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Thread: Vintage tudor snowflakes and pricing

  1. #1
    Journeyman
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    Vintage tudor snowflakes and pricing

    I posted a while back for advise on a vintage purchase I've been considering. I've been watching the market for a while now, and am as confused as ever, particularly with regard to pricing. The watch I'm after is a Tudor blue snowflake sub, most probably a 9401(0) or 9411(0), I've no real preference regarding date window.

    My confusion stems from the huge range of pricing for these. On chrono 24 it seems decent examples can be had for around the $9-10k mark, while military versions head north of $20k. However, on forums recently, I've seen a fewf private sales for non military ones in the region of $16k, with nothing to set them apart from the ones around the $9K mark, as best I can see. They all appear to be legit (and I've picked up just enough knowledge on these now to spot some poor to middling fakes), of a similar quality - cases, hands/dials, lume ageing, movement condition etc.

    My question is this - am I missing something? Is there something that might be setting them apart? What's the best approach to develop a concept of what the sensible range of prices for a model of vintage watch is?

    Thanks!

  2. #2
    Grand Master
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    Glad I have a few vintage Tudors in the safe already!!

  3. #3
    Craftsman
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    Quote Originally Posted by seadog1408 View Post
    Glad I have a few vintage Tudors in the safe already!!
    Too right!!! Mine cost Me £300!!!

  4. #4
    Grand Master JasonM's Avatar
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    Might be worth a PM to Ross Povey on here, he’s a great authority on Tudor Subs, like most vintage watches, the spread will be all about condition, originality exact age, and other small subtle minutiae that collector geeks obsess about, that and the fact I sold one a year ago for 3k would enact Sod’s law that the prices rise overnight afterwards.
    Cheers..
    Jase

  5. #5
    Craftsman
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    In all seriousness.A good few have by now had parts replaced on them.Hands ,bezel dial .Knocks a bit of money off.Boxes paperwork spare links all fall by the wayside over time.Combine this with someone who doesn’t mind if the watch sells or not all give the variation in asking price

  6. #6
    Master Saxon007's Avatar
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    Ten years ago I started looking for a blue 7016, 9401 or 94010 to replace my blue 76100 since I did not like the date and cyclops. I regularly saw blue 94110s and a few 7021s (the date versions) but the no date versions were scarce and generally marketed as MNs with the appropriate bump in price. Even black no dates in good shape seemed pretty scarce. After a couple of years I finally gave up and bought a black 94010 of which I am now quite fond. I bought mine, complete with card indicating freshly serviced by RSC in Dallas, for $2500 which at the time seemed pretty steep but now looks like a bargain. The price rise began to seriously spiral after Tudor released the original Black Bay. I think people liked the BB's appearance but for many folks the size was a bit too substantial sparking interest in the older and more modestly sized subs. All of the blue 94010s I see now are above 5 figures and the MNs are two or three times as much.

    So I am really hoping Tudor releases a blue dial/blue bezel BB58 soon...

  7. #7
    Journeyman
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    I haven't seen a single blue 9401 in all the time I've been looking. A couple of black ones, but at that money, for a black sub, I'd be looking at a Rolex, which seem to be either around the same price, or cheaper, which came as a bit of a surprise.

    I've got my eye on a couple now. I'm not too demanding for all super original, untouched, unpolished etc genuine service replacements etc are fine by me, so long as it's in reasonable condition, with plenty of metal left on the case. I buy watches to wear and enjoy, not as investments.

    Of the two I've got my eye on, one's had a mediocre relume at some point in the tritium era, so if I were to get that I'd consider a relume. I know someone here had a pretty good dial restoration done on theirs, so I may hunt down that thread if I go this way.

    The other has some damage to the bezel, but otherwise looks good. Does anyone know if it's still possible to get service replacement bezels for these, or do you have to go aftermarket?

  8. #8
    Craftsman
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    Quote Originally Posted by Saxon007 View Post
    Ten years ago I started looking for a blue 7016, 9401 or 94010 to replace my blue 76100 since I did not like the date and cyclops. I regularly saw blue 94110s and a few 7021s (the date versions) but the no date versions were scarce and generally marketed as MNs with the appropriate bump in price. Even black no dates in good shape seemed pretty scarce. After a couple of years I finally gave up and bought a black 94010 of which I am now quite fond. I bought mine, complete with card indicating freshly serviced by RSC in Dallas, for $2500 which at the time seemed pretty steep but now looks like a bargain. The price rise began to seriously spiral after Tudor released the original Black Bay. I think people liked the BB's appearance but for many folks the size was a bit too substantial sparking interest in the older and more modestly sized subs. All of the blue 94010s I see now are above 5 figures and the MNs are two or three times as much.

    So I am really hoping Tudor releases a blue dial/blue bezel BB58 soon...
    I actually have no doubt in my mind that Tudor will be releasing other colour variations of the BB58 - this is exactly what they did with the Black bay!

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Allwatches View Post
    I actually have no doubt in my mind that Tudor will be releasing other colour variations of the BB58 - this is exactly what they did with the Black bay!
    It'd be great if they return to the blue dial with square indices instead of the round plots, too. If they did, that would probably be enough for me to go with a new one rather than vintage.

  10. #10
    Master Saxon007's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Allwatches View Post
    I actually have no doubt in my mind that Tudor will be releasing other colour variations of the BB58 - this is exactly what they did with the Black bay!
    I agree, new versions will appear in the future. They haven't done a blue dial BB, just a blue bezel with a black dial. A BB58 blue bezel/blue dial with square indices is probably a pipe dream but I am hopeful regardless.

  11. #11
    Master sweets's Avatar
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    Tudor have been very canny about releasing new models a few at a time, so that they trickle feed the evolution of their models rather than getting to their destination immediately.
    I've no doubt that BB58 colour variations are planned, but my guess is that the square indices are to be reserved for the Pelagos range, with round left for the BB.
    That doesn't mean there won't be a Pelogos 58, a smaller version.............
    I think that would be my hot tip for next year's release
    Dave

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