OR... the Internet and eBay have made watch collecting accessible and broken down a lot of the barriers to entry that used to exist, and were jealously guarded by gatekeepers. Yes, the likelihood is that most collectible watches now cost more, but the prices are probably much closer to a far value for the seller as well as the buyer due to the lessening of the huge information asymmetry that used to exist. Now, the watch you found in grandpa's attic when looking through his estate after he died can be researched and priced accurately using the Internet, and it becomes much harder for unscrupulous dealers to obtain it for peanuts.
> "Oh, these Rolex Milgauss watches with a certificate showing it was presented to your grandpa while he worked at CERN? [0] Yeah, there are loads and loads of them floating about, sorry, they're really common. If it was new, could be worth about five or six thousand pounds [1] but this is old, used and pretty well worn so probably only worth a couple of thousand quid, but I'll take it off your hands for GBP 2500.00 just to be nice, ok?"
0. https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/christies-watches-online-... - Estimate was from 10K to 14K and sold for GBP 17000.00
1. https://www.rolex.com/watches/milgauss/m116400gv-0002.html - Brand new from Rolex is GBP 6300.00