The diving watch, which is arguably the most popular type of modern watch, has a fascinating history, involving spies, underwater explosives, and sabotage. This is part of that story. 

The first watch that was built for diving was the Omega Marine, which was commercially produced  from 1932. It had a rectangular case and was capable of remaining waterproof up to 135m below the surface. 

Around the same time, Panerai was commissioned by the Italian navy to design a watch for its special underwater diving force, called the Regia Marina. These watches were built for Panerai by Rolex, using a cushion case, and a new type of “lume” to make it easier to tell the time in murky water. Over the next 30 years, these watches would be refined and come to be known as the Radiomir. This is now one of the two models that Panerai is now known for. 

The Italian Regia Marina wasn’t the only European military diving force. France also established an elite underwater fighting unit. 

One of its two initial leaders was Captain Robert Maloubier who has a particularly interesting story. During the second world war, he worked for a secret British espionage unit called the Special Operations Executive. This unit was tasked by Winston Churchill with sabotaging and spying on Nazi forces in occupied Europe. Maloubier was a particularly effective agent, destroying a German-captured power station and steel plant. During one mission he was shot in the lung and intestines yet managed to evade capture and trek 9 miles to an allied hospital. Six months later he parachuted into France again to undertake another mission. After the war, Maloubier helped to set up the Nageurs de Combat, or “combat swimmers”. This is the French version of the US Navy Seals, and they have been involved in a long list of daring missions over their history, including saving lots of ships from pirates. 

When Captain Maloubier was ordering equipment for his new force of underwater soldiers he had everything he needed, except a watch with which to time missions. Alongside Lieutenant Claude Riffaud, he sketched out the features and functions the watch needed. This included a bezel that could turn clockwise and anti-clockwise and lock, and a clear, large, easy-to-read dial with very bright luminous hands and indices to make it easy to read underwater. 

The French watchmakers he approached did not see a commercial future for the watch, so they approached Jean-Jacques Fiechter who was the CEO of Blancpain, and a keen diver. Blancpain set about turning the designs into a watch, which would eventually be issued to the Nageurs de Combat. This model was called the Fifty Fathoms, which was the depth to which the watch would remain waterproof. This is a little over 91 meters. 

 The model would prove so successful that a US-made version was commissioned by the US Navy Seals, built by Tornek-Rayville. Models were also issued to Spanish, German and Israeli military divers. 

The Lasting Legacy of The Fifty Fathoms 

Unlike many Swiss watches, the Fifty Fathoms was not initially sold in fancy jewellery shops. Instead it was sold in specialist diving equipment stores, cementing the watch as a diving tool first, and a wristwatch second. Within a few years of its release, almost every major swiss brand, including Rolex, had released a diving watch with a similar set of characteristics to the military-spec Blancpain Fifty Fathoms. 

Despite diving becoming an increasingly civilian activity, the functionality required by Bob Maloubier and Claude Riffaud made diving watches an incredibly useful tool for the modern diver. If you want to find out more about why diving watches are so popular now you can read a blog here. 

If you’re interested in finding out more about the history of the Fifty Fathoms, there is a great video documentary that you can watch here. Or, if you want to see an original Blancpain Fifty Fathoms in its natural habitat, you can watch Jacques Cousteau’s most famous film: Le Monde du silence. All of the divers wore a fifty fathoms watch during filming. 

If you found this story interesting, and want to learn more – let us know by signing up to our mailing list and coming to one of our in-person or virtual events. Details of those can be found here. 

We need people to build this community. If you know of anyone who likes watches, of any kind, please let them know about us, and tell them about our events. It'd be great to have them along.

The Frogmen and the Birth of Military Diving Watches

At our Meetup last week a new member came along for the first time. We were delighted to welcome her, and we joined her in being excited about her first watch purchase. She bought it recently from an antique dealer at the famous Portobello Road market here in London. It is an automatic, or self-winding, Seiko. It looks like it dates from the 1970s, and that's what the dealer thought. It works well, but the automatic rotor rattles a bit, and there is a question mark about the crown.

