Pre-Owned Luxury Watches

Japan has one of the deepest secondhand watch markets in the world, and the reason is not only volume. Pieces here tend to be kept with their box and papers, serviced on schedule, and traded through a closed dealer market that keeps a written record of what a watch is.

Where the stock comes from

We buy at the dealer auctions and from established wholesalers in the domestic trade. The auctions are not open to the public: entry requires a secondhand dealer licence, which is what puts us on the inside of that market rather than buying from it at retail.

How authenticity is handled

We do not offer our own appraisal, and we will not pretend otherwise. The auction houses operate their own inspection desks and guarantee what they sell. What we do is pass that guarantee and the accompanying paperwork to you unchanged, so the assurance you receive is the one that actually stands behind the watch. If you need an independent laboratory report on top of that, we will arrange it and invoice it separately rather than fold a vague claim into the price.

Reading the grade

The Japanese trade uses a letter scale, and it is applied strictly by international standards. S is unused. A is worn but with no obvious marks. B has visible use. C is heavily worn. A Japanese A generally presents better than the same letter would elsewhere. We send photographs with every piece regardless, because a letter is a summary and a buyer paying this much deserves the detail.

Practical notes

• Box and papers move the price. A full set can be worth a substantial premium over the watch alone. We state plainly what is present and what is missing.
• Service history. An unserviced mechanical watch is a future bill. Where the service record exists we pass it on; where it does not, we say so and price accordingly.
• Import duty varies sharply. Watches attract very different treatment by destination. We confirm the position for your market before quoting, because the landed cost is what matters, not the invoice.

Tell us the brands, references and price band you work in, and how often you want to buy. We will send available pieces with photographs and the auction documentation.