For decades Swiss watch factories were totally uninterested in the pre-owned market. Many, like Rolex, would offer you a 5-10% discount on a new watch rather than repair your older model. They wanted their dealers to sell new watches, not pre-owned and often took action against smaller jewellers who had a secondhand section, such as removing the franchise.

But the rise of Watchfinder, Chrono24 and other sites has proved that there is huge demand for secondhand Swiss watches, from a classic Omega pie-pan Constellation, to a more recent Breitling Superocean. That’s why Richemont bought Watchfinder a few years ago – they can see there’s money in it. Of course, the rise in values for brands like Omega, Rolex, AP and Ptek ahas also prompted fakers to start selling replicas of older watches, complete with fading lume on the hands, patina on the dials and other tricks, simply to fool buyers online.

So Omega launching its own Certificate of Authenticity is perfectly timed. Collectors and watch dealers can bid on as watch knowing that it’s been verified by Omega as the real deal. As in-person auctions seem unlikely to ever happen again, due to the Plandemic hysteria and climate agenda zealots seeking to ban non-essential travel full stop, the only way that online watch reselling can go is down the verified, money back guarantee route, surely?

The Omega cert ONLY applies to models that have passed their 30th birthday by the way, so this doesn’t really address much of the fakery that poisons the pre-owned luxury watch market. But at the modern end, ideas like Breitling and Vacheron’s Blockchain digital certificates can do the same job of offering a guarantee that this is the real watch, as sold in Dubai 2019 etc.

But for collectors of older Omega bumper automatics, Constellations, Chronstops, Seamasters and more, this is a useful feature to look out for. Plus, watch dealers with something truly rare can get it checked out and certified. You can also order an extract from the Omega archive on the development and production run of watches that are a decade older or more – handy.

More here.