In his blog-post "Thoughts On Pricing And The Accutron 314 -- History, mystery, and inflation" (*klikk) Jack Forster tries to answer the question, whether the pricing for the new 18K-yellowgold Accutron (available in Q3 of 2025) is correct or not -- and he turns any argument for or against that price in any direction and any other. There are some inconsistencies and arguments that could be put in doubt in his article, which I dont want to list here. Just two things: to argument with costs in luxury sector might go wrong, and the most important factor to chose when comparing historical prices with todays is the deflator -- and let me tell you: there are armies of economists debating since decades for or against this or that deflator or any other and there is no end of this debate in sight. Another big mistake Forster does, is to look at an obscure platinum-made top-model with integrated bracelet to anchor the historical price. Let me put it like that: I have doubts. I have doubts his chosen deflator is correct and I have doubts the chosen historical Accutron-model is relevant.
Instead, I want to offer a much simpler approach for comparing the price of the 1960-pioneer Accutron and the 2025 re-edition; an approach, which might give not much worse results but is much easier -- and not only William Ockham but me also prefer the easiest explanation.
As could be seen in the ad, the 18K-Accutron on a leather strap was USD300 in 1965. Today the announced prices is USD31'500. So todays price is approx factor 100 of the price 60 years ago. Great and obvious. Now, lets look at the single-largest cost-input of the 18K-watch -- back then and today -- and lets assume that this factor itself could be an acceptable deflator even beyond that: Gold. The price of Gold in 1965 was USD35 and today we hover quite close around that price multiplied by 100 -- USD3'500. Et voila.
All that and so easy? Maybe or maybe not. But what significant influence gold and its price had on the watch-industry in the last 60y could be read here:
- Gold & Watches, pt1: *klikk
- Gold & Watches, pt2: *klikk
- Gold & Watches, pt3: *klikk
... I am still holding the position that its influence and disruptive power was even larger than the invention of the quartz-watch...
Photo: Accutron, re-edition 2025 in 18K-yellowgold.
Ad 2025-06-15: By the way, the factor 100 is achieved by an avg inflation of 8% pa. over the 60y-period.