selling an expensive watch?

[brblx]

i've got a non-running breitling that was my dad's. i would assume it just needs a battery. it's a j class with gold accents on the face, and an upgraded band with gold links (some gold, and i'm guessing stainless steel on the rest). got the inner and outer box, paperwork, spare links, et al. looks just about new sitting in the box but shows some typical wear to the band on inspection. would probably be very nice with a little bit of professional clean-up.

i would like to get it running and sell it but i'm not sure what route to take. either a local watch/jewlery shop or one of the big stores that retails rolexes and all that stuff, i guess. i would assume the latter would rape me, though. def don't want to give it to the guy at the mall kiosk to fix. would also see if they could give me any kind of appraisal on current value.

past that, do you pretty much have to find a private party to get an acceptable price? i think this watch was 3k+ new, no idea what kind of value these things hold. i would imagine i should still be able to get 1.5-2 out of it, but in this shit market i might just need to hold on to it...

anyone have any experience with this? i just have no need for an expensive watch that i will never wear.

edit: back from being polished by a man that was possibly polish. need better light for good pics. do not want to sell, especially for a grand.

 

[Koing]

What model is it? Post a pic.

It probably doesn't have a battery as well. Most Breitlings are automatics so no batteries but they do have some in their range.

Depending on what is wrong it could be costly to get it running. A service is £300-350 or thereabouts.

I would go with watch forums to get the best prices. I only know of UK ones.

Koing

 

[brblx]

i don't know what model to call it beyond a breitling j class chronograph.

pic-

 

[OBLAMA2009]

it was your dads, you should keep it. i have watches that once belonged to my grandfather

 

[deadlyapp]

If it's an automatic, it may just be out of reserve. Gently move the watch side to side and see if it starts to tick. If it doesn't, then the movement may be damaged and that will cost you several hundred dollars to have serviced probably.

I'd expect about half the original price, maybe less. Good places to sell are on watchuseek, timezone, and timetechtalk. Maybe poor mans watch forum as well.

 

[BabaBooey]

Sign up here...


http://www.breitlingsource.com/phpBB2/

 

[996GT2]

Breitling J Class watches use quartz ETA movements. So it does use a battery and the battery probably needs replacing.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Check timezone.com for approximate values. That thing looks pretty beat up - I would have it serviced and cosmetically cleaned up before selling it. You will also take a hit if you don't have the boxes and papers.

 

[Brigandier]

Check timezone.com for approximate values. That thing looks pretty beat up - I would have it serviced and cosmetically cleaned up before selling it. You will also take a hit if you don't have the boxes and papers.

I think that picture is just accentuating all the flaws, and he had the box and papers, would it still be in his interest to take it to get cleaned up?

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I think that picture is just accentuating all the flaws, and he had the box and papers, would it still be in his interest to take it to get cleaned up?

I think so. A good jeweler can polish out all those scratches and make it look like new. I know if I were a buyer I'd feel much more confident paying for a watch that had been cleaned up before buying it.

 

[robphelan]

also, watchuseek.com is a good resource.

I've bought and sold Rolex, Omega, Longines, and a Ball through watchuseek.com, ebay and craigslist.

 

[robphelan]

I think so. A good jeweler can polish out all those scratches and make it look like new. I know if I were a buyer I'd feel much more confident paying for a watch that had been cleaned up before buying it.

a thing to remember is that some collectors prefer a gold watch that has never been polished. not sure why - the only thing I can think of is that gold is removed in the polishing process

 

[brblx]

random upodate- sat on this watch a few weeks, could not decide if i wanted to sell it or not.

finally took it to one of two breitling retailers- a fairly 'normal' jewelry/watch shop with a claimed trained breitling tech. the other was 'genesis diamonds,' which is located in a part of town i like to call the rich white ghetto- people living above their means, and doing it in a part of town that seems shittier than my standard latin/black/old non-rich white people ghetto.

anyway, they offered to look at it for free and go from there. their guy put a batt in it while i waited, came back with it working, and even freely admitted that the movement looked to be in great shape and did not need servicing. 60 bucks, plus i left it with them to clean it. 200 and they say it should look pretty new. disassembling the band and polishing each link + the extras is included. seemed reasonable, and they said not to worry about damage to the gold- while not solid, it's apparently very thick on this watch, and basically a shiny new-looking watch will fetch more money than one that weighs a few micrograms more.

as for appraisal, they said they would typically just evaluate the value to replace, as free market value of an aging watch is pretty hard to guess.

all the newer watches have automatic movements, i guess. and if you went with one of them that kind of matched in features and materials, it was about 9k...for a discontinued model.(!) the closest production piece was only stainless, but had mother of pearl on it, i think. 13000 friggin dollars.

anyone sell insurance and/or steal watches?

