{"id":214928,"date":"2026-04-01T19:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/214928\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T19:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:39:10","slug":"inside-the-2026-original-miami-beach-antique-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/214928\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the 2026 Original Miami Beach Antique Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThis story is from an installment of\u00a0In the Loupe<\/a>, our weekly insider newsletter about the best of the watch world.\u00a0Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tMorgan Cardet has exhibited at the Original Miami Beach Antique Show<\/a> (a.k.a. OMBAS)\u2014the marquee event in the vintage-watch world\u2014for 17 years alongside his business partner, Matthew Bain,<\/a> who has been a fixture at the show for the better part of three decades. But as Cardet prepared for the latest edition, held March 26\u201330 at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the state of the global economy, volatility in metals prices, and the show\u2019s shift from its traditional January slot to March introduced a degree of uncertainty.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe didn\u2019t know what to expect,\u201d Cardet tells Robb Report.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs it turns out, his concerns proved unfounded. \u201cHonestly, it\u2019s been the best year,\u201d Cardet says. \u201cReally record-breaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it came to what was selling, Cardet had a simple answer: \u201cEverything,\u201d he says. \u201cIt used to be Rolex and Cartier, and now it\u2019s a wider mix. People are buying ladies\u2019 watches again in a big way, and dress watches from Vacheron [Constantin] and Breguet from the \u201980s and \u201990s\u2014which was kind of a dead market for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdam Golden, founder of Miami-based Menta Watches<\/a>, had a similar takeaway. \u201cNo hyperbole, this was my best year,\u201d he says, noting that it was his ninth year exhibiting. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not just me saying that. Ask any of my colleagues\u2014we crushed it. It was a record year, in terms of the amount of people who showed up and the amount of sales we did. We probably sold around 60 watches over the course of the week, which is a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLike Cardet, Golden noticed demand spanned categories: \u201cObviously people are still hot on Cartiers and smaller-size Pateks, but we sold modern Nautiluses, vintage Nautiluses<\/a>, we sold two vintage Daytonas. It was really diverse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe attributes the breadth of sales to the growth of the market\u2014\u201cIt\u2019s not just Rolex, Patek, and AP anymore\u201d\u2014as well as increasingly sophisticated buyers and the confidence born of stability. \u201cThings haven\u2019t fluctuated so much,\u201d Golden says. \u201cAnd that might contribute to why everybody did so well. There\u2019s been a nice period of stability in the market, if you put aside the F.P. Journe of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Vintage<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tA look at one of the Audemars Piguet<\/a> watches at the show.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSacha and Roy Davidoff<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Sacha Davidoff, a Miami native who now runs a vintage watch dealership in Geneva with his brother, Roy, \u201cneo-vintage Audemars Piguet was the star of the show, and second was Patek Philippe\u2014classic Calatravas on straps,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Davidoff typically uses the show to buy\u2014dealer-to-dealer sales account for the lion\u2019s share of business at OMBAS\u2014he was so slammed this year, that he couldn\u2019t find time to leave the booth, and barely had time to use the restroom. \u201cSuch a good problem to have,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe TikTok-famous dealer Mike Nouveau<\/a> returned to the antique show for his second year as an exhibitor and spent about a third of his time hunting for pieces to acquire: \u201cThe normal stuff,\u201d he says. \u201cCartier, Patek, cool objects, maybe pocket watches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Michael<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMore models on display from Cartier and Patek Philippe.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Bain<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the sales front, Nouveau echoes Cardet, who joined him in a panel discussion about trends: \u201cI did a panel with Tania Edwards from Collectability and Morgan and we all agreed there were no trends,\u201d he says. \u201cNone of us could sense a specific trend. People were seemingly interested in everything from Royal Oaks to dress watches to mini [AP] Cobras.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOMBAS first-timer Randi Molosky, founder of For Future Reference Vintage, a curated line of unsigned vintage jewelry and timepieces, also reported a strong show on both the buying and selling fronts. Still, she found asking prices for basic Cartier watches rather unsettling.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEveryone is looking for a small ladies Cartier Tank on a black leather strap,\u201d she says. \u201cThe littler the watch, the more people want it. The pricing I found was outrageous.\u201d Molofsky also noted a surprising scarcity of vintage Bulgari Serpenti watches on Tubogas bracelets\u2014a model she knows well, as she wears a 1960s three-wrap gold style herself. \u201cI think I saw two at the show,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople kept coming up to me making cash offers for mine. Gone are the days when they can be found for anything approaching affordable prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tAuthors<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Victoria<\/p>\n

\n\t\tVictoria Gomelsky\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Victoria Gomelsky is editor-in-chief of the jewelry trade publication JCK and a frequent contributor to the New York Times and Robb Report. Her freelance work has appeared in AFAR, WSJ Magazine, The\u2026<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t
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