What time is it? Watches and horology

I love the fact that LFGSS has every base covered - I think I’ve seen references to it before, but only now taking the time to engross myself in this thread, and I’m hoping it brings as much joy, help and procrastination as the rest of the forum has.

Kickoff question: if one was to sell a watch, what is the best channel to do this?

I have bought a watch from Chrono24 with effortless ease and peace of mind, but the sell side seems somewhat worrying. That and the £500+ purported fees...

Any help very gratefully received

What watch is it?

Rolex Air King

I sold my wife’s Oyster Perpetual on there. Was easy peasy. 6% fees are incredibly reasonable IMO. Yes, more than Reddit Watch Exchange which is totally free, but more people use C24.

Better still, she got her asking price, which is what she paid in Duty Free a year prior.

Don’t go to a dealer. You’ll get bent over. We were offered $2k from a dealer. Sold it for $4k on c24. The $240 fees seemed totally inconsequential. Especially compared to eBay/PayPal.

You could try on here but you will be critequed. It'll be a good valuation though. And youll probably get a fair price too.

PM’d

Yeah given the demand/scarcity for/of professional series Rolex’s I’m hoping to get back what I paid, although I appreciate it’s a bit marmite.

Will give C24 a go on the long game and see if I can cover the fees in a bit of a bump in list price.

I've sold successfully on C24. Preferred it to eBay, on the whole. I have seen some some tales of funds getting stuck in escrow forever when a dispute arises - they do seem to be a bit less effective at resolving disputes. But generally things seem to go smoothly. Be prepared for lots of people trying to haggle you down, maybe factor that into your price.

Also, make an account, and add the watch to your "collection" and you'll be able to see their guide price valuation. From a quick look I think a price in the high fives should be achievable, though there's a brand new one on for £5950 at the moment.

I think I read the fee for sellers has gone up by quite a lot on C24 recently

Probably because they took €21m investment from a VC firm in 2015. VC investments are 7 years, after which the firm will want an exit, so chrono24 is positioning to maximise revenue and valuation over the next 12 months in order to negotiate a sale.

No, it’s still 6.5% and has been for at least two years.

Any Max Bill fans? https://www.skandium.com/collections/skandium-sale-bestsellers/products/3894

I just did as advised, and can reveal that two of my watches have lost money, two have gained money, and almost all the gain has been one watch.

Quite interesting and handy for the insurance.

@Regal - OT but if you were going to get a name engraved on a Swiss Army pen knife, what font would you choose?

Yeah, I’m up overall, but it’s pretty much all down to one watch. You can probably guess which.

Helvitica seems fitting

Pretty difficult question to answer! Depends on a lot of things. Do you have free range of font choice or graphic? If it was a personal dedication (rather than just “this belongs to me”) I’d probably letter/draw something bespoke.

The method of engraving is a factor as well. Laser engraving can have a kind of fuzziness that other methods don’t so you might want a more robust kind of font.

I assume it would be lazer. I can't draw fonts.

It would be putting someone's name on it to personalised rather than a personal msg. If that makes sense?

Gill Sans in all-caps (and spaced out just a little) will often look good for something like this.

I don’t know anything about the person or your relationship to them though, you might want something more modern, or more elegant, etc.

Cheers for that. Great suggestion. It's got the right balance, sort of new age fun with a vintage feel.

👍🏻

Took my youngest to Mallory's in Bath today to choose a watch for his 18th, he went for a Longines which was quite a coincidence because that is what my parents bought me for my 18th (from Mallory's!)

Super cool. Pictures? :-)

@PawG

Son's:

https://www.longines.com/en-gb/watch-longines-spirit-l3-810-4-93-6

Mine:

Love it! Great choice.