How to sell a vintage watch

There are five realistic routes: an outright sale to a dealer, consignment with a dealer, an auction house, an online marketplace, or a collector forum. Outright sale is the fastest and the only one where the number you are quoted is the number you receive. The others can produce a higher gross, but every one of them charges a fee, takes time, and leaves you carrying the watch and the risk until it sells.

The trade-offs, honestly stated, are below. We buy outright and do not consign, so you should read our view with that in mind, but the arithmetic is the same whoever explains it.

• Dealer, outright: firm offer within a day or two, paid on verification, no fees. You give up the margin the dealer needs to resell it.
• Dealer, consignment: the dealer lists it and takes a meaningful share when it sells. Can net more than an outright offer, but it may take months and you are unpaid until a buyer appears.
• Auction house: the widest audience for a rare piece, with fees charged on both the seller's and the buyer's side, a sale date months out, and no control over the hammer price on the day.
• Online marketplace: you set the price and keep more of it, but you pay a listing or transaction fee, handle every inquiry yourself, and absorb the risk of fraud, returns and shipping.
• Collector forum: lowest fees and the most knowledgeable buyers, but the smallest audience, and your reputation there is the only guarantee either side has.

Shoot in natural light, near a window and out of direct sun, with the watch on a plain surface and your phone held steady. You do not need a studio; you need clear, honest photographs that let a dealer see the dial, the case edges and the numbers. Blurry or heavily edited photos slow the offer down because we have to ask for more. Send the shots below and you will usually get a firm number on the first reply.

• The dial straight on, filling the frame, so the printing and lume plots can be read.
• The case from the side, showing the crown and the profile of the lugs.
• The caseback.
• The bracelet and the clasp, open, so the clasp code and any stretch are visible.
• Any box, papers, tags or service receipts, laid out together.
• If you can remove the bracelet, the reference number between the lugs at 12 and the serial number between the lugs at 6. Helpful, but not required for a first offer.

Alongside the photos, a dealer wants to know the brand and model, the reference number if you know it, roughly when and where it was bought, and whether you have the box, papers or any receipts. If you know its service history, say so, and say who did the work; a service by an independent vintage specialist and a service by a brand center mean different things for the parts that may have been replaced.

Be direct about anything you know to have been changed or repaired. A replaced crystal or a service bracelet is not a problem, but finding it out after an offer has been made is, and it costs you credibility on everything else you have said. If you do not know the history, say that too. Most inherited watches come with no history at all and we price them from the watch in hand.

A dealer prices from what the watch will sell for to a collector, less the margin they need to cover authentication, any necessary service, holding time and the risk of being wrong. The resale figure comes from the specific reference and dial variant, whether the case is unpolished and the components are original, the presence of papers, and recent private and auction sales of comparable examples. The reference sets the range; the condition and originality set where in that range the watch lands.

This is why two offers on the same reference can be far apart, and why the dealer who asks the most questions is often the one who will pay the most. A trade-in program or a marketplace buyout prices on the reference alone and offers accordingly. A specialist looks at the dial under a loupe and pays for what is actually there. We sell directly to collectors rather than through a marketplace, which is what lets us pay above those programs.

The biggest one is an offer that changes after the watch arrives. Some buyers quote high to win the watch, then find a reason to cut the number once it is in their hands and you are facing the cost and delay of getting it back. Get the offer in writing, get the conditions on it in writing, and ask directly whether the number is firm on verification. If the answer is anything other than yes, send it somewhere else.

• An offer without seeing photographs, or a request to ship the watch before any number is given.
• Pressure to decide today, or a number that is only good for an hour.
• A buyer who will not give a business address, a phone number and a name.
• Shipping at your expense, uninsured, or on a label that is not in the buyer's name.
• Payment by an unfamiliar method, in installments, or from a third party.
• A consignment agreement with no end date, no agreed minimum price and no clear fee.

No. Do not polish the case, do not have the dial or hands cleaned, and do not send it for a service unless it will not run at all. To a vintage buyer, the scratches on an unpolished case are proof that the metal underneath is still there, and the aged lume and warm dial are exactly what they are paying for. A polish removes value you cannot recover, and a routine service can come back with a new crystal, new hands and a swapped bezel insert, each of which turns an original watch into an assembled one.

If the watch runs poorly, tell the buyer and let them price the service in. A dealer will have it serviced by someone who knows to leave the dial and hands alone, and the cost of that service is far less than the value a well-meaning general watchmaker can remove in an afternoon. Clean the bracelet with a soft brush and water if you like. Beyond that, sell it as it is.

With an outright dealer sale, expect the buyer to send a prepaid, fully insured shipping label once you accept, verification within a day or so of the watch arriving, and payment by wire or check the same day it is verified. That is how we do it; in the Austin area we can also meet in person. Pack the watch in a small box inside a larger one, with the head wrapped separately from the bracelet, and photograph it before sealing.

Consignment and auction run on their own timelines. Consignment pays when a buyer pays, and you should have a written agreement covering the fee, the minimum price, and when you can withdraw the watch. Auction houses typically settle some weeks after the sale, after the buyer has paid, and will deduct their fee and any charges for photography, insurance or a catalogue before wiring the balance. Marketplace sales pay when the platform releases the funds, which can be after the buyer's inspection period.

We buy Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin outright, vintage preferred, and we do not take consignments. Text or email the photographs above and Michael will reply with a firm offer, usually within one business day. The number quoted is the number you are paid, and you do not need box or papers to get one. The details, along with the list of references we are actively looking for, are on our sell page.