Of Ferraris & The Definition of a “New Watch” …and why it’s not what you think!

• In the luxury auto market, safeguards exist to prevent listing of used cars as “new” cars.
• The luxury watch aftermarket lacks the same kind of standards. “New” is listed to dodge hard questions about condition, provenance, and accessories associated with a given watch.
• Accepting that any watch on the aftermarket is “pre-owned” ends the charade.
• Educated consumers and forthright sellers are the solution that will raise standards of disclosure.
•  watchuwant.com never lists “new” watches; we answer the hard questions in full.

watchuwant.com has never sold a new watch in its fourteen years as a leader of the pre-owned luxury watch industry.

And neither have our competitors in the sector. But while the “good guys” in this marketplace will acknowledge that “pre-owned” is a function of sales outlet (authorized dealer vs. aftermarket) rather than condition, many sellers continue to perpetuate the fiction that “new” watches exist outside of factory authorized dealers. While common in the luxury watch market, consider how bizarre this deception would look in a long-established industry like the auto business.

This watch is pre-owned and includes a complete set of boxes, manuals, and accessories. Once a buyer knows that each aftermarket watch described as “new” really isn’t, he knows to ask whether he will receive this level of original equipment.

Let’s say you’re responding to a listing for a “new” Ferrari 612 Scalglietti (lucky you!) at a local exotic car lot.

You know that the the 612 has been out of production since 2011, and it’s abnormal for a late-model Ferrari to sit unsold for any period, but the 612 was an oddball four-seater that didn’t find much love in the U.S. market. Perhaps good fortune has delivered to you a “new” Ferrari that can also haul the kids.

But when you arrive on the dealer’s lot, red flags start flying. First, the car’s tires are flat and squared; the interior is covered in dust and dead flies sit belly up under the rear window. There’s a stale atmosphere inside, and you find a sign from another sales lot under the seats. Even worse, the salesman casually mentions that the car is missing one set of keys and its factory manuals.

The deal-breaker comes when the sales rep tells you that the car has no warranty or title. And yet, he maintains that this is a “new” Ferrari with a commensurate price premium above the same car’s pre-owned value.

This watch presents “like new,” but full documentation (provenance) proves that the watch was “sold” by an authorized dealer – and pre-owned, regardless of condition. Unlike cars, watches do not come with titles.

If this scenario sounds farcical, implausible, and unacceptable, that’s only because the luxury auto consumer knows that lemon laws, BBB standards, titles, Carfax, insurance records, and registration histories have become institutional safeguards against this kind of abuse in the car market. Moreover, an auto lot grants the ability to inspect goods in person; the internet rarely does.

But what is unthinkable on the auto landscape is standard operating procedure in the watch sector.

The greatest shortcoming of the pre-owned luxury watch market is its lack of any equivalent standards, safeguards, and consumer expectations for transparency. At this very moment, precisely the above scenario is playing out on Chrono24, eBay, Lionseek, aftermarket websites, forums, and every other channel through which pre-owned luxury watches are sold.

Even watches with sophisticated electronic documentation tools such as this Hublot may be misrepresented as “new” because the electronic chain of custody often is not updated by the original authorized dealer before sale to an aftermarket vendor.

Allowing an eBay seller to dodge meaningful questions about condition and provenance because he calls a watch “new” is tantamount to letting mice guard the cheese and expecting anything but a buffet. For the sake of ending abuse and deception, the only new watches are sold from factory-authorized dealers — the end.

All others are aftermarket, by definition. Even if a watch has never been sold to an end user who wears the watch, any secondary owner outside factory channels automatically creates a pre-owned watch. But without a title, registration, or service history, buyers have no means of establishing how long that watch has been drifting through the aftermarket unsold, how many IWJG trade-show window shoppers have handled it, and whether the watch actually includes all factory accessories.

Individual watches have been known to pinball between aftermarket vendors for years before reaching an actual user, but every single one of those vendors listed the watch as “new” while allowing innumerable tire-kickers to handle, operate, and endanger the watch.

