I was looking at my watches the other day & realised I had 4 Limited Edition watches in my (modest) collection, hadn't really crossed my mind before.
Top left to right: Squale 30 Atmos GMT Tropic Ceramica, Precista PRS-3LE
Bottom left to right: Eterna Matic KonTiki Super 1973, Precista PRS-50B
These sort of crept up on me as when I was buying them I was buying because I liked the watch & not because of its LE status. Now I know Omega are partial to a LE release now & again but I was wondering if any of you guys actually make a habit of collecting Limited Editions?
I’ve had a few along the way, they’ve all gone now though.
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My only LE.
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Any manufacturer who sells a limited edition of anything is simply selling the same product for an inflated price to keep mug customers happy.
I once had a friend who worked for Leica and the old M6 film cameras were great, so good that I still use mine. He admitted to me that limited editions were sold to fleece mugs. Same camera at an inflated price = happy mug customer.
Sometimes a limited edition is no more than an accurate estimation of how many of a model the manufacturer reckons they can shift
I suppose it also depends on how and where the limited editions are sold. A lot of manufacturers simply sell them through their usual outlets, yet some limited editions are specifically made for a Facebook Group, Watch Forum or commissioned by a single outlet and these watches are not commercially available to the wider general public. Steinhart for example have done many of these exclusives over the years and they have become collectible in their own right with people putting out WTBs for them.
So maybe not all limited editions are born equal 😉
I have a couple of LEs but basically despise the practice of making limiting editions.
Why should a company come out with a great looking design and then not allow full use of it? Alienating customers who can't buy one doesn't produce goodwill and limiting profits from the design is counter productive to the bottom line.
Make a watch and sell it. If it sells well make some more and sell them too. You end up with happy customers and happy stockholders.
Here are mine, both turtles. Bought them because I liked them rather than because they were LE’s though
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I have several,but I simply bought then because I like them,not because of their LE status
Cynic
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But a well informed one...
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All watches are limited editions, sometimes five, sometimes fifty and sometimes fifty thousand.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
He hasn’t said anything earth shattering. It is common sense that the idea of LE is to sell something at a higher price to someone who is willing to pay it. Calling those people ‘mug customers’ is a little sad though.
Doesn’t make him look any smarter or well informed while insulting people who like to collect LEs.
I am not a fan of buying something just because it is an LE but some LE watches are nice and there is satisfaction to be derived from knowing there are not many of them around or easily obtainable.
I pity anyone who doesn’t understand this or derides this.
Limited editions are very mixed blessings really.
Sometimes they are the eventual confluence of exactly the right features in a range. A development that takes the model to its full potential.
Sometimes they are a cynical effort to sell more of the same thing, with one tweak or two. And sometimes those tweaks look very silly indeed (Hodinkee Skipper anyone - 10 minute segments????).
Sometimes they are treated with the sensible respect they deserve.
Sometimes they are lauded to a ridiculous degree and the market goes mental (Speedie Tuesday hype).
But the whole thing about Limited Editions is that they shout their rarity, and use it to sell, even when it isn't terribly rare.
An LE production run around 2000 or more is not really that rare at all.
I know there are less than 80 of these Sidunas on the planet, even though it is not an LE.
I have Tutima which was issued in numbers under 40.
These are rare things, but not LEs at all.
So I would always suggest that it is best to consider the watch, rather than the status.
Dave
Or a celebratory release?
Less than 100 issued to the UK market for 1 year only.
https://www.watchcentre.com/product/...0-1a-001/18065
Ignore the orange blurb at the bottom, it may have been originally sold in 2009, but these were 2008 watches, production for 2008 only which ceased in December 2008.
Nothing wrong with LEs in my mind, if it's a design or colorway that appeals to you more than the vanilla version, why not?
As long as you know why you're buying it there's nothing wrong.
And from a watch companies perspective, why would you waste resources making a watch regular production that would hardly sell if it was commonly available.
The second you make it limited, every self-entitled person comes out the wood work saying "they deserve to have one, why don't they make more, omg WF are offering Łxxx".... but they'd have never bought it in the first place if it was dead stock in a store window.
This model has clearly worked for Rolex, you just have to look at the shift in buyers of steel/professional models over the past few years, "percieved rarity" sells, and it always has.
We used to clamour for that rare football sticker, shiney pokemon card, or special pog, now i'ts whatever hot thing thats out, be it sneakers, shoes, cars, etc.
I digress though,
I have a few LE's not everyone's cup of tea, I like them though since they sang to me in one way or another.
I think the wristwatch market has ‘jumped the shark’ over the last few years, with companies now trying to create ‘special’ watches where in the past swings in taste and fashion over the years naturally produced them. Watches nobody liked or bought at the time - thinking Milgauss, Daytona, etc - all have their time in the sun because at one point they were unloved, hence now rare. But now they try to create the same magic without waiting decades. So you get endless Speedmasters, when the original is arguably the best, oodles of Japanese market Seiko etc blah blah at increased prices for a lick of paint. It’s no different from daft things like Star Wars figures. The original 1977 ones have a kind of cultural significance for toy collectors whereas who cares about a special edition figure made in 2018? Perhaps it’s an internet driven hunger for the latest fad? Or being seen as ‘in the know’ but imho it has ruined collecting on lots of areas. Plus where such big money is to be made, fake dials etc flourish, until nobody really knows a real item from a ‘cut and shut’ bodge. Sad really.
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Only have one in my modest seiko collection
the only limited edition I have
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The only limited edition I own.... Poljot Okeah : 224/300..
Aye right... Under no illusions. Given the number of images of "Final Edition limited to 300" there is of the Okeah on the net I'm fairly sure that a "new" limited edition is started when all the numbers are used up on the old "limited edition"... I might be wrong, but I doubt it. However bought it because I loved the look, movement and history of the watch not because it was a limited edition.
A
Surprisingly few Omegas so far ;-)
I reckon there’s only enough space on my “Numbered Edition” FOIS for them to make about 10 million before they have to stop making them. I’ll post a picture when that happens.
Interesting to see that most people on here tend to buy their LE watches because they like that particular variant of the watch as opposed to buying it because its a LE. Which is exactly the reason I bought all 4 of my LE watches, because I liked the watch, they just happened to be LE's. Also have to agree with the comment re Omega, I thought there would have been a fair few on the thread by now.
Here's a few of mine :-)
IMG_20190608_110257 by ataripower, on Flickr
IMG_20190704_142227 by ataripower, on Flickr
IMG_20190703_103534 by ataripower, on Flickr
IMG_20190627_213016 by ataripower, on Flickr
Almost forgot about this one.... I know no one likes it except me but dont care
IMG_20190606_193640 by ataripower, on Flickr
The mugs game eh? I know what you mean.....Also very collectible with lots of choices - https://www.bombayduck.com/limited-e...otty-mugs.html
My Schofield Signalman GMT PR from a production of 300.
My zenith cp-2 was one of a 1000 limited edition bought in 2017, having seen it in a jewellers outside Baselworld that year!
Since then they have released several further versions, same basic format but changed in a few ways.
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