Instagram and other social platforms made vintage watches easier to discover and discuss year-round, putting pressure on auction houses built around periodic sales. That was the argument Edmond Saran made in 2019—not a claim that auctions had become obsolete. He saw online access as a new route to buyers and sellers, while rare watches still benefited, in his view, from auction houses’ reach and competitive bidding.
This article revisits Saran’s account in its historical context. His timing figures are personal examples, not current or industry-wide benchmarks.
What changed when watch trading moved onto Instagram?
In his September 4, 2019 article, “Vintage watches: Auction houses ‘upping’ their game,” Edmond Saran described social media as an always-open channel for discovering watches and contacting collectors and dealers. Unlike a traditional auction calendar, online visibility could continue between scheduled sales. Saran argued that this created competitive pressure for auction houses to offer ways to buy throughout the year.
A day later, Time+Tide Watches recommended Saran’s article under the headline “This is what the auction business looks like in the Instagram age.” Its recommendation quoted Phillips watches head Aurel Bacs describing social media as “an amazing trampoline for collectors, dealers and auction houses.” The phrase captures the article’s tension: social platforms could help established auction businesses reach people, even as they gave buyers and sellers more ways to connect directly.
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Could buyers and sellers transact outside auction season?
Yes. Saran pointed to online and private-sale channels as alternatives to waiting for a scheduled auction. In 2019, he cited Phillips PERPETUAL as a year-round offering, described as open “365 days a year,” and referred to private sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. These are examples from his 2019 account, not confirmation that those services operate in the same form today.
The distinction is about the route to market, not simply whether a transaction happens online. A social post may bring a watch to a buyer’s attention; a private sale can arrange a direct transaction; an auction puts a watch into a scheduled sale where bidders compete. Saran presented these as routes that could coexist, with auction houses responding to the continuous activity of social media.
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How long might an auction sale take?
Saran estimated that an auction process could take three to six months from consignment to payment. He contrasted that with one private transaction in which, he reported, 72 hours passed between seeing a watch and paying for it. Both figures describe his account in 2019: the first is his estimate of a process, and the second is a single example. Neither establishes a typical timeline for today’s auction or private sales.
Those timings also do not make the routes directly interchangeable. A seller may value speed and direct contact, while another may prefer the visibility and bidding process of an auction. The actual timetable depends on the sale arrangement and its terms; Saran’s figures should not be used as a promise of when a watch will sell or when funds will arrive.
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Why did Saran think auction houses still mattered?
Saran’s argument was not that Instagram made auctions irrelevant. He believed major auction houses could bring marketing reach to rare watches and allow the market to set a price through competitive bidding. That is his assessment of the auction houses’ role, rather than an independently measured conclusion about every watch or sale.
Direct online access may make it easier to find potential counterparties, but it does not guarantee a buyer, a fair price, or a trustworthy description. Auction and private-sale channels each involve their own terms and processes; the 2019 article does not provide a universal way to compare their fees, protections, or outcomes.
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Does Instagram make vintage-watch information reliable?
No. Saran warned that social platforms can spread inaccurate information and allow people to present themselves as experts without enough firsthand knowledge. More visibility means more access to claims as well as to watches; it does not verify either one.
Bacs made a related point in the statement quoted by Saran: “no digital platform can ever replace a personal contact between buyers and sellers. Also, scholarship cannot be gained online but is rather built on personal hands on experience”. The 2019 article therefore treats online discovery as useful but incomplete. A social-media post is not authentication, and an online exchange cannot by itself establish a watch’s condition, history, or originality.
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What the 2019 account does—and does not—show
- It is about vintage watches and their secondary market. Its observations should not be generalized to every auction category.
- It documents an argument, not a market-wide measurement. Saran’s estimates and personal transaction example are not audited industry statistics.
- It names services as they were discussed in 2019. The article does not establish the current availability or terms of Phillips PERPETUAL, Christie’s private sales, or Sotheby’s options.
- It offers a view of changing competition. Social platforms expanded discovery and contact, while Saran saw auction houses retaining a role in marketing rare watches and enabling competitive price discovery.
Read together, the recommendation and Saran’s article offer a snapshot of how one writer understood the trade in 2019: watch commerce was becoming less bound to auction dates, but access to listings did not replace expertise or make auctions unnecessary.
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