Asset valuation index 1980 to 2025 · the Marriage Frankenwatch versus the Verifiable Factory Original · diverging at the Forensic Awakening · the structural case for buying provenance.
Two lines, one starting point. For thirty years, composite Frankenwatches and verified factory-original specimens traded as a single market. After 2005, period-correct scholarship, dedicated comparison archives, and a new generation of investigative authentication splintered the category. The verifiable specimen broke into exponential ascent. The Frankenwatch plateaued, then declined as forensic transparency caught up with old-school dealer narratives. The contemporary premium for verifiable provenance over a comparable Frankenwatch is approximately fourteen times.