Doesn't anyone like Patek Philippe anymore?

Moderator please delete if you find inappropriate but if you bear with me a while you will see that behind a voluntarily provocative title there is a lot to do with VC.

I think that everyone here is familiar with other online discussion sites which have Patek discussion forums. If you have a look at these forums almost all of the talk is in the investment value of Pateks and/or the difficulty of getting some pieces.

At a recent dinner with a few other watch collectors the discussion moved to VC and Patek. I started talking about the suave appeal of VC timepieces and their original approach on things by creating this wonderful forum and the fact that they accept custom orders (and not only from the happy few). My friends on the other hand only talked about the resale value of PP stating that their timepieces had gained X% in the past years etc…

It then hit on me …how many people actually really like Patek as a brand? How many Patek owners would actually buy the watch if it did not have patek on the dial? If the sole interest in Patek is making a profit and flipping the watches where’s the passion? Where’s the interest in true watchmaking?

That’s what makes VC so different and sets it apart from its major rival. Of course, VC vintage pieces do not sell for the impressive prices PPs do or there may be less of a battle to obtain the latest hard to get watch but it seems to me that the VC aficionado has an emotional attraction to the brand and has a relation to it that is not found elsewhere. We buy our Vacherons because we are attracted to the brand and its watches not for investment (sure...if your watch gains value in time it’s a bonus not the main reason for buying it).

That’s what makes Vacheron collectors and aficionados such a strong community and which gives power to the brand… we love our watches and buy funds as investment not the other way round and in the long term it will pay up because no one can really feel passionate about an investment.

Just my 2c