There’s something magical about owning a luxury watch. The way it looks. The way it feels and the power that emanates from your wrist. Nothing can compare to the personal connection a high-end watch shares with its owner.
But sometimes, after a few years of use, the watch loses that magic. Maybe a new collection has come out that caught your attention. Or maybe you’re just ready to move on. Now it’s time to upgrade. There are endless ways to do this – trading with another collector, trading up at a store, buying and selling – but each has its issues. A new company in the luxury goods space is offering a unique way to make the transition.
Throwing a luxury watch on eBay or other classified sites is more often than not a waste of the item’s worth. You’ll end up handing over the watch for less money than it’s worth to someone who doesn’t even understand the intrinsic value. On the other side of things, there’s no way to know if what you are buying is in good shape or even genuine.
In comes Worthy, the self-labeled ‘first secured online auction house’ for high-end luxury goods. Worthy allows people to auction old-but-still-valuable luxury items - watches, jewelry, diamonds and more, and get “the most” money for them. Your old watch goes from auction to cash in your hand in just a few days, and you’ll be free to spend your days browsing Hodinkee.
When most of us decide to sell a watch, the main considerations are time and money. Generally, it’s very difficult to get the best deal out of one without sacrificing the other. The reason Worthy struck a chord with us is that it does a good job of saving you both. This is how it goes: You sign up, answer a few descriptive questions about your watch, add an image, and based on this information you are presented with a rough market value estimate. If this gets your attention, then you print off the prepaid shipping label and send it in free.
Appraisers take a closer look into your watch to get a specific evaluation. Then, they clean and professionally photograph your watch, and write a selling description. Finally, all of this information is presented to professional watch buyers across the world, that are specifically targeted for their interest. From experience with selling watches, finding the right buyer can be difficult in the secondhand market and is a critical component of getting a good price.
The auction runs for 24 hours and you can follow along as bids are entered, right through the website. The highest bid is presented for approval (which you can decline if unsatisfactory, and the watch will be shipped back at no cost) and if accepted, you receive your money almost instantly.
That’s it – You can close the whole cycle with a little bit of work from your living room couch and not lose out for being lazy. Worthy is a relatively new player in the after-market sales industry, and seems to be bringing a lot of innovation to it. Going through their reviews, it looks like their costumers found the eBay alternative for their precious items. Upgrading your luxury watch has never looked easier.
