First good watch purchase advice....auction.

[irish boy]

Bit of advice.....

The auction house near me that normally just does cars, has an auction of watches and jewlery coming up. It's all stock that was lifted by the assets recovery via a fraud case in England.

They have 30 or so Rolex/breitling and some more rare makes. They seem to be higher end ones £20-30k with a handful of more standard ones also.

I presume there's no papers or boxes but going for a viewing today at 3 so I'll know more then.

Any advice? Obviously they need to be working and well priced. I would be buying one to keep rather than turn.

There's no reserve so it's hard to know how the bidding will go, we have a small population over here and I can't see that many people bidding. We only have one good watch shop in the entire country. Apparently the stock came over here due to the sensitivity of the case.

[PJ S]

Do your research on the model of interest, and don't get caught up in a bidding frenzy. You could factor in a service (just to be on the safe side) to the overall amount you'd be prepared to spend, but as you're planning on keeping it, then it's arguable that that's part and parcel of owning such a watch, so just bid what the watch is worth to you.
A box and the papers (bar warranty) can be picked up relatively easy enough, and the service paperwork will satisfy a new owner, should you decide to sell it.

[Dominic H]

You'd also want to be certain that they are the genuine article. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that goods seized from a fraud case may not be what they should.

Buyer beware as always.

Good luck!

[PJ S]

If the items have been seized by the police, I highly doubt they've been released to the auction house without having been verified for authenticity purposes.
If they were a bunch of replicas, they'd have been destroyed.

[irish boy]

Just back from the viewing, yeah they're all genuine. A couple of them have cases and papers, most don't. Only 2 were going out of the whole lot. They had a bit more wear/marks etc than I was expecting.

Total buyer beware, it would need to be cheap when coupled with the 10% auction fee and then a massive repair bill. Will still take a trip along and see what happens. There's a lovely speedmaster looked stunning in the flesh.

[irish boy]

This audemars also caught my eye. Wasn't familiar with the brand but a lot of presence.


http://www.wilsonsauctions.com/liquidation-disposa...

[Dominic H]

Some interesting lots there, especially the 991 cab and the RS4 with 99 miles.

[The Surveyor]

irish boy said:

...... Only 2 were going out of the whole lot......

Remember, only quartz watches will run when not being used. Automatic or manual-wind watches (which most high-end stuff will be) will stop after a day or two so don't assume that just because it isn't ticking away merrily it's broken.

[EJH]

The Surveyor said:

Remember, only quartz watches will run when not being used. Automatic or manual-wind watches (which most high-end stuff will be) will stop after a day or two so don't assume that just because it isn't ticking away merrily it's broken.

Also worthy of note is that one doesn't know how well an automatic is running until one gets to wear it for a few days and so worth pricing a service (and polish) into the maths as well.

[Blown2CV]

Sounds like an excellent way to get royally fked. If they were any good they'd be going to a specialist, not a car auction house.