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Instagram made it easier for vintage-watch collectors and dealers to discover watches and contact sellers throughout the year, challenging auction houses built around scheduled sales. In a 2019 article, Edmond Saran argued that auction houses were responding with year-round and private-sale options—but that their reach and competitive bidding still mattered for rare watches.
What changed when watch trading moved onto social media?
In “Vintage watches: Auction houses ‘upping’ their game,” published September 4, 2019, Edmond Saran described Instagram as a constant channel for seeing watches and connecting buyers, dealers and sellers. Rather than waiting for a scheduled auction, collectors could encounter a watch and pursue a conversation through social platforms. Saran called social media “an amazing trampoline for collectors, dealers and auction houses.” Read Saran’s article at Le Monde Edmond.
That shift put pressure on the traditional auction calendar. Saran’s argument was not that auctions had become obsolete, but that auction houses needed to compete in a market where discovery and transactions could happen outside their headline sales.
How did auction houses respond?
Saran’s 2019 article pointed to Phillips PERPETUAL and Christie’s private sales as examples of auction houses expanding beyond periodic auctions. It described Phillips as offering access “365 days a year.” These are historical examples from 2019, not confirmation that the named services remain available in the same form today.
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The broader contrast is between scheduled public auctions and more continuous online or private-sale channels. The latter can meet buyers when they are ready to transact; the former concentrate attention around a sale and invite competitive bidding. Saran saw those approaches as complementary rather than mutually exclusive.
Is a private watch sale faster than an auction?
In Saran’s account, an auction could take three to six months from consignment to payment. He also recounted one private transaction in which 72 hours passed between seeing a watch and paying for it. Those figures describe his examples, not typical timelines or independently measured industry averages; actual timing depends on the transaction and parties involved.
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The comparison illustrates why private sales could appeal to someone seeking speed, while an auction may take longer but gather bidders around a public sale. Neither example establishes that every private sale is faster or that every auction follows the same schedule.
What do auctions offer that Instagram may not?
Saran argued that major auction houses retain a role for rare watches because they can market a watch to a broad audience and let buyers compete to set a price. This is his assessment of auction houses’ value, not a measured claim that auction results always produce the best outcome.
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Social platforms can make watches and sellers more visible, but visibility is not the same as verification. Saran warned that inaccurate information can circulate online and that people can claim expertise without adequate firsthand knowledge. A social post alone cannot establish a watch’s authenticity, condition, provenance or fair value.
Why does hands-on expertise still matter?
The 2019 article attributes to Aurel Bacs, identified there as head of Phillips watches, the view that “no digital platform can ever replace a personal contact between buyers and sellers” and that scholarship is built through personal, hands-on experience. The point is not that online research is useless; it is that photos and claims on a screen cannot substitute for examining a watch or engaging with knowledgeable people.
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For buyers, that means treating social media as a discovery and contact channel, not as an authentication service. For sellers, it means that a larger audience does not automatically provide the specialist judgment or competitive price discovery that an established auction process may offer.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What this 2019 account can—and cannot—tell you
Time+Tide Watches recommended Saran’s article on September 5, 2019, one day after its publication. Together, the pieces offer a snapshot of an argument about vintage watches and the secondary market at that time. They do not establish current availability or terms for Phillips PERPETUAL, Christie’s private sales, or any Sotheby’s service, nor do they provide industry-wide data on sale speed or the accuracy of social-media listings. Verify present-day services directly with the relevant auction house before relying on them.
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