The pre-owned watch market is hotter than ever. Watch collectors are no different from anyone else, always looking for a bargain. Still, over the last year, the pre-owned market has become more critical within the watch industry. As new prices skyrocket and, with some brands, availability has become a severe issue, pre-owned examples may be the best way of securing your chosen dream watch.
Of course, whether you are shopping via a giant online dealer or fostering a relationship at your local pre-owned shop, there are intrinsic risks you need to be aware of before buying a watch that's not brand new. For every bargain, we see an equal number of poor examples that will catch you out further down the line.
But what if there was the chance to buy a brand new watch for all intents and purposes, still with a warranty, had never been owned, yet benefited from a significant reduction of the original sale price? This sounds too good to be true.
Not so; Welcome to the WatchGecko Pre-Owned range.
Photographic Models
Squale 1521 Militaire Swiss Made Divers Watch - Mesh Bracelet - Blasted Case
We have a significant turnaround of watches with the brands WatchGecko is an agent for in the UK. We have worked hard to be trusted by those manufacturers and are vested in getting their watches on people's wrists. As you can imagine, we have very close relationships with all these brands. We are equally passionate about watches under our Geckota brand, so much team effort goes into watch sales and marketing.
When we receive a batch of new watches, we allocate a couple to the Photographic and Video Unit within the Creative Team. These watches star in the amazing images you associate with the WatchGecko Magazine and website. Many shots are unchanged from how the manufacturer supplies them, and sometimes, they are dressed in new straps surrounded by interesting props or on staff wrists for those all-important lifestyle shots.
Geckota Pioneer Automatic Watch Blue Edition TP-369-2
Once we have a decent selection of images on various straps, we have just been storing these watches as future photographic props. However, like all collectors, we occasionally have too many watches, so we have collectively decided to thin out the collection. This concept gave birth to the Pre-Owned project. Photographic watches are effectively new models. They have NEVER been owned and, in many cases, are still covered by the balance of the manufacturer's warranty. Take, for example, NTH, which offers an unprecedented six-year warranty movement. Most of the warranty would still apply to a WatchGecko Pre-Owned NTH.
These watches have been treated with a lot of care and have spent their life to date being lovingly photographed and constantly being cleaned for fingerprints! To say they have had an easy life would be an understatement. Thence, they make a fantastic purchase.
Customer Returns
Another source for Pre-Owned watches is customer returns. It is a fact of life when you run an internet-based business that occasionally, people order products and want to return them. This is especially important with watches where you want to see how they wear and feel. It could be nothing more than you thought a 43mm watch would suit you, and when it arrived, it was too large for your wrist.
At WatchGecko, we have always taken a proactive view of customer service, and we try to be accommodating with such returns – after all, we want you to be happy. When we take possession of such returns, we cannot resell them as new, so the team carefully looks at each watch and decides if it suits Pre-Owned. Those given the green light are subjected to the same QC process as new watches and given a 6-month WatchGecko warranty.
We have 61 watches in the Pre-Owned collection when going to Press. Of course, this number will vary, but an exceptional choice will always exist. Currently, we have some fantastic reductions on watches that have never been owned and retain manufacturer stickers and tags. You can get as much as £500 off a Squale Dive watch, £400 off a Boldr Odyssey, £200 off an Elliot Brown Holton and a substantial £500 off a Laco Flieger.
WatchGecko's Pre-Owned range takes the sting out of watch buying in many ways. Not only are the watches effectively new, but they are at very desirable prices. The collection content sells fast, so do not hesitate if you see something you like. Go over the WatchGecko Pre-Owned collection and secure a much-deserved bargain.
