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Who's got a nice watch? Traditional watches only, no smartwatches please.
- Thread starter JW8725
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GMTII Ceramic
Just back from service
The picture is of a Sea Dweller, not a GMT II. I have a late 80s GMT Master I bought new in 1985 and have loved ever since. I am not so sure about the ceramic bezels, but at least they don't fade as mine has.
Who has talked about paying retail prices from a non authorized dealer? I even pointed out that the second hand price is lower than the price of a new one...
There is ALWAYS a market for used quality watches. If you're having problems finding buyers that are willing to pay what a watch is worth, it's not because there aren't any buyers who knows what the watch is worth. Having a watch verified isn't a big deal either.
Was it severely beaten up or broken? Or was the price of a new one of the same model a lot less than when you bought it?
Wow, I would absolutely LOVE to buy watches from you.
The lesson learned is that you're a bad salesman. Nothing to be ashamed of, so am I.
Never buy retail, only buy quality watches, never sell for less than you paid for it unless it's in worse condition than when you bought it. That way you'll never lose any money when buying watches.
I would say that for YOU, buying and selling watches is a pretty bad idea and not a sound financial investment. If you can't find a buyer that isn't willing to pay what the watch is worth - don't sell it. Keep it and try and find a new buyer. Even selling it to a retailer could be a better option for you. It's a loss in comparison to selling it yourself, but the loss will most likely be less significant than what you've experienced...
A well made watch will last for generations, they don't drop in value in the way that you're making it look like. Or do you think that the person who bought you Rolex LV took a loss when he sold it as well? He most likely made quite the profit...
That's not an investment. When you buy something for an investment you want a return. What he is saying is that buying a watch you more than likely aren't going to get more than what you paid for it. Just because you can sell it for the price you paid for it doesn't mean anything
Sure he is saying that he has had the unfortunate experience of always selling his watches for a loss, but what I said still stands true.
Of course. Some people say it's only an investment if you can get a return without selling it (i.e. gold is not an investment because any profit is only made after having sold it, or buying a house is only an investment if you're renting out at least part of it), others say that an investment is [also] placing of money in hoping to make a profit when selling it. That's semantics and not really relevant for the discussion.
What he said was basically this: "watches are not a good financial investment because you won't be able to get your money back", and that's what I'm disputing.
It's like when people say, buying a car is a bad investment. Of course it's not going to hold it's value, but if you want an expensive car and can afford it. We don't buy it to get our money back, we buy it because it's the car we want.
If you are buying it to profit then you're just dumb. (though a car can make us money by being a taxi or getting us to our job, but that works in a crap car and it will work with a $250,000 car too)
If you are buying it to profit then you're just dumb. (though a car can make us money by being a taxi or getting us to our job, but that works in a crap car and it will work with a $250,000 car too)
The thing is that a quality watch that you buy second hand won't be worth less with time (no pun intended), as just about any car that isn't either a collectible or limited edition will.
That's true, but only a very small percentage of people buy watches, and cars this way. I have 7 watches from $200 to $900. I don't think any of them (6 of them Seiko's) will ever fit that category.
The watches you are now speaking of are high end Rolex watches and maybe a couple of other swiss brands (only their high end lines).
And I doubt when people are buying them they are saying, I hope this watch makes me money.
In what way, using the resale value as a variable in deciding which one to get? I'd say it's less common when buying a watch than when buying a car.
In which category, not being worth less in ten years than they are today?
You're mistaken. This goes for ALL quality watches, and you can get them for as little as about 400 USD retail. At least I have yet to see a quality watch cheaper than that. But these won't lose more than about 50 dollars from buying it new to selling it as fifth owner, if it's been maintained correctly.
It's not only high end, it's not only swiss brands, it's all quality watches.
I've never talked about watches increasing in value, I'm talking about not decreasing in second hand value.
There is always a market for anything if you price it low enough. But if you want to make a profit, then the market may not exist.
It showed wear and the chronograph function wasn't working. But if you follow Tissots, they have very poor resale value. But I didn't buy it with the intentions to sell it.
I've worked in retail sales and was actually quite good at it. I've always broken even or made a profit selling my Nikon lenses, but I don't consider those as financial investments either.
The question lies is how long are you willing to keep thousands of dollars of watches laying around before possibly making a decent profit? And if you're robbed, then your investment is gone unless you had it insured.
I don't buy watches with the intentions to sell them. I buy new so I can have the warranty and I just make sure that I get a discount.
The person who bought my Rolex LV is a good friend of mine and he has no intention to sell it. But if he were to sell it now after owning it for a few years, he would break even or only make a few hundred dollars profit. So the return rate would be somewhere between 0-10% after several years of ownership.
The retail price is what you need to have as a point of reference to determine market depreciation. I keep my eyes on the pre-own market so I do have an idea what the resale value is. And I will stand by my point that some brands will retain their values better than others and you can't expect every watch to have a return in investment.
Well, it would be nice. I try to take care of my watches, but I never once thought of buying them as an investment, I plan to wear them until I die.
It depends on the movement, not the brand. The ones with Valjoux 7750 will keep their value better than a generic quartz model, just as an example.
It's interesting how you claim to be a good seller and seem to be interested in watches, yet make strange comments such as having to look at the retail price in order to determine price depreciation...
I haven't owned a "real" watch in over 13 years. This is something I first really thought about now when I saw this thread. I guess cellphones and other devices took it's natural place.
The movement is only important to those who even know what a movement is. To 99% of people, the brand is what they know and this has been proven time after time. A common example is if you place a Rolex and a Patek Philippe side by side and ask people which one they would prefer, the majority of them will say the Rolex because they recognize the brand. Here's some additional irony, most people wouldn't even know what a Rolex is if they couldn't read the dial.
I have my own story to support that belief. A few days ago my father and I were at IHOP out in the country and the waitress noticed my dad's 18K yellow gold diamond encrusted watch and immediately said, "Is that a Rolex?". She was correct since it was a president, but it is because she had this grand notion on what a Rolex was. She didn't notice my Rolex platinum yacht-master that I was wearing.
How do you determine depreciation or appreciation of an item be it a watch, a car or anything in general? You look at what the MSRP of the item and then you look at the current resale value. There must be a point of reference to make that comparison. Being a good seller is based on being able to sell an item for the asking price. When I worked in retail, the price was already set so all I had to do was sell it for the price and I was good at that since I really didn't have to worry about any lost on my part.
Selling items on my own is a little more different since the purchase cost is now upon me. You seem surprise about my lost on the LV. The back story may explain a few things. When I purchased it, it was at MSRP and I was lucky to get that. Most ADs wouldn't sell me one and the pre-own market was the same or higher than the new market. After owning it for a few years, the availability of the LV had changed and pre-own market prices dropped accordingly. Yes, if I kept it for a few more years then I could have broken even. Unfortunately, I needed the money to purchase another time piece. If I had waited for the breaking even point on the LV, the new price on the time piece that I wanted would have gone up eliminating the gains on holding the LV. If I had enough capital to hold and buy, then it would be a different story.
This thread has given me some nice ideas. I'm not a watch wearer but if I get the new job I'm after I don't believe I'm allowed to carry a cell phone on me anymore (especially one with a camera) so a watch will be my only way to tell time.
I need a cheap one though since I break them frequently 0_0
I need a cheap one though since I break them frequently 0_0