 

[deadlyapp]

A quartz I'd expect no more than $1000 for. The quartzes are just not very sought after. Spending $200 on a polishing job is not something I probably would have done.

Edit: most of the scratches you could have probably gotten out yourself with a $10 polishing pen that you can buy online.

 

[brblx]

oh yeah, this does of course imply that the pic i posted was highlighting the roughest bits. really, other than the the typical scratches to the band, it's nice. camera flashes just hate everyone and everything.

i'm going to try and get some estimates and/or offers from some forums that rob mentioned when i get it back. should be friday, tops (they said 2 days-ish)- though i was surprised to hear a service would involve a month wait; i guess they're busy and prioritize the easy stuff. a service was still only 300 i think (remember, we're talking expensive swiss watches you want to last forever, not just keeping a battery in your fossil), though i have no idea what it entails- kinda like someone coming to me for a tuneup and just saying 'fix what it needs and don't rob me,' heh.

i'm feeling a lot more confident that even in this shit economy, this'll be an easy sell if 'officially' decide. i'm pretty sure at this point. though i do like it (even being a general gold hater), i have absolutely no place to wear it except to bars; you know, to try and fool drunken whores into thinking i'm successful. ;P

 

[thegimp03]

A quartz I'd expect no more than $1000 for. The quartzes are just not very sought after. Spending $200 on a polishing job is not something I probably would have done.

Edit: most of the scratches you could have probably gotten out yourself with a $10 polishing pen that you can buy online.

$200 seems cheaper than the $2,500 my wife and her mom were quoted to get her grandmother's diamond Rolex watch cleaned and in working order again...

 

[brblx]

A quartz I'd expect no more than $1000 for. The quartzes are just not very sought after. Spending $200 on a polishing job is not something I probably would have done.

Edit: most of the scratches you could have probably gotten out yourself with a $10 polishing pen that you can buy online.

i think that's a bit low but i try and defer to experts. the closest thing i could find seemed to think a non-official guess of ~2k was a bit closer. but hell, maybe she was just buttering me up to try and get me to spend some money.

though polishing and cleaning is mostly just labor, i still don't really think they're trying trick me out of a couple hundred bucks. again- they were busy. i don't think they just needed the work.

though i certainly acknowledge truth to your statement. they sell used watches, so i would figure if they thought they could offer me a price i'd take and sell the watch easily...well, they prolly woulda made me an offer. not sure if they had any quartz breitlings on hand, maybe the women's watches.

but it's certainly not just a worthless relic because it lacks an auto movement.

 

[deadlyapp]

By no means am I saying so, but quartz ETA movements themselves are only about $50-100 (The J series seems to use the 251.262/272 seen here : http://www.ofrei.com/page1003.html which costs less than $90 for a new one) by themselves, whereas a top quality ETA automatic runs around 100-200 by itself without any modification and tuning by brietling themselves. The movement itself is pretty much not requiring of service ever because it has virtually no moving parts.

I've bought and sold a number of high and low end watches via different fora over the last few years and I think you'll find it will sell for much less than you might expect. Take a look at the forums listed above and see what newer(and automatic) brietlings are selling for to get a realistic value. The jewelers are going to give you an artificially high value to make it more worthwhile for you to clean it, obviously, it's a business.

I'm not trying to say it's worthless to clean up, I'm just saying you should look at it from a profit standpoint if all you want to do is sell it.

 

[halik]

Check timezone.com for approximate values. That thing looks pretty beat up - I would have it serviced and cosmetically cleaned up before selling it. You will also take a hit if you don't have the boxes and papers.

I ought to mention watchrecon.com, awesome search engine that craws all the forums (including TZ, watchuseek etc.). Found my fifty fathoms* that way

* Interesting enough service for Blancpain runs roughly 1300 dollars.

