Hoodwinkee!

So, over the past year, a few things in the watch world have caught my attention:

• The entry of a last-minute third-party guarantor at the recent Christie's Passion for Time auction and the subsequent upwards revision of estimates on lots.

• The 'restoration' of the so-called Unicorn Daytona and the subsequent admission of this, after the authenticity of the piece was brought into question.

• The authenticity of the Tropic Speedy, bought by the Omega museum.

• Certain watch media outlets hyping up these watch auctions and their results.

• The questionable practices of ADs (we've all heard a story). For example, an AD in California that encouraged a client to build an extensive purchase history with them to potentially purchase a 5980, only for the AD to lose it's Patek AD status and thus, it's ability to sell the watch to the client.

• The rise of high-risk watch theft.

• Etc etc (and I haven't even mentioned the questionable practices of our favourite grey dealers).

So in my best Carrie Bradshaw 'I couldn't help but wonder...' are we all the unwitting victims of a secret watch cabal, designed to prey on our passions and desires for these shiny (and sometimes rare) objects, to circulate as much money, as humanly possible?

Has our attention and perception been distorted by the endlessly regurgitated tales about Gerald Genta, Hans Wilsdorf and Zenith's bloody attic, that we now look at the instances above and say "well at least it didn't happen to me!"

Like drunk gamblers at the casino, has the occasional dopamine hit, derived from our 'piece du jour', diverted us from the fact that we are down, heading towards the ATM and willing withdrawing more cash to dump on 0?

And who really has their paws in the underlying black market?

I've been contemplating this a bit over the last 6 months. Nearly 1.5 years out of the watch buying game (until recently at least), coupled with the 'goings-on' above (and others) has given me food for thought. And now I'm wondering if I should I take blue pill and carry on. Or should I take the red pill, stay in Wonderland and see how deep the rabbit hole goes?