After making the purchase, the owner is understandably keen to learn more about it but is so early on her collecting journey she had no idea what to do next. Fortunately, she has come to the right place. The Watch Collectors' Club is here to help people learn about watches, whatever their starting point. This Blog Post will outline how to start a watch research project.

There are a number of straightforward steps to follow, and then the rest of it is simply reading the information you uncover, checking the details as closely as possible.

Gather all of the information you have about the watch into one place 

How to search for the year of manufacture

First, I collected the information I had, from the photos I took at our Meetup Event. I have the following from the front: 

    Seiko Automatic, with Date Function (in the little window at the 3 o'clock position).

I have the following information from the case back:

The number 342433 which is printed in such a way I think it may be the serial number of this particular watch. Before the 1990s serial numbers were usually just a long number with no letters or other symbols.

SGP Back St Steel - this is telling me that the caseback is Stainless Steel.

7005-2000. This is printed in such a way I think it might be the Model Reference number. How do I know? Model Reference numbers often have a - or a / in them. Serial numbers before the 1990s mostly do not.

Japan-A - this probably means it was made and cased in Japan.

Now I turn to Google. Here is my first search term:

Here are some of the links it suggests. How to know which ones to open? Well if you are a beginner, I suggest simply opening the first 5 that are not ads or from famous retail platforms such as Ebay. 

Read the links to see if they are talking about a watch like this one. On this occasion, they are! This is a great result.

I was correct that 7005-2000 was the model number, so the other number is probably a serial number.

These watches appear pretty common if there are plenty of articles and pictures of them.

This is great, as I can now try to find one that matches mine exactly, so I can check if all the parts are correct.

Of the articles, these two are the most valuable:

https://www.watch-wiki.net/doku.php?id=seiko_7000

This is a watch Encyclopaedia that summarises things pretty well. It tells me straight away the range of years these watches were produced and explains the whole "family" of these movements and their different functions.

http://people.timezone.com/msandler/Articles/Workbench/Seiko/Seiko7005.html

This article is a technical restoration of the movement, which is interesting but most helpful for the third paragraph, which also outlines the details of the movement family.

We are narrowing down our watch! We have two independent sources of information for this watch family. That is enough at this stage.

Now we go back to Google. We Google the full name of the watch again and click the Images tab. This shows us many watches from the 7005-2000 family. We quickly see many that look like ours. Google will now always serve commercial links first, as that's how it makes money. Look below that for more informative links, even in Google Images.

We then want to see if we can narrow down the date further. Since we have confirmed this is a real Seiko and we think we have a serial number, we can google again.

This time we Google "Vintage Seiko reference numbers".

This site is one of the answers, so I click on it and it looks legitimate. How do I know? Well most reference number searches reveal amateur run sites, as the watch brands NEVER ever give them out. Collectors have to build these resources themselves. For many brands you just get a table of a link to a PDF, but this looks more helpful. To be absolutely sure we could search multiple answers to this and check in each. For now, let's put our number 342433 in and see what happens.

We have a suggestion of a year. We could now cross reference this on another website, but I'm pretty happy with this. We have a watch from April 1973.

We note this down wherever we are noting it, probably just our heads for most of us. Some collectors are organised and have a digital or physical notebook with all their watch info in. It's a wonderfully personal aspect to the hobby.

Now I go back to my images tab. I want to add 1973 there to see if it brings up a narrower selection. It does!

The owner of this watch had one outstanding question; whether the crown, which is used to wind it and set the hands, is original or a replacement? To work this out we need to examine pictures very carefully.  Fortunately, there are more sources of pictures than just google images. 

To gather more images to compare your watch to, search for "Seiko 7005-2000" on these three websites: 

You can then filter for the year if you like, but there should be enough to give you an idea. If you have a really rare watch there may not be any additional images, and you have to take other steps, but for this search we have plenty of results.

Now we can go through listings that look similar to our watch and zoom in on the crown. By comparing a few we can probably judge which one is the original one. It should fit the case and maybe have an engraving on it. In this example, it looks pretty straightforward. It is the right size but is not a matching metal to the gold of the case. Therefore it is probably a replacement.

