Sell Your Luxury Watch
Sell your watch online or in store to a licensed luxury watch buyer. Free quote, prepaid insured shipping and payment the day we agree on a price, from a family business rated A+ by the BBB.
Get a Free Quote to Sell Your Watch
Tell us the brand, model and reference, add a few photos, and a buyer replies with a figure in writing. There is no fee, and your watch stays with you until you accept.
How Do I Sell My Watch Online?
You can sell a luxury watch online in four steps, with overnight insured shipping and payment on the day of inspection. The process is identical for a single piece or a full collection, and for a current Rolex or a vintage dress watch that has not run in years.
Send Details and Photos
Use the form above or text photos to (213) 414-1525. Include the brand, the reference number if you can find it, and whether you still have the box, papers or spare links.
Receive a Written Offer
A buyer who specializes in your brand checks what that exact reference is trading for this week and emails you a firm number.
Ship Free or Visit Us
Accept and we email a prepaid FedEx overnight label insured for the full offer. In Southern California, you can bring the watch to 613 S Hill St instead.
Inspection, Then Payment
We open and inspect the package on camera, confirm the watch matches your description, then release your bank wire or company check that day.
Which Luxury Watch Brands Do You Buy?
Each of these brands has a dedicated buyer and its own selling guide, covering the references, paperwork and condition points that move its price. Own another Swiss, German or Japanese luxury watch? Send it anyway, running or not.
Compare Your Offer Before You Ship
Already had your watch priced by another dealer, a consignment platform or an auction house? Send that figure with your photos. We buy for our own inventory and for collectors who have asked us to source specific references, so we can usually tell you within the hour whether your number can be beaten.
Why Sell Your Watch to WatchGuys?
WatchGuys is a family-run dealer with two generations in the Los Angeles jewelry trade. We hold California Secondhand Dealer License 000004771, which the state requires of every business that buys pre-owned watches, and the Better Business Bureau has accredited us with an A+ rating. That license means each purchase is recorded and reported, which protects you as a seller and keeps stolen watches off the market.
We are a buyer, not a broker. Your watch is paid for in full by us, resold through our own inventory of more than 300 pre-owned luxury watches, and never consigned on your behalf. Our CEO, Robertino Altieri, is regularly asked by Forbes, Business Insider and Yahoo Finance to comment on the secondary watch market, and the prices we pay are built from that same market data.
If you would rather see the process than read about it, Selling Time, our YouTube series filmed inside the Hill Street showroom, follows real sellers from the first offer to the final handshake. The newest episode plays below.
Sell Your Luxury Watch for Cash Today
The fastest way to a cash offer is a text. Send photos of the watch to (213) 414-1525 with the brand and reference, and a buyer replies during business hours with a figure, or with the one or two questions needed to give you one. Prefer to talk? Call (213) 302-4400. For a paper trail, email sales@watchguys.com.
Every offer is made by a person who buys that brand every week, not by an automated price tool, and it comes with the reasoning: which reference we identified, what condition we read from your photos, and what comparable pieces have sold for recently. That is a number you can take to any other buyer and compare.
Have more than one watch? Send the full list. Each piece is priced on its own, you decide which to sell, and the ones you keep cost you nothing to have valued.
What Sellers Say About WatchGuys
Where Is the Best Place to Sell a Luxury Watch?
For most owners, the best place to sell a luxury watch is a licensed buyer that pays outright, because it is the only route that combines a firm price, no seller fees and payment within days. Consignment, auction and marketplace listings can make sense for rare pieces, but each one trades speed or certainty for a chance at a higher number.
| Route | Time to payment | Fees | Who carries the risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct sale to WatchGuys | Same day once the final price is agreed | None deducted from the agreed price | We insure shipping both ways and verify on camera |
| Consignment platform | Weeks to months, paid after the piece sells | A percentage of the sale price | You wait, and the price can be reduced to find a buyer |
| Auction house | Months, tied to the sale calendar | Seller commission, plus photography or catalog costs | No guarantee the reserve is met |
| Marketplace listing | Whenever a buyer commits | Listing or final-value fees, plus payment processing | You handle fraud, returns and shipping yourself |
Auctions suit the rarest pieces, where competitive bidding can beat any dealer. For the watches most people own, including current and recent Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Omega and Cartier references, a direct sale usually nets a similar figure in days rather than months, because the commission a platform would take is money you keep. Pawn shops and general jewelers tend to price from the metal weight, which undervalues most steel sports models. If you are looking for a luxury watch buyer near you in Southern California, our downtown Los Angeles showroom is open six days a week.
How Much Is My Watch Worth?
A luxury watch is worth what a buyer will pay for that exact reference, in its condition, this week. Four things set that figure: the reference, the condition, how complete the set is, and where the market sits.
Start with the reference number, because within one brand the gap between references is usually bigger than the gap between brands. A steel Rolex Daytona 126500LN and a two-tone Datejust from the same year sit in very different price bands, a Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711/1A trades well apart from a gold Calatrava, and an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo outruns most gold Code 11.59 references. We price the reference, dial, metal and bracelet you actually have, not the family name.
Condition is read differently on each brand. On Royal Oak, Nautilus and Vacheron Constantin Overseas cases we look at how sharp the bevels still are, because polishing softens them. On Rolex we check bracelet stretch and whether the lug holes and crown guards are original. On vintage pieces an untouched dial and original hands matter more than a recent service.
Completeness moves the number. A warranty card dated at first sale, the inner and outer boxes, spare bracelet links, extra straps on an Overseas or Aquanaut, and service receipts all help, though none are required. Cartier is a special case: gold and diamond-set Panthère and Ballon Bleu pieces are also valued against their metal and stone content, which sets a floor steel sports watches do not have.
