Before anything else: do not have it cleaned
The instinct, when a watch arrives in a drawer of somebody else's things, is to make it presentable. Resist it. A jeweller's polish takes metal off the case, rounds the edges the factory cut sharp and thins the lugs, and none of it can be undone. On a vintage watch it can cost a third of the value in twenty minutes at a counter.
The same applies to a service, a new crystal, a replaced dial or a fresh bezel insert. Every one of them can be done later by somebody who knows what the watch is; not one of them can be reversed. Honest wear on original parts is worth more than a watch that has been made to look new.
Then find out what it is
Two numbers do the work. The reference identifies the model and its configuration; the serial identifies the individual watch. On most houses the reference sits between the lugs at twelve o'clock or on the case back, and reading it means taking the strap off — carefully, with a spring bar tool, or not at all.
Write down everything the dial says as well: the movement line, the origin, any complication. Then photograph the watch from four angles before you touch it further. If the strap will not come off easily, leave it. A clear frame of the dial, the case back and the clasp will reach the model, and the model is enough to begin.
Look for the paperwork before you look for a buyer
The box, the warranty card or certificate, the original receipt, the booklets, the spare links, the swing tags. On a modern luxury watch the full set routinely accounts for ten to twenty percent of the value. It sounds absurd for cardboard until you understand what the buyer is paying for — evidence of where the watch came from, and that it was not assembled from parts.
Service records matter nearly as much. A documented recent service is often worth more at resale than the service cost, and a buyer looking at a watch that has visibly not been opened in a decade simply takes the price of one off their offer.
- Outer and inner boxes, scuffed or not.
- Warranty card, certificate or guarantee booklet — the stamped date is the point of it.
- The original receipt, or frankly any receipt at all.
- Service invoices, especially from the house's own service network.
- Spare links, the swing tag, and the strap it was sold on.
Winding, setting, and the things that break watches
If it is mechanical and stopped, it is not broken. Wind it gently until you feel resistance and stop there: an automatic will free-wheel harmlessly, a hand-wound movement will not, and forcing that last turn on a hand-wound watch is how mainsprings break.
Do not set the date between roughly nine in the evening and three in the morning as the dial reads it. On most movements the date change is engaged through that window and turning it by hand strips teeth. And if the crown screws down, screw it back in before the watch goes anywhere near water — an unserviced watch has old gaskets and no water resistance worth relying on, whatever the case back claims.
Getting to a figure
A watch does not have a price; a reference does. Two watches from the same house, the same year and the same metal can trade four times apart because one reference is wanted and the other is not. Any figure that arrives before the reference is known is a guess about a category rather than a valuation.
So work in stages. Establish the tier and the type, take an indicative band from that, then check sold listings — not asking prices — for the exact reference in comparable condition. Sold listings are the only real answer. Everything before them is orientation, which is still worth having before you walk into a shop.
The three prices, and why they all differ
You will be quoted three figures and they are all correct. Insurance replacement value is what an equivalent watch would cost at retail today, and it is the highest. Private sale value is what an individual buyer pays. A dealer's cash offer is the lowest, because the dealer has to fund the watch, service it, warrant it and wait for a buyer.
The spread between top and bottom is commonly a third to a half. Which figure is the right one depends entirely on what you are doing — insuring it, selling it patiently, or wanting the money this week — and a valuer who gives you one number without asking which has not answered the question.
Insurance, and the cap most policies carry
A homeowner's or contents policy almost always carries a per-item or per-category limit on jewellery and watches, and it usually sits far below what an inherited watch is worth. Above that limit the watch has to be scheduled — listed individually, generally with a valuation — or it is simply not insured for its value.
Premiums on scheduled watches typically run between one and two percent of the sum insured a year. Check the limit before assuming the watch is covered. That discovery is otherwise made at the worst possible moment.
Keeping it, if you are keeping it
A mechanical movement wants a full service every five to seven years and the bill is real: a few hundred at the mid-luxury level, well into four figures at the top. Gaskets are replaced at service, which is the only moment a watch's water resistance is genuinely current.
Magnetism is the commonest cause of a watch that has suddenly started running fast, and it is also the cheapest to fix — a watchmaker demagnetises it in minutes. Beyond that, wear it. A watch that is worn and wound keeps its oils moving; a watch nobody wears is a watch quietly turning into a repair.