A Guide to Valuing Watches

A Guide to Valuing Watches - A Two Day Course

Benefits to you?

By the end of the course, you will understand the process that you need to go through to determine the correct market to find comparables. You will understand how to assess the watches you value with market comparables and the impact of any differences in the watches, their condition, or any accessories they present with. You will know where to find market data and how to interpret this best to arrive at a final value.

Benefits to your organisation?

A clear understanding of the drivers of value will allow greater precision when valuing for insurance replacement. It will enable more competitive reserve setting for auction without being unrealistic, prevent overlending against watches and facilitate better buying decisions.

Who is this course for?

This course is suitable for Valuers, Auction House Specialists, Pawnbrokers, Retailers, Insurers, Collectors, and anyone who needs to assign a value to watches.

Location

Courses are held in London, Birmingham, and Manchester. If you require the content of any of these courses event tailored to your organisation or have more than eight people to train, it may be better for you to host a private event. Please do not hesitate to get in touch to discuss this.

Two Day Course - Day One

Applying a value to a watch can be necessary for many reasons. It may be a replacement value at the new retail level or a replacement from the secondary market. It may be a value to sell or a value for probate or family division. For each of these situations, it is crucial to understand which market you should be comparing to and the exact nature of your watch.

• Valuing watches - finding comparables. Watch values are based on precedent, so it is crucial to know where to get the data that is most suitable for the watch in question.

• Valuing watches - points of difference. Two watches can look very similar but have wildly different values. We look at the reasons for this.

• Valuing watches - evolution of models. Watch model names can exist for decades, meaning that two watches with the same name can look completely different and have dissimilar values. At what point in the evolution does the value go up or down?
  
  
• Valuing Watches - a sum of parts. Does the watch have authentic parts, and are the parts original? If not, how does this affect the value?

Two Day Course - Day Two

• Valuing watches - age and patina. Vintage watches pick up marks and discolouration through age and wear. Do these affect the value positively or negatively?

• Valuing watches - gold weight only? Regarding the secondary market, some watches may only be worth the bullion weight of their case and bracelet; some watches may even be worth less as a watch than as scrap. How do you make that call?

• Valuing watches - a premium over retail? When demand outstrips supply, watches may change hands for more than RRP in the secondary market. How should you value a ‘premium’ watch?

• Valuing watches - high-end independent makers. Mass-produced watches provide a wide range of data points, but how do you arrive at a value when the data is scarce and values volatile?