The Watch Scholar is developing authentication reference resources for the most popular brands.
Available early 2025.
Counterfeit watches cost businesses millions of pounds a year as they leak into the secondary market. The Watch Scholar helps organisations protect themselves from inadvertently buying high quality fake watches through our globally recognised authentication services and training.
The Watch Scholar also provides Watch authentication services to Trading Standards, Police and IP Enforcement agencies, issuing detailed reports on the status of watches found.
Working closely with Insurers, we help them ensure watches are covered at the correct value and that counterfeit watches are not substituted for the real thing at the point of inspection. Training is provided to Claims teams and Loss Adjusters to ensure that they are aware of the pitfalls inherent in the luxury watch market, and therefore do not over or under insure, or fall victim to insurance fraud.
Founder and Managing Director, Adrian Hailwood, has over 30 years of experience within the Watch and Jewellery industry, working for companies such as Cartier, Van Cleef and Arpels, Mappin & Webb and seven years as Boutique Manager for Breguet, New Bond Street, London. In 2011 Adrian swapped the retail world for watch auctions, holding senior positions at Fellows, Woolley & Wallis and Dreweatts.
Ten years later, Adrian launched Watchcollecting.com, working with his newly created team to adapt the existing Collecting Cars auction platform to the specific needs of the luxury watch market. After achieving over £40m in sales in just two and a half years, Adrian decided it was time for a new adventure, and in January 2024, Adrian founded The Watch Scholar.
Collaborating with well-established and credible international organisations, and with a passion for staying on top of the latest trends, research, and reports from the watch industry Adrian is committed to ensuring his clients receive the most current information possible.
Adrian’s mission for The Watch Scholar is to build knowledge-backed enthusiasm for watches, combined with a resource hub for watch value data, a series of brand-independent courses, research and authentication archives, and other vital services to the watch community.
The Watch Scholar’s, ‘Fakes, Franken & Customised Watches’ course has now been running for over twelve years. This popular programme is the only one of its kind in the UK and is updated every year to incorporate the latest developments in watch counterfeiting.
The subject of watches is so broad and deep that new information is always emerging. For Adrian, this journey of continuous learning and teaching is what makes watches so interesting.
Adrian also works as an independent specialist providing watch expertise across the Auction, Insurance, and Asset-Lending industries. He is a Founding Member of the Jewellery Valuers Association and one of the very few Specialist Watch Valuers in the UK.
He continues to provide rigorously researched valuations of watch collections for insurance, probate, division, or sale on occasion and acts as an expert witness in legal cases involving watches, their values, and authenticity.
Not that he has much time these days, but Adrian always enjoys writing about watches and watch culture for both online and print publications. He has written for The Telegraph, The Financial Times, Revolution, GQ Magazine, Square Mile, The Week and The Loupe.
Adrian is an engaging raconteur and a noted Public / Keynote speaker, providing honest, entertaining and engaging speeches, based on his 30+ years within the Luxury Watch and Jewellery Industry.
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