More can be learned about these watches in general, but only by broader research. What do I mean by this?  Here are the following things the owner could do to learn more: 

Google more articles about servicing and repairing this model of watch, to find more like the one above detailing the insides, components, and giving commentary on quality/replacements/problems.

Take the watch to a watchmaker for a service, ask for a full condition report, then ask for it to be made good. 

Search for a replacement crown, either on its own or in a similar model that is being sold for parts (maybe the cheapest and quickest option for a watch like this).

Search Seiko forums for owners of the same model and read about their experience owning, repairing and servicing them, or make a post asking for their comments.

Create price alerts on WatchPatrol and eBay to alert them whenever a new model of this kind comes up for sale at or under a certain price. This would lead to a good knowledge over time of the market price for watches of differing quality.

This is a straightforward example of how to research a watch, and this is a fairly common model with only one unusual part, the crown. For some watches, a lot more digging is required, but the principles are the same: 

Search smartly, find facts, search again, inspect images, search again.

If you get stuck or need help with anything, do reach out to us here at The Watch Collectors' Club as we can probably point you to some interesting resources you may not have found. 

We exist to help people learn and share, and hearing from people how they do their research, what methods and resources they've found, is always helpful. If you come to our meetups, either in-person on online, this is the kind of thing that comes up, and you never know how someone else's search might inspire yours! That's the fun of learning with a community, and we hope that The Watch Collectors' Club can power this interactive learning as well as providing straightforward guidance. We'd be delighted to hear all about your research process at one of our next meetups, which will be in-person in London on Tuesday March 8th, or online via Zoom on Monday March 21st.

If you have anything you need help with, let us know directly, we are happy to try and answer any questions. If you know anyone who might be interested in The Watch Collectors' Club, please send them our emails, and tell them to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

How do I find out about this vintage watch? What do I do to learn about this vintage watch?

How to Research a Vintage Watch

A Step by step guide to finding out more about your watch

Yesterday, we held an in-person event in Central London. Attending events in person is a great way to learn more about watches. You get to see a huge variety of watches, and talk to passionate, interesting people. We also do a few educational talks during the evening. We’ll be holding in-person events every month as we start to build the club. To ensure that you don’t miss out, sign up to our mailing list here. You can also see all our upcoming events here. If you can’t join us in person you can attend our monthly virtual events. We have one this Sunday, 13th February. The link to sign-up is here. Read on to see some of the amazing watches that our members brought along. 

Watch designs don’t change much over time. You can see that here, with two Rolex watches, built 70 years apart. One is the new Rolex Explorer, with a steel and gold case and bracelet. The Explorer was one of the watches that Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay took to the top of Everest. When this model was released in 2021, it met with mixed reviews; however, in person the watch is stunning. Interestingly, it’s the only Rolex time-only tool watch that they make with a precious metal. 

The watch it’s compared to is a Rolex Oyster Royal. The Oyster Royal was released in 1933, and Rolex marketed it heavily towards doctors. Unlike the other Rolex Oyster models, the Oyster Royal has the seconds-hand centrally-located, rather than on a sub-dial. Rolex thought it would be easier for Doctor’s to read the seconds this way. Despite being very different looking watches, of different sizes, you can see just how similar the case design is on both. 

Rolex is the most famous watch company in the world; however, they are not the only brand that makes great watches. Our in-person events are a great way to see watches with amazing stories from a wide variety of different brands. I wanted to highlight two in particular. The first is a vintage Zenith El Primero Chronograph from 1969. This watch has a fascinating story, which you can read about in detail over here. The tools to make the movement for this watch were hidden in the attic of Zenith during the quartz crisis, and were rediscovered during the 1980’s. I’ve never seen one of these in person. This particular model is in perfect condition, and I was surprised at how comfortable it was to wear. 

The second watch is a Oris Big Crown Pointer Date. However, this is quite a special version of the standard watch. Oris have been running a “Change for the better” campaign, to find more sustainable materials for watch making. They’ve made watch dials from recycled plastic from the ocean, and have been donating some of their profits to protect coral reefs. This model is a collaboration with Cervo Volante, a Swiss company focused on creating sustainable materials. For this watch, they have provided a sustainably sourced deer-hide strap, which offsets the unique blue dial perfectly. Whilst the model is not a limited edition, due to manufacturing constraints, we think this might be the only version of this watch in the UK at the moment. 

