It's nice to dream, but one has to keep in context what that $195 would have bought in 1960. I'd also like to buy a brand-new 1960 Cadillac for $5K, but that isn't happening:
http://www.100megsfree4.com/cadillac/cad1960/cad60.htm
The way it is figured at MeasuringWorth.com, the CPI in 1960 was 29.62 vs. 224.94 in 2011. These are relative figures, so on average, things were 7.6 times cheaper in constant dollar terms then than now. So that $195 is inflated to $1,500 in 2011 money based on the CPI.
But that's not all, folks! There is a huge factor missing here.
Back in 1960, a US dollar was worth about 4.3 Swiss francs. Today, a dollar is worth less than one franc. That means that to convert dollars to francs to pay the Omega employees who made the watch (or at least the movement) is 4.5 times more expensive today in terms of US dollars that it was in 1960.
Add that into the equasion, and that $195 Omega in 1960 should cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $6,800 today, to be considered of the same relative value. Go look at the prices of new Omegas of the same position in the model line as the Seamaster Calendar. I don't think that MSRP is too far off.
By contrast, that $5,000 1960 Cadillac inflated by only the CPI is now about $38,000. That's about what you can get a 2012 Cadillac CTS for today, before taxes. Or maybe a nice used 1960 Cadillac?
This methodology is very simplistic and really shouldn't work, but oddly enough, it usually does,
gatorcpa
