The value of a Rolex depends on the reference, the state of the case, the completeness and the version. The prices you find online are asking prices, and that is something other than what a watch fetches. This article sets out what you can establish yourself and what to watch for.
You are here because you want a figure. I understand that, and I am going to explain first why you will not get one on this page, and why that is in your favour.
Why there is no price table here
A table reading "Submariner: this much to that much" is quickly made and it would mislead you in two ways.
First: two watches with the same reference number can sit far apart. A Submariner 116610LN with crisp case edges, the box, the card and a service receipt from last year is a different watch from the same reference polished three times and hanging on a stretched bracelet. Put those two on the same line of a table and that line is wrong for both.
Second: such a table goes out of date. What it says today is history in six months, and a visitor who reads an old line and walks up to a counter with it starts the conversation with the wrong expectations. That is more annoying for you than no figure at all.
What does work is this: below you read where the value comes from and what you can establish yourself in ten minutes. Then you ask for an offer on your own watch, and that is a figure that is actually about something.
The five things that decide it
1. The reference
Not the model but the number. "A Submariner" is not an answer; 16610, 116610LN and 126610LN are three watches from three generations with three different markets. This is the weightiest factor and at the same time the easiest to look up yourself.
2. The state of the case
This is where most of the money sits at Rolex, and it is the point where people most often short-change themselves. A Rolex case consists of brushed surfaces with polished edges, and those edges should be crisp. With every polish material goes and the edge grows rounder. That cannot be put right.
Hence the most important tip in this whole article: do not have your Rolex polished before you sell it. It feels like a favour to the next owner and it is the opposite.
3. Completeness
Box, warranty card, service receipts, perhaps a spare strap. How much difference that makes depends on the brand and the age; there is a separate article about it. In short: it can be done without, it makes some difference, and requesting new papers is pointless.
4. The version
Within the same reference there are differences that look small in a photo and are not. The colour of the dial, whether it carries stones and whether those came from Rolex itself, which bracelet is fitted. On a Datejust a chocolate dial with diamond hour markers makes a different watch from a silver-white one with batons.
5. Whether it runs, and how
We simply buy a watch that has stopped, so this is no rejection. But it matters: a movement that runs cleanly and whose date changes over at midnight has a different story from a movement that needs work. Just say so if something is wrong; we will see it anyway.
What you can establish yourself in ten minutes
Pick the watch up, stand by a window and find these three things. With them you can have a conversation rather than ask a question.
- The reference number. It is on the warranty card. If you do not have it, on most Rolexes it is engraved between the lugs on the twelve o'clock side, under the bracelet. You have to take the bracelet off or push it aside for it.
- The serial number. Traditionally between the lugs on the six o'clock side. On watches from after 2005 it also appears, and on watches from after 2010 only appears, on the rehaut: the narrow metal ring between the dial and the crystal. Tilt the watch under a lamp and it emerges.
- The state of the edges. Hold the case at an angle to the light and follow the line between the brushed top surface and the polished chamfer. Is that line crisp all the way round, or soft and rounded? You do not have to judge it, only to see it.
What the serial number does and does not tell you
Here is a misunderstanding that comes past us weekly. Many people know you can look up the year from a Rolex serial number, and for years that was true: between 1987 and 2010 the number began with a letter, and that letter belongs to a period.
From 2010 that no longer holds. Since then Rolex has used random eight-character numbers that follow no sequence at all. No table exists with which to date them and none will, because that is exactly the point of the change.
For you that means: if your watch dates from after 2010 and you have no warranty card, the year cannot be established. That is no problem for the sale, but it is why you should not trust an online look-up tool that promises you a year. It is inventing it.
Why the prices you find online are not what you receive
This is the part most dealers leave vague, and we think that unhelpful, because all it produces is disappointment at the counter. Three different figures exist and they are constantly confused.
The asking price
What a listing says. That is what somebody hopes to get and it says nothing about what anybody gets. A listing that has been up for eight months has an asking price that is too high by definition, and it is precisely those listings that stay up and are therefore visible longest.
The private sale price
What was actually paid. That is almost always lower than the asking price. And it is a price that comes with work and risk: you advertise, you get messages from people who never turn up, you receive a stranger at home, and you carry the risk yourself if something turns out to be wrong with the watch later.
A dealer's offer
That sits below it again, and there is a reason for it that has nothing to do with you. A dealer buys your watch today, pays for it today, and only sells it in weeks or months. In the meantime his money is tied up in it. He gives the next buyer a guarantee and takes the risk if the movement turns out to have a fault. That difference is his work and not his margin alone.
What you get in return is that it is settled today, with no advert, no visit, no argument afterwards and without your name circulating anywhere. For some people that is not worth it, and they should advertise it themselves. That is a perfectly good choice and we say as much.
What a valuation is not
Another confusion that costs money. There are three kinds of value and they are not interchangeable:
- Insurance value. What it costs to replace the watch, usually at new-retail price. This is the highest figure and it appears in valuation reports for insurers. It is not a sale price.
- Private sale value. See above.
- Purchase value. What a dealer offers.
Anyone who walks up to a buyer with an insurance valuation report and expects that figure will be disappointed. Not because the buyer is pitching low, but because those two figures are about different things.
In short
The reference and the state of the case decide the most. Leave the case alone and above all do not have it polished. Look up the reference number and the serial number, and know that a serial from after 2010 no longer gives a year. Do not reckon with asking prices from listings and not with insurance values.
If you want to know what your watch does: send photos of the dial, of the case from the side and of the lugs. You hear what we offer within 24 hours, weekends included, and you are committed to nothing. If you turn the offer down, you keep your watch and nothing has happened.