The craziest watch we saw was this Orient multi-year calendar. Despite having lots of watch lovers in the room, no one could work out what this watch actually does. Luckily, I found a blog this morning that explains it. A multi-year calendar allows you to work out, using a variety of moveable disks, what day of the week any date of the year will fall on for any year. For example, if you want to know what day of the week your birthday is in 2024, the watch can work it out. Amazing, particularly considering the watch costs less than £200

We are excited to be able to hold more regular events and are looking forward to meeting more of you in person over the coming months. Make sure to sign-up to our weekly email, which not only provides a short educational blog exploring an aspect of the watch world, but also flags any upcoming events. 

Finally, we are building a community for all watch lovers. Please send this email on to your friends and family and help us make this the place to come and learn about watches. 

This week we tried to organise a visit to the Audemars Piguet Townhouse in London to have a look at the new range of Royal Oak watches and were told that there wasn’t a free appointment at any time in February. It may seem odd to new collectors, but you often can’t walk into a boutique and buy the watch you want. This is because some watches have become so hyped-up that they are unobtainable.  

You may have heard of some of those watches: Rolex Daytona, Patek Philippe Nautilus, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, Vacheron Constantin Overseas. The list goes on, growing as more and more watches become nearly impossible to buy new.

The rumour is that to buy a Nautilus, you have to buy at least 5 complicated watches from Patek Philippe before they even consider selling you a Nautilus. The cheapest complicated watch Patek sell is £30,000. Even then, you’ll likely have to wait for many years to be allocated a Nautilus by the brand, or one of the retailers. Because it’s so difficult to buy The Nautilus, and any of the “hype” watches, they are sold on the second-hand market for a huge mark-up to their new price. 

There are a variety of reasons, but it is usually down to a combination of some of the reasons below. 

The first is fashion. Many of these watches are popular because they are fashionable. They are fashionable for all sorts of reasons, such as: design, price, covet-ability. The rise of social media has driven this. It is now incredibly easy to see watches on your phone that 5 years ago were almost totally unknown, and with a bigger audience to see these watches, there is a bigger audience to buy these watches. 

The second is scarcity. There is much more demand for these watches than can be met by supply. Luxury watches are built in factories by very skilled watch makers. The only way a watch brand can make more watches is to build more factories, which are very expensive, or train new watch makers, which takes many years. Because demand is greater than supply prices go up. 

The third is price itself. Some watches have become Veblen goods. This is a term used in economics to highlight when demand for something increases because it is an expensive item. Because prices are going up, watches are increasingly being seen as an investment by some people, which increases demand, which increases prices, which increases demand. You can see how mania can quickly grip the watch industry. 

The Ultimate Hype Watch – Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711 – Tiffany 170th Anniversary Edition 

The hype surrounding the Patek Philippe Nautilus in particular has recently come to a head. The brand discontinued its most popular Nautilus model, the Ref: 5711. Prices for second-hand Ref: 5711s went through the roof, and they now cost ten times the price they did new. 

However, shortly after discontinuing the model, Patek announced that there would in fact be one final run of the watch, sold exclusively through its biggest US distributor, Tiffany & Co. 170 watches would be made to celebrate the 170-year partnership between the two brands, they would have Tiffany Blue dials and all of them would be allocated by Tiffany to their best clients, most of whom will have spent millions of dollars at Tiffany. However, one watch would be held back and auctioned for charity. This watch sold at auction for $6.5m, and there is a great article here to walk through the drama surrounding the auction. What is so ridiculous about this price, is that the watch was sold to the 169 people allocated one by Tiffany for $50k. This story is the ultimate reflection of the hype that surrounds certain models, and reading the backlash against Patek Philippe for getting swept up in the hype by releasing this model has been fascinating. 

There is a good chance that if you are looking at buying a luxury watch in the next few years, that you might be interested in buying a watch that because of hype, is not going to be possible for you to buy new from a dealer, at retail price. For example, you might want to buy a standard Rolex Submariner. You almost certainly won’t be able to get one from a Rolex dealer, because every Rolex sports model is now a hype watch. 

