If you ever wonder what naked watches means, here is the answer. Watches, which do not have any box and papers accompanied the sale. All you get is the watch. Do I think that buying naked watches is risky? Yes and No. It all depends who the seller is because you need to trust the seller first before you buy the watch.
If you do not know, what to look for to see if you are dealing with the reputable seller, read this article, I wrote a while back about the ways of knowing that your seller is trustworthy.
Risk of buying naked watches
Is the watch authentic
When you are buying a naked watch, you do not have anything to reference if the watch is real or not. If you have a warranty card or service paperwork, there will be a serial number matching the watch serial number.
How can you make sure that your watch is authentic? You have several options. You can take your watch to your favorite watchmaker, or you can inspect the watch on your own especially if the watch has an open case-back. The reason you want to examine the watch with watchmaker is that they are trained to see the parts. If you never worked on the watch, it might be harder for you to spot the fake pieces.
One of the best resources to check movements
Was the watch stolen?
There a several watch database to know if the watch you bought is stolen. You would have to do a search and pay a small fee to see if there are any results of your watch.
- thewatchregister.com
- mystolenwatch.com
Is there another way to find out if your watch was stolen? Yes, you can contact the Authorized Dealer or a boutique store, and they might be able to tell you.
There are some stories that someone purchased a Rolex watch, and the buyer decided to send the watch for a service, When the watch go to the official Rolex service center, they run the serial numbers, and they find out that specific watch was stolen.
What does it mean for you? It means that you lost your money and the watch. The only defense you have if something like this happens is to buy from a reputable person. In general, the watch seller would make it right, especially the once, which knows that reputation in the watch business is very important.
Harder to resell
When you buy naked watches, it is much harder to resell. Just look at the reasons above. If the watch had box and papers, it is much easier to double-check the authenticity of the watch.
Many people prefer to have a full set, which means a box and papers. They feel by having a complete set; they cannot be screwed. Matter of fact, papers and boxes can be faked as well. Some people put different cards and boxes together with the watch they are selling to you.
It’s not wrong to combine the original boxes with manuals or ask for the extract of the archives to get some official paperwork from various watch brands.
If you buy a naked watch, and you are looking to upgrade or to sell your watch, make sure you are purchasing authentic boxes because there are some counterfeit online and you do not want to buy them. Also, if you get the extract of the archives, you will be able to match the serial number to the document you will receive.
That way, when you list your watch for sale, the buyers will feel much more comfortable to buy your watch, because they know by having those documents you less likely selling a counterfeit.
Is it really risky to buy naked watches?
From my personal experience, it’s not if you have a process. What I mean by that, is to have checkpoints in a place.
Also, some of the watches are from Grey Market Dealers as well.
Who is the seller
When you know who the seller is, the chance of getting a fake watch is much lower because you are buying the seller and not the watch. Buying expensive watches, you need to trust the seller before you buy the watch. In some cases, you might not know who you are dealing with, but make sure that you are using a save method of payment or escrow service.
Do I know this type of watch
When buying a new watch, I always compare the original watch picture from the official watch brands to the one I am purchasing. Also, I check out various watch forums about that specific watch. That way, I can make sure that there are no red flags about the watch before I send the offer.
Last but not least, can I get the official papers or the extract of the archives for this watch? If I know I can get those documents, I also, look up if I can get an authentic box.
Again, buying naked watches can be risky if you are purchasing the watch from people you do not know because there is the chance that the watch was stolen or not real. Make sure you do your due diligence before you pay your hard hear money.
The blog post was written by Honza Hroch the founder of Value Your Watch Marketplace
