Robert Maron Watches review: Crooked Watch Dealer 6

It is about time that the world learns the truth about Robert Maron or Bob Maron, the watch dealer from Thousand Oaks, California. Most other secondary market watch dealers know Maron, and very few will come to his defense. However, because the luxury watch industry is so tight, news about bad practices or a rogue dealer ends up damaging business for everyone - even the authorized dealers that exist side by side with the secondary market watch brokers. It is because of this collective self interest that few will openly discuss Bob Maron's business dealings.

Bob Maron does know a great deal about watches. He also has been around for a long time, practically since the late 1980s, which was about the time that I met him. He aims to make market in important grand complications from Patek Philippe and other top tier brands as well as vintage Pateks and Rolex. His typical method of operating is to identify or create a new collector and sell to this victim a series of highly over-priced purportedly "rare" vintage Patek Philippe or Rolex watches (2499s, repeaters, perpetual calendars, etc.). Many of these are typically sourced from 1 or 2 Italian dealers. The new proud collector ends up overpaying to the point where he is priced out of the market, being forced to sell or trade with Maron, and thereby getting screwed even more. It becomes a death spiral. A few Hollywood celeberties (actors, musicians, etc.) have fallen into the Maron trap. Of course, Bob Maron will just as gladly stalk and hunt down simple, boring business people and professionals such as Los Angeles and New York physicians and engineers.

This is not the end of Maron's story. You might retort, and say: let the Buyer beware. Maron's clients could have talked to Aurel Bachs at Christies, Evan Zimmerman at Antiquorum, or John Reardon at Southeby's. True, they could have. However, Maron, like Madoff, would not stop at just selling insanely overpriced collectibles. Bob Maron sold and sells fakes or altered watches. His pupil, Trent Crowley, another dealer from Memphis, learned from the best. Fake Patek certificates, second backs missing, after-market vintage rolex parts, reworked vintage Pateks - all of these are the systemic business operations of Bob Maron. It is one of the reasons that most watch manufacturers have black-listed Bob Maron. The watch industry insiders consider him to be the most dishonest and compromising watch dealer in the marketplace.

Strangely, just as the other watch dealers are short-sighted and bovine in their behavior when it comes to protecting the integrity of their industry, the watch collectors and Maron's victims in particular are surprisingly forgiving. In other industries, Maron would have gotten sued much more often. In other countries/parts of the world Bob Maron would have probably faced a fate much worse than lawsuits or criminal investigations. Yet, many of Bob Maron's former clients, just curse him, and move on. They either leave the marketplace altogether or move to other dealers or auction houses. In fact, and somewhat ironically, one of Maron's biggest victims was the auction house Antiquorum. Maron almost raped it out of existence some years ago. Now, fortunately, Antiquorum has re-established its reputation as one of the top Auctioneers for horological instruments.

Why does Robert Maron act this way, one might ask? Well, why do rapists rape? Why do bank robbers rob banks? Bob Maron is obviously a trecherous sociopath. He is clever enough to get to Hollywood celeberties (not many, but enough to promote himself as credible). He gets articles published about how amazing he is when it comes to procuring rare watches. I don't disagree that despite his arrogance and sleazyness, he is persuasive, confident, and knowledgeable. But, isn't every good fraudster? The other reason why Bobby Maron makes 60% to 80% on the big watches he sells, is because he is utterly broke. Yes, this secret needs to come out. Maron is so leveraged that describing him as broke is actually an understatement. He needs to rip people off to stay afloat to get to his next collector/victim. It is tantamount to a drug addiction for Bobby Maron.

So, now the truth is out. It should no longer be wispered at watch shows attended mostly by dealers. It should be out there on the world wide web open to criticism, rebuttels, insults. Hopefully, this complaint on not the greatest complaint web site will draw out other former collectors and dealers.