Every leg insured
A watch on this site moves twice: seller to the authentication center, then center to the buyer. Both legs are booked on our account, covered for full value and signed for.
Label issued
Once the buyer's funds are verified we send the seller a prepaid, insured label and the ship-to address.
Seller ships
Double-boxed, dropped at the carrier counter, tracking added to the order the same day.
Held in the vault
The center receives, inspects and stores the watch while the buyer reads the report and pays.
Released to the buyer
On the seller's confirmation the watch ships out, insured for full value, adult signature required.
How to pack a watch
Coverage depends on these being followed exactly. A parcel packed any other way can be refused by the insurer.
Ship only with the carrier and label we issue. A parcel sent another way isn't insured under our policy and we can't trace or claim on it for you.
The watch box goes inside a new inner carton, which goes inside a new outer carton, with padding so nothing can shift. The manufacturer's box doesn't count as one of the two, and padded envelopes never qualify.
Nothing on the outer carton should suggest what's inside — no watch-brand tape, no jeweller's labels. Plain box, plain tape.
Required on every leg. No signature-release, no safe-place delivery, no leaving it with a neighbour.
Take it to a staffed counter and get a receipt. Don't use an unattended drop box, and don't leave a parcel sitting over a weekend.
Where it goes. The intake address is sent with your label the moment a sale is confirmed — never ship to an address you weren't given by us.
Covered for what it's worth, not what it weighs.
Every parcel is declared at the full hammer value and insured for it, in both directions, under a specialist policy written for high-value horology — not the carrier's standard tier. If a watch is lost or damaged in transit while packed to the rules above, the claim is ours to make and the party who was owed the watch is made whole.
Who pays which leg
Paid by the seller and deducted from nothing — you book it on our label and settle the cost with your payout. Roughly the price of an overnight parcel, whatever the watch is worth.
Paid by the buyer, quoted on the order page before you pay so there are no surprises.
A watch that fails authentication goes back to the seller at the seller's cost. The buyer pays nothing and the premium is refunded in full.
The vault holds a watch free for 14 days after the seller confirms payment. Beyond that a storage fee applies until it ships or is collected.
International shipments
We ship worldwide where the insurer and the law allow, with a few things worth knowing before you bid.
Import duty, VAT and customs handling are the buyer's responsibility and are charged by the destination country, not by us. Check your own rate before bidding — on a watch it is rarely trivial.
We declare the true value on every customs form. We won't under-declare a parcel or mark a sale as a gift, and asking us to voids your cover.
A handful of countries are outside our insurer's cover, and straps in restricted materials can't cross certain borders. If your destination is affected we'll tell you before you pay.
Transit is usually two to five business days plus whatever the destination's customs take. Your payment deadline isn't affected by shipping time.
Shipping to a business address or a carrier hold-for-pickup point is materially safer than a home doorstep for anything valuable, and it usually clears customs faster too.
Ask before you ship.
If anything about packing, timing or your destination is unclear, ask first — a two-minute message beats an uninsured parcel.