Finally, the market. Pre-owned prices rose steeply in 2021 and early 2022, have since come down across much of the catalog, and still move in both directions. Steel sports models from Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet resell closest to retail, while most precious-metal dress watches resell below it. Our offer reflects where your reference sits now, which is the only figure that matters when you sell.
Is It Safe to Sell a Watch Online?
Yes, when the buyer insures the shipment and you can see what happens when it arrives. After you accept, a prepaid overnight FedEx label arrives by email, with insurance set to the full amount of your offer and simple packing instructions. Use a plain outer box with no brand names visible and keep the tracking number.
When the package reaches 613 S Hill St it is opened on camera, the watch is checked against your photos, and the reference, serial and movement are verified. If everything matches, your wire or check goes out that afternoon. If we find something that changes the number, we tell you first, and you are free to decline and have the watch returned, insured, at our cost.
Sellers across the United States use this process every week, from a single Omega Seamaster to a full collection. In Los Angeles you can skip shipping entirely and bring the watch to the showroom by appointment.
How Do I Sell an Inherited Luxury Watch?
Start by photographing the dial, the caseback and anything engraved between the lugs, then send those photos for identification before anything else. Many inherited luxury watches reach us from families who are not collectors and are not sure what they have. Our team will name the reference and the approximate era before any number is discussed.
Do not clean, polish or service the watch first. On vintage pieces the patina on the dial, the original hands and an unpolished case are what collectors pay for, and a well-meaning service can remove all three. A watch that has stopped is still worth quoting, because the cost of repair is simply built into the offer.
If you are settling an estate and need a figure for the executor or for probate, we can put our offer in writing and pay the estate directly. A collection is priced piece by piece, so you can see what each watch contributes and sell only the ones the family agrees on.
Selling a Luxury Watch: Your Questions Answered
Straight answers to what owners ask before they send a watch. Anything else, call a buyer on (213) 302-4400.
Is WatchGuys a licensed luxury watch buyer?
Yes. WatchGuys holds California Secondhand Dealer License 000004771, issued through the Los Angeles Police Department, which state law requires of any business that buys pre-owned watches. We are a BBB Accredited Business with an A+ rating, operate as Cooltimepieces LLC, a registered California company, and hold a California seller's permit and a City of Los Angeles business tax certificate.
Can I sell my luxury watch without the box and papers?
Yes. We verify every watch on the case, serial, movement and reference, so missing paperwork lowers the offer rather than blocking a sale. The difference is largest on recent Submariner, Nautilus and Royal Oak references, where a dated warranty card confirms the sale date and remaining factory coverage, and smallest on vintage pieces, where originality matters more than a box.
How do you decide what to pay for my watch?
We identify the exact reference, read the condition from your photos, then compare recent sales of the same reference in similar condition through dealer-to-dealer trading and public auction results. Your offer names that reference and the condition grade we applied, so you can check it against any other buyer. The final figure is confirmed once the watch is inspected in hand.
Can I get a free watch valuation without selling?
Yes. Quotes cost nothing, and accepting one is entirely your choice. Owners use them to check a watch's resale value before an insurance review, a trade, a divorce settlement or a family decision. Send photos and the reference, and you will receive a current market figure whether you sell now, later or never.
Do you buy broken or non-running luxury watches?
We do. A watch that has stopped, runs badly or has a cracked crystal is still quoted; we estimate the repair and build it into the number. In most cases you will net more by selling it as it is than by paying for a factory service first.
Do you buy luxury watch brands not shown on this page?
Yes. Beyond the brands above, we buy Breitling, Hublot, Richard Mille, Panerai, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, A. Lange and Söhne and Grand Seiko, plus vintage pieces from the same houses. We generally do not buy fashion-brand watches, smartwatches or replicas. Unsure whether yours qualifies? Send a photo and we will tell you honestly, even when the answer is no.
Where do I find my watch's reference and serial number?
On most Rolex models the reference and serial are engraved between the lugs, with the serial also etched on the rehaut inside the crystal on newer pieces. Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin print the reference on the warranty card and the case number on the caseback. Audemars Piguet engraves the case number on the caseback and prints the full reference, such as 15510ST.OO.1320ST.08, on the card. Omega and Cartier stamp both on the caseback. A clear photo of the caseback is enough for us to find it.
Should I polish or service my watch before selling it?
No. Polishing rounds the case edges that collectors look for, especially on Royal Oak, Nautilus and Overseas cases, and a service rarely returns its cost at sale. Send the watch exactly as you have been wearing it. Honest wear is easy to price; a refinished case is a question mark.
Do aftermarket diamonds or parts lower a watch's value?
Usually, yes. Diamonds, bezels, dials or bracelets added after a watch left the factory are not valued the way factory-set pieces are, and manufacturer service centers may decline to work on a modified watch until original parts are refitted. We still make offers on modified watches. If you kept the original bezel, dial or bracelet, include it, because refitting factory parts can lift the offer.
Why is my insurance appraisal higher than your offer?
An insurance appraisal estimates what it would cost to replace the watch at retail, so it is usually higher than any resale figure. Our offer is based on what your exact reference, in its current condition, is selling for on the pre-owned market now. The two numbers measure different things, and only the second one can be turned into cash.
Luxury Watch Buyer in Los Angeles
Walk out paid the same day.
Bring the watch, whatever paperwork you still have, and any loose links. A quick call first means the right buyer is on the floor when you arrive.
Your Offer Is Minutes Away
Two minutes on the form, some photos, and a buyer who knows your brand takes it from there. No fees, nothing deducted, and funds released the day the price is settled. Prefer your phone? Text photos to (213) 414-1525.
