A notable change at Moonwatch Only

Well the Latin stem derivation means ‘faithful’ as in fidelity, bona fide, infidel, Fidei Defensor.

No "potential" here in my view. If you are a grading service that is grading the watch you are now selling, there is without a doubt a conflict of interest.

I have long wondered how the watch world will bring into being the “Third Party Authenication” (TPA) certificate system that I have watched change my own (retired from!) business, the coloured stone and diamond trade.

Diamond grading is easy - it is about the absence of things. The less flaws, the less colour, the less fluorescence. The finer points, that is the cut, the shape and the polish assessment require a little more skill, but for 95% of diamonds a trained person of average intelligence and high school education following protocols will suffice. Its simplicity in itself - simply hunt for any marks and draw it on a diagram. More marks, lower grade, more colour lower grade. Its like where's Waldo for grown-ups.

GIA has made a global business out of this, massive. They issue certificates and shortly after they started, Martin Rappaport came along with his price lists. (Yes that inspired my Speedmaster price list).

This has resulted in a market where the vast number of 1ct to 10ct diamonds are bought by semi educated retail buyers with some access to the list (as we call the Rappaport Price list). Even though they tried to keep this list secret, a motivated buyer will find it, and now all the have to do is go to BlueNile.com and those prices are so close to wholesale I don’t understand how a jewellery store sells a diamond any more.

Coloured stones are more tricky, but there is still a thriving TPA business. In coloured stones it is all about origin, and heat treatment or lack of it. Unlike diamonds it is NOT qualitative, only an arbitrary judgement made based on comparisons and experience of the people certifying. As an interesting aside, one of the best Labs in the business is Gubelin. However, the lab had to separate from the shop in order to provide independent TPA’s.

Back to watches, well specifically from my point of view, Speedmasters.

I have spent a long time developing a TPA for my own amusement. I have found that I can give each part a grade for Originality, then one for condition.

SO a TPA might look like this (This is something I do for all watches I am considering) :

(EDIT: Forgive the formatting, its much clearer on my own Word document and is in columns and easy to read)


Speedmaster 145.012-67

Extract: Aruba, 29th February 1969

Serial: 2544 3211


Dial Black Original Excellent 5% brown tint

Bezel DO90 Correct Fair Over 10 <1mm marks

Case Asymmetric Original Very Good light polish, no loss of definition

Back Single bevel Original Very Good Undamaged

Movement 321 Original Excellent Service paper June 2020

Hands White Correct Excellent Tritium

Crown 32 Service Excellent

Pushers 5mm Service Excellent

Crystal Hessalite Non Original Very Good No Omega Marking




Now this summary is backed up by a longer three page document detailing the lume state, the hand state, and all other info that enables me to come to my conclusion.


It can be clearly seen that we cannot arrive at a three-word summary like we can with a diamond. For example a 2 carat D colour VVS2 clarity.


But we can get close. In the above example we have a watch with an excellent dial, fair bezel, very good case and excellent movement. So we can take a view and think this watch is largely original, (Correct being as original spec but something makes me think it might have been added) and it is in very good to excellent condition, BUT there is a fair bezel.


So I would be thinking of this as a Very Good watch, in Original condition, which needs down valuing for the fair bezel and the service parts.


To aim to give a watch a single score that communicates ANY meaningful information is, in my opinion, ambitious.


As for blockchain, that’s still too young to be really useful, but it will be. (I speak as a Crypto miner)


AS for TPA. One day Ill refine my work to be useful, but as I said, it’s a hobby


My final thought is that TPA's need to be issued by absolutely independent bodies, and those bodies will have to build up trust. They will also have to have a grading system that makes sense, and easy to understand by anyone.

A body who issues a grade of 10.5 out of 10 for their own watch, one that has noticeable issues, is not in my opinion going to get very far in the TPA business.