buy
what pleases you. If they have a "financial value" thats nice but
no good unless you know where and how to sell them for a profit if you so desire. Get used to
what makes a "good" Swatch. It comes only with experience and is open
to error!
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Never take sweets from strangers.
Thats about all for the moment. Let me know
if it was of any use to you and what you would like to see included here.
You can reach me by e-mail at: swatch@allsopp.com
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