However, whilst most buyers are focusing on the hype watches, they are ignoring the rest of the watch world. Which is huge, varied, and full of interesting brands and models to explore. At The Watch Collectors’ Club, we are here to help you explore all that the watch world has to offer. We can teach you about high-quality vintage watches from Universal Geneve and Omega, the great stories and collaborations between Bremont and the British armed forces, Tag Heuer’s racing pedigree, and the incredible value offered by Seiko and G-Shock. Whilst everyone else is coveting what they can’t have, we can help you find more interesting watches whatever your budget.

The best way to do this is to come to one of our in-person or virtual events. The next in-person event is 10th February. If you can’t attend in-person, we are holding a virtual event on 13th February. We are building a community of watch lovers, and communities are always more fun if they are big. To help us, please invite your friends, and share this article with anyone you know who loves watches. 

Why are some watches are so over-hyped? We explore thehype behind the Patek Philippe Nautilus.

The Rise of Hype Watches – and What It Means for You

The Watch Collectors' Club runs regular events where we teach members a little about watches, watchmakers, watch

A club for everyone who likes watches.

Watchmakers and brands are constantly looking to bring something new to their catalogue. This means they often look to celebrate historic milestones in their past with anniversaries in the present. To do this they create special one-off watches to celebrate the anniversary of something, such as the year the watch was launched. They can also commemorate famous events connected to a watch, or simply broader anniversaries of the company or something connected to the company. We are not talking about watches bought as an anniversary gift for someone, but a watch that celebrates an anniversary important to the watch brand. This year (2023) contains many anniversaries of important watches, including Casio G-Shock, Swatch, Blancpain and even Rolex, who have never yet made an anniversary model, but who knows if this year is a first?

Anniversary watches often celebrate the anniversary of the company that makes them. Patek Phillippe, the high-end Swiss Manufacturer has celebrated their company founding date repeatedly, producing a limited edition timepiece for their 150th Anniversary in 1989, and in 2014 they introduced their most complicated wristwatch in production, the Grandmaster Chime for their 175th Anniversary. It has 21 different functions and in order to order one you have to pass an interview with the company in Geneva. To get that interview you have to already be a really big client. They even made pop star Ed Sheeran have an interview (yes really!). 

Another great example of a series of famous anniversary watches is the Omega Speedmaster range. They have created a very large number to commemorate anniversaries of different versions of the Apollo space missions for which they are most famously associated with, being the first watch on the moon and the first watch on a long spacewalk. It's quite entertaining to see just how many special edition Omega Speedmasters there are, but this large number is great for collectors as there are some very cool dial designs. Omega has produced a new limited edition celebrating the Apollo XI mission that landed on the moon every five years since the 20th anniversary in 1989, so that's seven just for one mission! 

50th Anniversaries are a very common reason for watch brands to celebrate their historic models. The Jaeger LeCoultre Polaris dive watch relaunch on its fiftieth anniversary was a particularly well-received highlight of a popular function, the alarm, in the very stylish dive watch design. The range is still doing very well for them today. 

2023 sees many watch models have their 70th anniversary, including two of the most important and famous dive watches of all time; the Rolex submariner and the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms. Rolex does not do "anniversary watches" but the world is eagerly anticipating their new models for the year to see if they commemorate the Submariner's first year of production in 1953. Luxury brand Blancpain has already released their new version of their famous Dive watch, the Fifty Fathoms, with an interesting new complication, a three-hour timer for divers using high-tech rebreather technology. This fun update is the latest addition to their very popular (but also very large and expensive) dive watch range.

Some brands celebrate the anniversaries of their own collaborations, including Patek Philippe. At the end of 2021 they created what is probably the most hyped watch ever to celebrate the Anniversary of their relationship with US Jewellery Retailer Tiffany & Co., a version of their Nautilus model with a Tiffany Blue dial.

Even young brands can create anniversary watches. The British watch brand William Wood, which makes firefighting-themed watches, used its five-year anniversary to create and sell a brand new watch for charity. This auction was a great success and the watch is truly unique, in both colour and dial design.

