Fratello On Air: Tips For Buying Used Watches

Some things we've learned along the way

July 04, 2023

comments 6

Fratello On Air returns with another listener-inspired topic. This week, we tackle buying used watches and give some tips that we’ve learned over time. Expect a good back-and-forth dialogue while our co-hosts are traveling away from Germany. As always, we’re interested in your thoughts on a topic like this — we’re sure that many of you have great ideas!

Buying used watches can be a daunting activity. Concerns about the seller, the price, the location, and the watch itself are just some of the challenges that come to mind. We’ll do our best to explore these in more detail and provide our thoughts.

Mission to the Moon

Handgelenks Kontrolle

This week, Mike is in London, England, and Balazs is in his hometown of Pecs, Hungary. To cope with their travels, they’re each sporting easy-going watches for this episode. Balazs is wearing his trusty G-Shock GW-B5600-2 that serves as his “only-G-Shock.” Mike decided to bring his MoonSwatch Mission to the Moon on a black Artem strap with a deployant buckle. Clearly, “comfort” is the name of the game during this recording.

Image: Wearingtime.com

Buying used watches

Used watches are so plentiful, and so many people buy them every day that it seems like easy business. However, challenges do exist. Hugh, a listener of ours, sent us a note and asked about the Omega Seamaster GMT 2534.50.00 (not the watch you see above), a model he has been eyeing. He asked us to discuss some of the top concerns we have about buying a pre-owned piece, so we’re happy to comply! Everything from buying from a source with protection, asking for better pictures, and pitfalls to avoid come up in the discussion. Locating spare parts and a good watchmaker also makes the cut. If you like to trawl online marketplaces, this episode might interest you. As mentioned above, feel free to share your top tips in the comments section below.

As always, we thank you for listening. Feel free to let us know if you have any topics for a future episode.

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Fratello On Air: Tips For Buying Used Watches

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6 Comments

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LM
Liam.Mulholland says:

Jul 04, 2023 at 09:50

Even though Naco isn’t on the podcast…..his god damn 2254 still makes an appearance in the title picture for the post ?

Reply
DG
GoldenYears says:

Jul 04, 2023 at 10:25

In all my years as a watch enthusiast, I’ve never purchased a pre-owned timepiece. I guess I’m anxious about all the unknowns of a used watch, especially a vintage watch – and especially buying a watch online. I’ve been given very old vintage watches by my family and wife’s family but every watchmaker I spoke with said these gems of yesteryear are not worth restoring – especially since they have no sentimental value to me and replacement parts are long gone.

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EB
EDDI2142 says:

Jul 04, 2023 at 12:28

Thanks for the podcast, very insightful. I guess the more details a seller provides, the better the research that one can put into the desired watch.

On the matter of services, parts etc.
Do big brands (f.ex. Rolex/Omega) have spare parts for “newer” watches? And as brought up in the comments of another article (link below – there were some examples of poor execution), is it usually a good option to do the service through the manufacturer (perhaps this could be discussed in a future episode/article)?

https://www.fratellowatches.com/unfair-commercial-practices-judge-orders-rolex-dealer-to-reimburse-client/

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1. Robert-Jan says:
  
  Jul 04, 2023 at 13:36
  
  Yes, many brands have spare parts for their “modern” watches. I remember that Rolex claimed at some point they could do till 25 years back, and probably the same for Omega. From my own experience, I can say that Omega goes back till at least the 1990s for spare parts. For older watches, these brand might still have certain parts, but not all.
  
  Reply
Enuona says:

Jul 04, 2023 at 20:17

Firmly in the budget class, I have no hesitation buying 2nd hand as such. In my book, it’s an opportunity to get a better watch within a set budget. Just went through the process, dropping alternatives one by one, until there was one left, put up against a new one.

If the right one had popped up I would have taken the 2nd hand, but it didn’t, thus I got a new one instead. Both would have done just fine for my activities. I actually preferred to get a recent 2nd hand,

I decided to stick to one owner “watch guy” specimens though. More likely to be handled in rotation and taken care of. Service less likely, thus recent watches only (service or sell hell). But I do believe there’s quite a few guys out there who buy watches, keeps them for a short while hardly using them, and then moves on to the next. And the next. And the next. Watches from those guys tend to be as good as new, and advantageously priced.

I would not purchase my watch from me. I have no intention to babysit it, it would be worn and most likely take som bashing. That’s fine by me, but it’s not something I would inflict upon a next owner. Then again, it’s a daily beater and most likely it’s provenance starts and stops with me.

The most important lesson I drew from a prolonged process doesn’t have that much to do with 2nd hand or not, but there’s no point choosing a different watch when one’s head is set on a specific one. Might be better, might be worse, might be cheaper, might be new, but it would never become the one you wanted.

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Swordsy says:

Jul 07, 2023 at 12:57

Hi Gents. Just to say keep up the great work. I listen to all your episodes and I enjoy your trainer, film talk ?. Thanks for your efforts.

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