A watch usually arrives with a story attached. One owner, barely worn, kept in the safe. Sometimes that is true. Our job is to find out either way before the watch reaches a listing page, because once it is on the site the story stops being the seller's and becomes ours.
Here is what those three weeks actually look like.
Day one: intake and paperwork
Everything gets photographed the moment it lands, before it is touched, including the box, the papers, the tags and the packaging it arrived in. Serial and case numbers are recorded and checked against the warranty card and against the movement once the case is open. A mismatch here is not automatically a problem, since service replacements happen, but it is a question that needs an answer.
We log the seller, the date and what was claimed about the watch. If the piece is later found to be something other than what was described, we want the record.
Days two to four: the bench
The watch goes to a watchmaker before it goes anywhere near a camera.
It runs on a timegrapher in six positions. We are looking at rate, beat error and amplitude, and we are looking at how those three move relative to each other rather than at any single number. A watch running at plus two seconds a day with an amplitude of 180 degrees is not a healthy watch, it is a watch that will need attention sooner than the rate suggests.
The case comes off. Inside, the watchmaker is checking for the things a photograph never shows: dried gaskets, corrosion at the case tube, a rotor axle with play in it, screw heads that have been chewed by someone working without the right driver. Non-original parts get noted. So does evidence of previous work, good or bad.
Water resistance is tested dry, then wet if the piece is rated for it and the gaskets are sound. Anything with a dive rating that we intend to describe as such gets tested to depth or it does not get described as such.
Days five to ten: the decision nobody sees
This is the part that costs money, and it is where dealers differ.
Every watch that comes in falls into one of three groups. Some need a full service and get one. Some are within their service interval, running properly, and are better left alone: opening a healthy movement to make a listing look tidier is a cost passed to the buyer for no benefit. And some need work that is not worth doing, which means the watch is priced accordingly and described accordingly, or we do not buy it at all.
The same logic applies to the case. We polish very little. A sharp, unpolished case with honest wear is worth more than a soft one that photographs well, and once the bevels are gone they do not come back. If a watch has been polished before it reached us, we say so.
Bracelets get measured for stretch, links get counted, and clasps get tested for the specific failure most buyers never check: whether the safety catch actually holds under a pull.
Days ten to fourteen: photography
Only now does the watch go to the studio. Every piece gets the same set: dial straight on, case profile from both sides, caseback, clasp, bracelet end links, lug holes, and close work on anything we have described as wear. If there is a mark, it gets its own photograph. A buyer who finds a scratch in person that they could not find in the listing has been badly served, and they will be back, correctly.
The last fortnight: pricing and publication
Price comes from three inputs: what comparable examples with comparable paperwork have actually sold for in the last ninety days, what we paid, and how long we are prepared to hold it. Asking prices published elsewhere are the least useful of these and we largely ignore them.
Then the listing gets written, and the rule for that is simple. Everything the watchmaker found goes in. Service date, what was replaced, what was left alone, what the case has been through. A listing that reads a little dry is doing its job.
What this means if you are buying
Ask for the timegrapher results. Ask when it was last serviced and by whom. Ask whether the case has been polished, and ask it as an open question rather than a yes or no, because the honest answer is usually a sentence and not a word.
Any dealer worth buying from will have those answers ready. If the answers take three days to arrive, they are being assembled rather than recalled.
You are welcome to watch the process. Book a bench appointment and our watchmaker will open whatever you are considering, in front of you, before you commit to anything.
