I recently returned from a business trip to the beautiful city of Toronto. While I was there I got a chance to meet up with my friend Isaac Wingold, the man who introduced me to Wound For Life. While we were sitting, commiserating over a Negroni and bresaola at an excellent Italian joint in the design (hipster) district, the conversation drifted to John Mayer’s Talking Watches episode for Hodinkee.
Both Isaac and I were left no choice but to give the guitarist and watch collector credit for a couple of things he said in that episode. I liked his line about the best $5,000 watch being better than the worst $500,000 watch. Isaac then went on to mention where John says you aren’t truly a collector until you’ve bought and sold 12 watches. Mr. Mayer makes a good point that selling watches is an integral part of collecting watches. Invariably, tastes change over time, impulsive purchases are made, flat-out mistakes are made, and the time comes when all of us need to “flip” a watch.
My first real watch — the PAM177
“Flipping” comes in a variety of different forms and we collectors all know someone who fits each of these archetypes. There’s a spectrum, as with anything else, and there are the rare unicorns among us who make it a point to never sell a watch. I guess it’s like a captain going down with his Panerai. Far more often we come across the diametric opposite, the individual who buys and sells a watch with the frequency of bowel movements after an unlucky night at the oyster bar. I’ve heard of people on the message boards going through 20 watches in a month. When you have your watch dealer on speed dial and deals can be consummated with a few clicks of a mouse, flipping can become a pathological condition.
So, lets say you’ve just unboxed your “White Side of the Moon”, or some such marketing novelty that you had to have, and you quickly realize that you need to sell a watch. What are your options? The first option is to go back to your dealer. Although, you might feel a bit like Bill Buckner walking back into Shea (to quote the legendary Mike McDermott). Unfortunately, that the same dealer is going to offer you 70 cents on the dollar for a watch you just bought, but hey, that’s the cost of doing business. If nothing else, it’s clean and quick, and you can move on with your life.
With vintage watches or more expensive and complicated complicated modern watches, it can get a little more, ahem, complicated. That mint Maxi dial 5513 you have is as liquid as can be and dealers will buy back a watch like that for close to what you paid (if not exactly what you paid), especially if you are a good client and have a rapport with your watch dealer. When it comes to less liquid items, like a precious metal watch or haute horology piece, the most frequently offered option your dealer will give you is a consignment. The dealer will inspect, service, photograph, market and ultimately sell your watch. Usually this results in a higher price for the watch and more money back in your pocket. The drawback is that with less liquid pieces it might take weeks or months for the watch to sell and get cash in your hands. There are also some bigger operations out there in the consignment game. The names WatchUwant and Crown and Caliber come to mind. In my experience, these places tend to offer a bit less than independent dealers but potentially get the sale done faster, but I can’t say for sure as I’ve never used them.
Of course, you might be an intrepid Bob Vila type and decide to go it on your own. I mean, how hard can it be to take a few pictures and post on a watch forum? Well, that depends. Obviously, cutting out the middle man potentially wins you a bigger chunk of change; however, more often than not private sellers have lower asking prices than a dealer. That is a factor of the work that goes in on the dealers end: servicing, marketing, paying rent, paying workers, etc. The problem with selling on your own is that it’s a jungle out there. I’ve heard of all kinds of scams from the grab and run at face to face sales, to crooks paying for a watch through PayPal and then returning a fake watch to the seller and having PayPal refund the purchase price while keeping the real McCoy. As with buying off the forums, research and references go a long way to protect you from getting burned. These scams are not limited to deals brokered through watch forums however, as people have been similarly burned through eBay sales. Scammers can manipulate the rules of sites like eBay and PayPal to make off with your property — seller beware! Also keep in mind that a bank wire is always the preferred method to take payment as there is less chance of getting screwed as the seller. Just make sure that deposit clears before you send out the watch.
Lastly, there are the major auction houses and there are houses that cater to all levels of watches from a few hundred bucks to a few hundred thousand. Personally, I’ve never consigned a watch to an auction house, but I’ve heard some horror stories about the amount of time it takes to get paid if your watch sells. Then again, if you have a titanium Sky Moon Tourbillon to sell then you can probably afford to wait for them ducats.
There is another collector archetype that I neglected to mention above and that’s the guy who will tell you he’s made money on every watch he’s ever bought or sold. If you believe these guys then I have a bridge (or better yet, a Texas dial Paul Newman Daytona) to sell you. It just doesn’t happen that way most of the time for those of us on the collector side of the game. More often than not, you will have to take some kind of a hit in order to liquidate a watch — what we call “taking a bath”. The best way to avoid this of course is to “buy smart”, and buy watches that are high quality and in high demand. Even when sticking to these rules it’s not always easy to get it right, but by establishing a large network of collectors and dealers through forums and Instagram, and having multiple options, you can usually come out ‘okay’.
by 
Teeritz
Great write-up. I’m no flipper, though. I worked too hard to get my collection. Although, in saying that, my rule of thumb is ” if a watch doesn’t get worn for a year, then it’s time to shift it”. I just recently sold a Seiko Samurai because I found that I was wearing my other dive watches more regularly. The tough ones for me are my Hamilton Khaki Officer’s Mechanical and my Tissot Visodate. Yes, hardly rare or sought after, but they were inexpensive purchases and, even though I wear them rarely, I wrote reviews on both of them and they have therefore become keepers that I will hand down to my kids.
I understand what Mr Mayer means about having to sell a dozen watches before one can truly call themselves a collector, but I’m fairly certain that his income is a lot more disposable than mine.
Having worked in a watch store in the past, I met numerous guys who were serial flippers. One of them has bought and sold Submariner 5513s and Speedmaster Professionals on six separate occasions. You either want the watch or you don’t. I think by the time you’ve sold it a third time, you know whether you want to keep it or not. Another customer only had one watch in his collection and he would sell it to buy something else every six or twelve months. I never understood this. Sure, you get the chance to have something shiny and new every year, but you never actually end up with a watch that becomes a part of who you are and your identity. I have an Omega Seamaster Professional that I purchased in 1999, Bond fan that I am. When my son was born on Christmas Day in 2000 and the nurse looked up at the wall clock and said; “Time of birth, 10:55am”, I glanced at my watch and almost blurted out; “10:56 am, ma’am”.
There is a certain thrill and nobility in my being able to say to my son one day; “Here. This is the watch I was wearing on the day you were born.”
Too many people want the latest and greatest, but sometimes, you just have to look at your collection, be happy with what you have, and say “Yep. I think I’m done.”
I know. Easy to say, harder to do.
Marios
I think the title of the article should be “intro to selling watches”, given the context of the discussion. The word “flipping” means to buy an asset and then sell it within a short time for a profit. Look it up. If you buy an asset and then sell at any time for a profit or loss, it’s just called selling.
Art
Watch flipping days are over. The big recession killed it along with
the housing market. I had a good 25 years enjoying flipping watches
as a hobbie. Made alittle money, and enjoyed wearing high end watches.
It’s over now.