Waiting for a better market is guessing, and nobody who promises otherwise knows. What you can decide: selling before a service falls due, before the papers go missing and before more wear accumulates. This article is about those three.
The honest answer to this question is an uncomfortable one: I do not know what the market will do next year, and nor does anybody else. Anyone who tells you to wait a while or to act now is guessing, and selling you that guess as knowledge.
That is not modesty but a fact about this market. The prices of pre-owned luxury watches hang on all sorts of things nobody has a grip on: what the brands take out of production, how the economy runs, which model suddenly turns up in a series. Prediction is not possible.
What is possible, and what this article therefore does: look at the things you do control. Because they exist, they are concrete, and they are the answer to the question.
1. Before a service falls due
This is the most important of the lot and most people do not think of it. A mechanical watch needs periodic servicing, and a watch whose last service was long ago is, to the next buyer, a watch with a bill in prospect.
Two sides, and the arithmetic is not complicated:
- Sell shortly before the service falls due and the next owner buys that maintenance along with it. He factors it into what he pays.
- Have the service done first and then sell and you have a fresh service receipt, which helps. But you rarely get the whole cost of that service back in the sale price.
What we see in practice: if the watch still runs well and you intend to sell, sell and leave the service to the next owner. If it does not run properly or has stopped, simply sell it as it is and say so; we buy a watch that does not run too, and a half-finished repair only muddies the picture.
2. Before the set is no longer complete
Here is something that always moves the same way with time. A watch in a drawer does not become worth more, but the set around it does become less complete:
- The warranty card disappears between two house moves, and a replacement cannot be requested.
- The spare strap and the small tools go missing.
- The box gets used to store something else and vanishes.
- Service receipts go out with the recycling when a drawer is cleared.
With an estate it happens faster still, because then nobody knows any more which paper belongs to which watch. Anyone who leaves a watch lying for years "because it might be worth more later" runs the risk that the gain on one side is eaten by the loss on the other.
3. Before more wear accumulates
If you wear the watch daily, the state of the case changes slowly. The edges lose their crispness, the bezel picks up small knocks and the bracelet stretches. That is no disaster and it is exactly what a watch is for, but it is a direction of travel.
If you no longer wear it, that argument is itself the answer to your question: the moment is now. A watch you do not wear earns you nothing, does not grow more beautiful and has only the chance of becoming less complete.
4. Not just after a polish
The biggest mistake made with the best of intentions. On a luxury watch the case consists of brushed surfaces with polished edges between them, and it is precisely those edges a connoisseur reads. Polishing takes material away, rounds the edge, and that does not come back.
So: no polish before you sell. A dry cloth is enough. Anyone who "smartens up" their watch for the sale takes value off rather than adding it.
What I will not claim about seasons and market rhythm
Online you will find claims that December is the best moment, or the spring, or just after a big watch fair. I have seen no figures that can carry those statements, so I say nothing about them.
What I do notice at the counter is something far simpler: people sell when there is a reason. A renovation, a car, an inheritance, a house move. That is not a market movement but a stage of life, and it is a perfectly good reason.
When a reference leaves production
It happens regularly that a brand takes a version out of the catalogue, and that changes how the trade looks at that number. What we will say about it: that it happens and that it has an effect is a fact. Which way it goes and how long that lasts is speculation, and we will not join in.
What you can do with it: if you already know your reference is no longer made, that is a fact you bring to the table and not something still to be waited for.
Two reasons not to sell
We are dealers and buying is our work, but this belongs here too:
- If you wear it and enjoy it. Then it is not an investment but a watch, and then what it is worth is not the right question.
- If you are doing it under pressure. Anyone who needs money quickly and sells for that reason rarely sells well. If you want money and want to keep your watch, pawning is another route. That is possible with us and the terms are on that page.
In short
There is no better market to wait for, and anyone who says there is is guessing. What you can decide: sell before the service falls due, while the papers and the box are still there, and without having it polished first. If you no longer wear the watch, the moment is now, because time is not working in your favour.
If you want to know what it does today: send a few photos. Within 24 hours you hear what we offer, weekends included, and you are committed to nothing.