Anniversary watches are and interesting and quite common way for brands to dream up new versions of past classics. If there is a  brand or watch model that you particularly love it is worth searching for any anniversary models to see if they have interesting designs. It's also worth noting any coming up that you might want to reserve buying power for! Anniversaries are a fun and interesting discussion point for collectors of all kinds. Keep your eyes open at this year's Watches and Wonders watch show at the end of March for any interesting ones to go alongside the Blancpain. 

We explain anniversary watches and special watches made for anniversaries

What are Anniversary Watches?

We explore the watches brand use to celebrate significant historic anniversaries.

Many watch brands talk about the “finishing” of their watches, but what does that mean? Simply, it means the decoration applied to part of a watch. High horology brands talk a lot about their fine finishing, often applied to the case, hands, and movement. A previous blog explored the finishing that you can find on watch dials. 

This blog will briefly explore the various type of movement finishing that watch brands use for their movements.

All watches have movements. Some of these are very simple, and some are very complicated. Some are powered by quartz movements, whilst others are automatic. There are lots of ways in which movements can differ. How a manufacturer finishes the movement is just another one. 

Finishing is simply decoration of the movement. Sometimes manufacturers just use simple finishing, usually completed by a machine, to keep costs down. Other manufacturers might employ highly-skilled watchmakers to finish movements by hand. 

The way in which a watch manufacturer finishes a watch usually reflects the quality of the watch. Really high quality and expensive watches will often have movements finished with a variety of patterns, whilst cheaper watches will have simpler movement finishing. There are obviously some exceptions to this where cheaper watches have really beautiful movements.  

 A simple way to finish a movement is to polish it. It is unlikely that the whole movement will be polished, but some of the component parts might be. The bridge is a part that is commonly polished. 

Some watchmakers will spend a huge amount of time polishing parts of the movement by hand until they have a mirror-finish. This is very striking and requires a lot skill to achieve. Grand Seiko watches often have mirror-finished components to their movements, as you can see in the image below. This type of polishing is called Some polishers are able to create an effect called black-polish. This is achieved when metal is polished to such an extent that it appears black. It is very impressive to see!  

The opposite to polishing is graining, or brushing a movement. Like dragging a rake through sand, a machine with a sharp edge is dragged over the metal. This leaves it with tiny etches, giving the metal a matte finish. The grain is often in a straight line, however, there are various patterns that watchmakers might grain or brush a movement in, such as circular or Geneva stripes. 

Watchmakers achieve another matte effect by sandblasting the movement. This involves blasting compressed air and sand against the metal in order to cover it with lots of tiny craters. This is a very smart finish when combined with polished components. 

Cotes de Geneve, or the Geneva stripes, are a high-end brushed finished that you often see on watch movements through crystal case-backs. To create the effect, the watchmaker either uses a lathe, or a rectifying rule (a bit like the arm of a turntable). This is incredibly difficult to execute cleanly and evenly, so this finish is mostly used on expensive watches. It is also a useful finish, as it hides any marks on the movement, and traps small particles of dust.

Like Cotes de Geneve, perlage is a difficult effect to achieve. The watchmaker uses a rotating head, pressing it onto the metal to create an overlapping pattern of circles on the movement. It is very difficult to achieve a consistent pattern across the movement, so this finishing is often only used on expensive watches. 

Anglage, chamfering, or bevelling the edge of a movement component all mean the same thing. It means to polish the edge of a component, typically on a 45degree angle, to stop the edge of the component breaking off and damaging the movement. The top of a bevelled component is usually brushed in contrast to the polished, sloping sides. See picture below.

Guilloche is one of the most difficult movement finishes to achieve. It involves carving extremely precise patterns into the metal using a rose engine lathe. The lathe operator has to been incredibly skilled to achieve a consistent pattern. The process needs to be completed perfectly first time – so it is only used on the most expensive watch movements. 

At The Watch Collectors’ Club, we don’t have a favourite movement finish. We enjoy seeing the wide variety of finishes that watchmakers use to decorate the movements they put into their watches. They highlight the talent of watchmakers, and the pride that manufacturers take in the quality of their engineering. The best way to see some of the different movement finishes is to come to one of our events. 

