The Watch Collectors Club exists to help our members explore the wonderful, but occasionally intimidating world of watches. One of the most important aspects of collecting watches is actually buying them. You can buy watches from lots of places, including: physical stores, auctions, websites, and other collectors.

This guide will help you navigate buying a watch in a store. We’ve now run over 100 in-person events including many great evenings at watch boutiques. Despite us going regularly for our events, we still enjoy popping in to visit them when we get the chance.

Top Tips for Buying A Watch In A Store

Watch stores can be a great place to buy a new, second-hand and vintage watches.

Stores can be intimidating, but with a few easy tips, you will have the confidence to explore buying a watch in a store.

Watch stores exist to sell watches

Remember, stores exist to sell watches to customers. You are a potential customer of the store, and will be treated as such. The salesperson will answer questions for you and will happily show you what they have for sale. If they don’t the shop doesn’t deserve your custom.

Understand the type of store

Different stores sell different types of watches. Single-brand boutiques should be authorised dealers for a brand. This means they sell watches on behalf of a brand and should offer expert advice to customers. The watches are authentic and will be supplied with a warranty from the brand. This is a promise to fix the watch if anything happens to it in the first few years of ownership. Remember: warranties don’t cover damage caused by clumsiness!

Multi-brand boutiques should be authorised dealers for many watch brands, and whilst the staff might not be experts in all of them, they should be willing to help find the right watch for you. These stores will also offer a warranty on the watch you buy. Multi-brand boutiques are a great place to shop for a watch, as you can compare multiple styles of watches from different brands, at different price points – all in one shop!

Pre-owned watch stores will often sell watches from multiple brands, but are not affiliated with the brands themselves. They should have made sure that the watches they sell are authentic and in good working order.

Vintage watch stores sell old watches; many are experts in a particular brand of watch. They will be able to tell you about the history of the watches they sell, and the provenance.

Ask questions

Make sure you ask any questions that you want to. No question is stupid, and staff are there specifically to answer any questions you might have. If you want to know why one watch costs more than another, ask the sales staff. They should be able to tell you.

Some questions you should ask when buying new watches: how long is the warranty? Is the brand likely to replace to model soon? What could I buy instead of this?

Some questions you should ask when buying a used watch: how have you made sure this is an authentic watch? Does it come with a warranty, and the boxes and papers that were supplied when it was sold as a new watch? Has the watch been serviced by an accredited watch maker?

Some questions you should ask when buying a vintage watch: have any parts been replaced? This should be reflected in the price. Has the watch been serviced and authenticated? For a more in-depth guide to buying vintage, check out our blog post here.

If we hadn't asked Daniel over at Somlo about this watch he's selling, we wouldn't have known that it has a brass face and in incredibly rare

Compare watches

Whatever type of watch store you go into, compare the watches that they have for sale. Try them on, ask what the differences are between models, and why the prices are different, if they are. If you go into a store that sells multiple brands, try on watches from different brands to see which you prefer.

2 Breitling being compared

Don’t feel the need to buy on the same day

Staff in watch stores are used to customers needing a few visits to buy a watch. It is normal to take time over any purchase, especially one as potentially expensive and emotive as a watch.

You can’t always buy the watches that you see in stores

Sometimes, the watches you see in a store are not available for you to purchase there and then. This is the case with particularly popular models, where demand far outweighs supply. Many watches from Rolex, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin and Audemars Piguet are only available to potential customers who put their name on a waiting list. In many instances, it can take years for your turn to buy a watch when you’re on a waitlist. Some brands and watch stores will also restrict new watch releases to existing customers of the brand, who will have already bought multiple watches from them. These long waiting lists are a great opportunity for watch collectors to instead explore the rest of the watch market.

2 Vacheron Constantin Overseas available for viewing in store, but not for purchase

Visit a store with The Watch Collectors Club

We run regular events in London that are designed to help you get to know a boutique, meet the staff, and see the collection. These events make it easy to have fun in a boutique and are great social occassions. If you can’t make it to our events, check out your local watch store and see if you can build a relationship with staff. They’re often really keen to talk about watches and your collection. We also recommend watch browgin in airports as it’s a great way to kill time.

If you’d like to learn more about our events and the Club, you ‘ll find them all here.

This blog is a continuation of our “How to Buy a Watch” series. Check out the rest of the series here:

•      How to buy a watch at auction

•      How to buy a watch online

•      How to choose a good watch brand

•      How to buy a vintage watch