 

[brblx]

$200 seems cheaper than the $2,500 my wife and her mom were quoted to get her grandmother's diamond Rolex watch cleaned and in working order again...

well, to be fair, a rolex with diamonds in it is probably a lot more expensive than a relatively entry level breitling (still swiss, still good stuff, still sought after...but the rolex name still carries so much weight). and her's may have been broken/damaged. this is a ~20 year old watch that was serviced some time in the 90's and then stored in very good conditions.

they will not be opening it up again, and i doubt they'll do much to the face- the bulk of the labor is disassembly/reassembly and polishing of the band. yeah, i could do it, you probably just need a polishing wheel, some kind of compound to polish it with, and a proper set of basic 'watch' tools (dont even know how links come apart...pin punch?). they seem honest and reasonable- i'll just let them do it. if i had serious doubt, i would not (or if i was making a more serious 'wager.' even if the watch cant get more than 1k and i keep it, fuck it, 200 is still reasonable to...look like a boss).

 

[deadlyapp]

here's a few currently for sale breitlings on WUS:
Quartz Navitimer - $1500 - http://forums.watchuseek.com/f29/fs-41-5mm-breitling-navitimer-jupiter-quartz-1990s-570564.html

Chronomat Auto (7750 movement) - $2500 - http://forums.watchuseek.com/f29/fs-breitling-chronomat-d13050-blue-face-w-gold-bezel-565071.html

Colt Quartz (COSC certed) - $1079 - http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=tree&goto=4294127&rid=0

And there's more. Do some of your own investigative work as far as the cost is concerned. Or just post it for sale a few forums for like $2000 and if nobody buys it just keep lowering the price.

 

[yllus]

I ought to mention watchrecon.com, awesome search engine that craws all the forums (including TZ, watchuseek etc.). Found my fifty fathoms* that way

* I should mention that Blancpain service runs roughly 1300 dollars per the invoice.

I actually wrote (and subsequently abandoned) myforumalerts.com for the sole reason of automatically getting an e-mail in my inbox whenever someone puts an "omega speedmaster" up for sale on Watchuseek. Now I've been bested!

 

[brblx]

here's a few currently for sale breitlings on WUS:
Quartz Navitimer - $1500 - http://forums.watchuseek.com/f29/fs-41-5mm-breitling-navitimer-jupiter-quartz-1990s-570564.html

Chronomat Auto (7750 movement) - $2500 - http://forums.watchuseek.com/f29/fs-breitling-chronomat-d13050-blue-face-w-gold-bezel-565071.html

Colt Quartz (COSC certed) - $1079 - http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=tree&goto=4294127&rid=0

And there's more. Do some of your own investigative work as far as the cost is concerned. Or just post it for sale a few forums for like $2000 and if nobody buys it just keep lowering the price.

i've looked, the issue is the economy and that it's not a super common model (maybe because of lack of demand) most of the research i've done says a super basic j class in good shape should fetch 1k or more, the nicer models obviously bring more. the stainless/gold band should be worth 500ish over a standard strap alone, plus there are large difference in value depending on the face.

2k does not seem unreasonable, and neither is your advice. i usually start something at 'fair market' and then just lower as needed based on interest (or if i grossly misjudged said 'fair market' entirely). i'll be okay. it still doesn't hurt to update the the thread and see if anyone else has anything useful to offer.

...like cash, bitches. i know one of you multimillionaires wants a shiney gold (ish) watch dammit!

 

[deadlyapp]

i've looked, the issue is the economy and that it's not a super common model (maybe because of lack of demand) most of the research i've done says a super basic j class in good shape should fetch 1k or more, the nicer models obviously bring more. the stainless/gold band should be worth 500ish over a standard strap.

2k does not seem unreasonable, and neither is your advice. i usually start something at 'fair market' and then just lower as needed based on interest (or if i grossly misjudged said 'fair market' entirely). i'll be okay. it still still doesn't hurt to update the the thread and see if anyone else has anything useful to offer.

...like cash, bitches. i know one of you multimillionaires wants a shiney gold (ish) watch dammit!

I'd love a breitling, but I think my next watch will be a Ball. There's something about delicious tritium goodness that just gets me going.

You'll just have a hard time selling a quartz IMO. The diehard watch guys are snobby about quartzes. I have one or two but the rest of mine are autos, there's just something awesome about how beautiful they are mechanically.

 

[brblx]

i just never understood the functional difference i guess. it looks the same externally, seems to keep time as well...wasn't quartz developed well after the auto movement because of its reliability?

...ok, well...maybe just because it was cheap. but the local aficionados i've talked to seem to feel quartz is still acceptable in a higher end watch, especially smaller ones (apparently auto movements are hard to cram into a common 'ladies' size watch? could be total BS, this is surely not my area).