Obtaining Your Ideal Luxury Watch

If you are looking to obtain your first or next luxury watch, then there are a number of aspects that you will need to consider. Whether you are looking for a specific model or certain features and you haven’t decided on the exact model or even manufacturer, this guide is designed to help you identify and obtain your ideal luxury watch. We cover:

• How to identify the watch that you are looking for. Are you looking for a watch that you love, a watch that may increase in value over time or a specific style of watch? Your personal preference is one of the most important aspects as you will want to choose a watch that you want to wear, but for investment timepieces, you may have to put your preferences aside if you are looking to purchase an appreciating asset.

• The best ways to fund your luxury watch. It’s highly recommended to purchase your watch outright or arrange for a part exchange with our team – especially if you are looking for an investment timepiece but also if you are looking to obtain a different watch than your current regular or semi-regular wear timepiece.
  
• Obtaining your luxury watch with our team. We can speak to you about your initial findings if you are still trying to identify the perfect watch for your requirements. We use our industry experience and extensive networks to source specific models for our clients, or suggest and source similar models if the model you are after is simply not available.
  
  

Identifying the Luxury Watch That Suits You

When purchasing your first or next luxury watch, you are either looking for a timepiece that you can wear regularly or for special occasions, a luxury watch that will increase in value over time as an investment or both. If you are looking to see significant returns on your timepiece, then you should restrict regular wear and only wear for special occasions if you are wearing your watch at all and ensure that you carry out all of the maintenance tasks that are required. You can find our guide on watch maintenance here.

There are many different features that you will need to choose from when choosing your luxury watch. Different manufacturers will label these parts of the timepiece and mechanisms with different names, but these will all be core features of the timepiece that influence its overall design and aesthetic. The main features are:

• Hour, minute, and second hands
• Dial/face
• Crystal/glass cover
• Hour markers/indices
• Date window (if present on the watch)
• Chronograph subdials
• Movement (mechanical or automatic)
• Crown
• Pushers/buttons
• Case
• Caseback
• Bezel
• Chapter ring
• Hands lume
• Materials used in construction. Stainless steel, yellow gold, titanium.
• Embellishment – semi-precious or precious stones.

Some in the industry will recommend purchasing watches that you enjoy rather than looking to make a profit after you purchase your watch. There are, however, watches from famous manufacturers that tend to increase in value over time. This may differ from your personal preference, some models may look better to buyers, but this does not necessarily mean that they are desirable across the entire market. Some examples of the models that tend to increase in value are as follows:

• Omega and Rolex often top the list for appreciation.
  
• Rolex GMT Master, Patek Phillipe Nautilus, Omega Speedmaster, and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak are examples of ranges that tend to hold or increase in value. 

Obtaining Your Luxury Timepiece

You should purchase your luxury timepiece outright and avoid finance or credit agreements, especially when looking to purchase an investment timepiece rather than a regular or semi-wear watch. You can also see with increases in new model pricing such as Rolex’s increase at the start of the year that this affects pricing, which is another reason why it’s best to hold your timepiece as a paid-with-cash asset. 

We and many in the industry highly advise against private one-on-one deals in this market. The counterfeit market has become extremely advanced, which can make it extremely difficult to identify fake watches from legitimate ones without expert assessment. You should purchase your watch from our team as we go through rigorous checks to ensure the quality and legitimacy of all timepieces that we source and retail. 

Sourcing your timepiece with our team – we use our extensive network to source timepieces for our clients. We will work with you to find the ideal timepiece as well as suggest alternatives if the specific model that you require isn’t available.

We offer part exchange and we also purchase timepieces from our clients. If you are looking to fund your next watch and want to arrange a trade-in, or simply sell your watch to obtain some capital, then we have you covered. Get in touch with our team and we will advise you on the best options that suit you and provide you with a quote for your watch or watches.