Once we’ve established that all aftermarket watches are “pre-owned,” buyers know to demand photography that reveals all. A grainy photo may suffice if a watch is new in an authorized dealer showroom and backed by factory warranties, but pre-owned watches necessitate detailed disclosure. Note: the best sellers usually offer the best photos.

To be clear: “newness” is a function of custody, not a description of condition. A perfect watch in the hands of an aftermarket seller honestly may be called “like new” if the description is appropriate, but we’ve established that “new” doesn’t relate to condition; it relates to ownership history.

In the automotive market, the word “new” carries the weight of underlying laws and the certainty of consequences for unscrupulous sellers. Consumers buying luxury watches do not enjoy this protection, but the use of “new” in watch sales listings has the same effect of preempting probing questions about provenance, condition, and post-sale consumer rights.

And rascals will use watch buyers’ assumptions about “new” products to deflect legitimate questions. The word is used as a poison pill to kill discussions about critical concerns. Sellers won’t discuss the condition of an 8 year-old watch if it can be called “new,” because new watches are assumed to exhibit mint condition. “New” watches are assumed to arrive with factory-fresh movements that require no service. “New” watches are assumed to include a complete set of factory accessories, manuals, and packaging.

Truly new watches are backed by the full factory warranty of the manufacturer. On the aftermarket, ask hard questions about the remaining factory warranty on a pre-owned watch. If there is none, ask the seller what post-sale warranties and assurances his business offers. The best sellers will stand behind what they sell, but consumers must know to ask!

The temptation to dodge legitimate questions about provenance, condition, and unjustified price premiums rewards exaggeration, and that’s a slippery slope that leads to lying. Many sellers in the aftermarket will receive a lightly-used watch that presents as factory-fresh, but a stamped warranty card or included sales receipt prevents them from calling it “new” in the conventional sense.

Naturally, the worst kind of seller sees this as a cue to discard the paper evidence of ownership, advertise the watch in question as “new,” and demand a price premium over honest sellers listing “pre-owned” timepieces in identical condition. But if aftermarket watches are “pre-owned” by definition, abuses like this cannot occur.

For the sake of consumer protection and the integrity of the pre-owned luxury watch market, it is imperative that both parties agree to standard definitions of “pre-owned” and “new.” Once this happens, scoundrels have to answer the questions that they prefer to avoid.

Certain pre-owned watches can be described honestly as “like new” with respect to condition. These exceptional watches are far fewer in number than the total of “new” watches being listed on the aftermarket.

The quality of the answers concerning provenance, condition, accessories, and after-sales service will induce a natural culling of the bad seeds.

Just as buyers of used cars automatically ask questions about these material factors, buyers of watches must grow accustomed to doing the same. Consumers will be the biggest beneficiaries, and the upstanding dealers on the pre-owned circuit will enjoy the fruits of honesty.

Today’s luxury watch aftermarket brings consumers the deepest well of selection, discounts, access, and information that the 600 year-old watch industry has every known. What the internet and consumer education have fostered is a magnificent arena for buying, selling, and trading luxury timepieces.

The “good guys” on this playing field are the reason that it grows and thrives; they’re the builders who have ownership in the system and deserve to call the shots. By demanding standardized language for representing products, consumers are asking the good guys to step forward.

When approached with an educated consumer perspective, the pre-owned luxury watch marketplace offers an unbeatable combination of selection, discounts, and access. This F.P. Journe Centigraphe Souverain Black Label otherwise is only available from authorized dealers for existing Journe Owners… at full MSRP.

Simply lifting the curtain and exposing frauds has merit in and of itself, but the end of mass-listings of “new” watches will lead to accurate pricing, transparency, encourage standardized systems for expressing condition, and place a legitimate premium on those watches that can be described as “like new” without deception.

At watchuwant.com, we are market makers who lead from the front. Our watch photos, descriptions, disclosure, and after-sales service already are focused on answering the hard questions that we encourage luxury watch buyers to ask. watchuwant.com ranks among the world’s most respected destinations for buying, selling, and trading luxury watches.

We’ve built our house without ever claiming to sell a “new” watch, and we look forward to a day when others in the aftermarket industry will admit the same.