Unloved Watches for Sale

I’m on AuthenticWatches’ email list. They specialize in new-in-box discontinued models, on sale for a significant discount from their original MSRP. Some are completely unloved watches – MAJOR misfires that make you wonder how they came to exist in the first place. Let’s have a look (no commission on links) . . .

OMEGA De Ville Chronoscope Co-Axial Rattrapante – $13,700 -> $8,475

Is it me, or does this Chronoscope look like some kind of monkey staring at me? If it is, it’s a truly demented simian. Mojo Jojo? What’s even crazier: OMEGA put a kick ass Caliber 3612 self-winding automatic COSC Chronometer certified movement inside this horological abomination.

I’ve criticized the venerable Moonwatch for legibility issues, but this thing makes the Buzz Aldrin’s timepiece read like a Swiss Railways Watch. The date slot on the top left is the icing on a cake that should have never gone into the oven.

Corum Bubble 52 Limited Edition – $6400 -> $2975 -> $2775

It’s the Stop Watch! That’s funny! What’s not so funny (at least for Corum): they made 88 of these 52mm time-telling stop signs.

That right there is numero uno. If you stop and look past the Bubble 52’s joke T-shirt dial, it’s a terrific titanium-cased timepiece. The caliber CO 403 (base Eterna 3903A) underneath its exhibition caseback offers excellent accuracy and a 65 hour power reserve.

The Bubble 52 is hardly the ugliest Corum ever made, and it fits right in with the MeToo movement. But it’s not going to stop someone from buying just about anything else.

Bell & Ross Aviation Instruments Black Carbon Fiber Dial Watch BR01-TOURB-PHANTOM – $150,000 -> $48,000 -> $39,000

That’s quite the price drop, n’est-ce pas? 

The Tourb-Phantom is one of those unloved watches that’s technically brilliant, aesthetically Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. A black gold finish tourbillon sits inside that 46m x 46m black carbon fiber case, beneath and betwixt power reserve and optimum accuracy indicators. (No idea.)

Just like the Corum Stop Sign, only 18 of these black beauties were ever made – sold to people who now know the true meaning of the word “depreciation.” (Also made in pink gold for $170k, now $25,900.)

There’s a lot of unloved, unloveable watches both on AuthenticWatches’ website and out there, somewhere. If you spot a particularly egregious example, please email a link to robertfarago1@gmail.com with UG! in the subject bar.