The Different Finishes On Watch Movements

Buying pre-owned watches can be a fun, affordable and exciting way to add to your collection, but many people are wary of buying anything other than new watches. There are many reasons to be cautious of pre-owned watches as you can't know for sure how they've been used or treated by previous owners. They might not come with the original paperwork and packaging or any indication of when they were last serviced and what time they keep.

One solution to this problem is to buy a certified pre-owned watch; one that has been through an authorised service centre of the brand in question and therefore has been guaranteed to be both the watch it is supposed to be and has a guarantee of accuracy following a service.

There are many ways to buy a pre-owned watch. Firstly, remember that the category has many other names, including second-hand, vintage, antique and collectable. All of these terms mean a watch that's not being purchased brand new from a retailer or brand. There are a huge number of ways to buy one, including from dealers, online platforms, auction sites, auction houses, watch forums, and retailers with a pre-owned section.

We recommend caution when buying a pre-owned watch of any type or age, and of course, the more valuable or old the watch, the more caution needs to be taken. The older a watch, the more time has passed in which things could have gone wrong, or more dodgy things could have been done to the watch (for example the use of non-standard parts during a service). For very valuable watches, there is more incentive for unauthorised parts to be used, or even for the whole watch to be fake.

The most important thing to remember is the phrase "Buy the Seller not the Watch". Carefully analyse whether the seller seems credible, has a good track record and good reviews, and is accurately showing everything you need to know about the watch. Never be afraid to ask questions. If a seller is unwilling or unable to answer your questions, that may be a bad sign.

When it comes to dealers and retailers selling pre-owned watches, they will often have stores where you can go and look at the timepieces, and these stores lend a large amount of credibility to the sale. However, you still must do your research, make sure they do not have bad reviews or claims that they are selling dodgy watches, and satisfy yourself that they have a good reputation.

This is what we call a watch that has the highest possible guarantee of originality and value when it is pre-owned. This is for two reasons; the first is that the watch has been serviced in a service centre authorised by the same brand or manufacturer that made the watch. This means that the brand sets standards and processes the service centre must follow when servicing a watch under this scheme and then audits the service centre to make sure they are staying up to those standards. Every watch service is different, and the resulting standard depends on the type and age of the watch, but the brand standards indicate the level that should be achieved to maintain the brand's reputation. For example for Rolex, the testing that they do on a watch after a service using specialised and expensive machinery is to a higher standard than other brands.

The second is that watches serviced in an authorised service centre have to be authentic, and when serviced only authentic parts from that manufacturer can be used to repair it. This means that any watch that's gone through the process can be seen to be as close to 100% authentic as possible for a pre-owned watch. 

The reason it is called Certified is that then the retailer is essentially offering a certificate of service to state that these two things are true. The watch is as close to 100% authentic as possible and it is fully serviced to the brand's standard for that model and age of watch.

Where can you find Certified Pre-Owned Watches?

There are three main places to find these watches. The first is at certain brand boutiques themselves. For example, Vacheron Constantin have sold pre-owned models in some of their main boutiques for a while now, including in the London Bond Street boutique. The second is at authorised dealers that also have an authorised service centre for a brand. Longines have multiple authorised service centres across the UK. If you buy a pre-owned Longines watch from one of the Authorised Dealers that have an associated approved Longines service centre, then you can be sure the watch will be certified pre-owned. It will likely be sold with an official Longines service receipt, or you can ask to see it before buying. 

Finally, there is a new scheme from Rolex, recently launched in conjunction with the retailer Bucherer. This scheme is important because while Bucherer has always offered officially authorised servicing of Rolex watches and a certified pre-owned service for the watches it sells from a variety of brands, the new scheme involves official Rolex paperwork and guarantees authenticity. Unlike many other watch brands, Rolex do not offer any extracts from their archives to authenticate a watch, or provide any way of authenticating a watch other than an official service. Rolex believes that this scheme will provide anyone looking for a pre-owned Rolex the best possible experience, and the scheme is simply called Rolex Certified Pre-Owned.

