Watch Collecting 6 Months In Review

Watch Collecting is 6 months old, and yet it seems only yesterday that the website clock ticked down to zero on our first auction. That Omega Speedmaster found both a happy new owner and a delighted seller, and over 400 watches have since followed the same path to new homes.

That first day of results also saw our first world record, £82,500 for a ‘double sealed’ Patek Philippe 5711. Since then, world records have become second nature to Watch Collecting. You could say that beating the hammer price of a traditional auction house should be easy, our buyer’s premium being only 6% compared to their 30%, allowing our bidders to go much higher for the same final price, but Watch Collecting holds outright world records, including premium, for over 25 different references, a list that will only grow over time.

If breaking other auctioneers’ records is commonplace, we have to compete with ourselves, and the maximum price achieved on the platform is a benchmark we are always looking to exceed. £82,500 on the first day set the bar high and this lasted until September when the platform achieved £86,500 for a Breguet 1801 Tourbillon. This was followed by a gem-set rose gold Rolex GMT Master II, 2 days later, and by the end of the week, a Rolex Daytona ‘Eye of the Tiger’ at £97,500 and a Patek Philippe 5370P at £120,000 broke the record twice the same day. The sale of a rare Rolex Submariner 6200 finished off an astonishing month with a new high point of £205,500.

If prices have increased, so has the Watch Collecting audience with bids coming in from, and watches going out to, Europe, North America, The Middle East, and Asia. As the Watch Collecting team grows internationally over the next months, you can expect to see more watches consigned from more countries so it will be even easier to bid and win without the dreaded import duty.

Behind the scenes, it’s been more, more, more. Extra functionality was added with our escrow partner, Trustshare, going live in April. Our Experian verification checks have added extra levels of security, with more on the way to keep the platform as safe and secure as possible for everyone. An office move gave us more space, to give us more specialists, to offer more help throughout the consignment and bidding processes. This has led to more great reviews on Trustpilot, for which we couldn’t be more grateful.

When we started this journey, our aim with Watch Collecting was to offer a slick streamlined service that provided unbeatable value to both buyer and seller alike, all in a safe secure environment. We may be 100% online, but we are a team of passionate watch lovers who want all our customers to enjoy watches as much as we do. Our specialists act as trusted advisors to both buyers and sellers with integrity at the heart of everything we do, and our customers have put over £6,200,000 worth of trust in us, more if you count all the underbidding. Without our buyers and sellers, we are nothing. What we have achieved so far has been down to you as will our future success. If you have listed with us, sold with us, bid with us, or won with us, even if you have just liked a post on Facebook or Instagram, we thank you, it means everything to us.