Yes but it’s not as weird as people buying these current model watches from grey dealers for thousands more than list because of the internet.
The vintage market is what it is but you can argue either way if they’re worth the money. One thing’s for sure it’s worth it to some because there’s less due to them actually being worn. What annoys me about the new market is the countless threads on TRF about justifying over paying and looking at them as investments and keeping them mint in a box fretting about scratches.
These new watches will never reach the heights of vintage because that’s not how we used to wear/keep them. Fair enough if you’re filthy rich but I’d imagine some people are tucking themselves up on credit cards buying £12k/£16k of £7500 watch and no wonder people defend the price. They can’t really afford to wear them as intended and put them away in the box along with thousands and thousands of other people. I’d be offloading now if I’d done that.
People look at the vintage market for an excuse to spend on them but the old watches were cheap and have (rightly or wrongly) achieved their value over decades of slow appreciation. The new ones can be double rrp the same day as being bought new.
As pointed out earlier in this thread, there’s hundreds/thousands of mint in box ‘hard to get’ Rolexes on c24