Are they more expensive than other pre-owned watches?

Across the pre-owned market, watches trade at a premium for exceptional quality and the most interesting provenance (which means its ownership history). They also trade at a premium when they have the original box and papers, which means things like the original user manual, guarantee certificate, and even the receipt from the retailer they were bought from. 

Similar to the watches themselves, all of these things get damaged or lost over the years, and they can be faked, so it is normal that a pre-owned watch of any age with the correct papers will be more valuable than one without. 

If a watch has been serviced at an authorised service centre and is therefore known to be fully accurate and reliable, it will also trade at a premium to similar watches that have not been serviced at one. The new Rolex scheme comes with a new set of paperwork and tags that adds to this guarantee. It is therefore fair that these watches may trade at a premium to those of similar quality but without the certified servicing process.

Generally, the more that is known about a watch's past and service history the more valuable it will be compared to similar models. We see similar effects in markets for other pre-owned goods such as cars or antiques. The size of the premium will always be dependent on the market, but it is fair to say that the entire category of certified pre-owned watches should trade at some premium to the rest of the market. 

Buying certified pre-owned is just one way to buy pre-owned watches and you should expect to pay a premium for a watch sold this way versus the same model sold in other channels. The Certified pre-owned market can certainly give the highest level of peace of mind, and the watch may not require servicing for many years. The Watch Collectors' Club is here to help those who love all kinds, of watches, new and old, certified or of uncertain provenance, and we are happy to run events that explore all different aspects of the watch world. If you have any further questions about buying certified pre-owned please do not hesitate to get in touch.

How to buy a certified pre-owned watch. Why you should buy certified pre-owned watches.

Buying Certified Pre-Owned Watches

We explain what it means to buy a Certified Pre-Owned Watch

Join us at our first event with Europe's largest pre-owned watch retailer Watchfinder for an evening exploring their Royal Exchange Store in the City of London. On Thursday 27th April from 6:00PM you'll learn all about how Watchfinder works, what they stock and what to expect when you buy or sell from them. We'll also give a short talk on the History of the Rolex Submariner and have a special selection in store of recent models. You'll be able to try them all on and finally decide which Submariner suits you best!

There are only 20 spaces at this event so please sign up ASAP and please also let us know if you change your mind or can no longer make it. We will not admit anyone not signed up, so if you have friends who are interested please ask them to sign up here.

Join us to see a large range of Rolex Submariners and learn the history of the watch.

Rolex Submariner Event, History of the Rolex Submariner

Exploring the Rolex Submariner

Exploring the Rolex Submariner with Watchfinder

Join us on Thursday April 20th from 6:00PM for a new format of event at Mortimer House, a stylish member's co-working space in London's Fitzrovia. At this event we will give a talk all about how to get started with watch collecting, exploring the different types of collecting, what to look out for, and how to talk about your love of watches in an interesting way. After the talk, we will mingle and you'll be able to share your watch stories, learn from other watch lovers, and get a taste of what our regular Meetups are like. 

Mortimer House is a smart co-working club in Fitzrovia set in a fabulous art deco building, and we'll have the upstairs bar area and terrace to enjoy for the evening.

Join us for an Introductory talk on watch collecting at a fabulous art deco Members Club in London's Fitzrovia.

A Simple Guide to Watch Collecting Event at Mortimer House

Rolex's Post War Innovation Explosion Online Event. Join us on Zoom on Monday 18th April for the second in our series looking at Rolex's fantastic history and this time we will talk about the introduction of their most famous tool watches in the 1950s and 60s like the Submariner, Explorer and Daytona. We'll give a short online talk and then open the floor for a fun discussion of what we like bout them and why they've stood the test of time.

We will send out the Zoom details to all those registered approximatley one hour before the event starts at 8:00PM

Join us on Zoom to explore Rolex's legendary models such as the Day-Date, Submariner, GMT and Explorer

An online Zoom event to discuss Rolex's post war innovation

Exploreing Rolex's Post-war Innovation Short Talk and Discussion

Exploring Rolex's Post War Innovation - Short Talk and Discussion

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