Most of my watches for business are stored in a secured offsite storage and shipping facility


(yes, there really is a "Watch Vault")

I keep only a small amount of watches around my person or in the office for the same security reasons, and I pay to insure both the stuff in the watch vault, and the stuff in the office. However, during a routine call with my insurer, I discovered that the expensive insurance that I have been paying for years and years only had a $2500 limit for "watches and jewelry" - i.e. completely useless! Turns out I was this close to being totally wiped out, with no recourse!

So I contacted a jewelers block insurance company. They would cover the watches in the watch vault no problem, but without a serious safe in the office (something that is not possible for me right now), I could only keep a small amount of watches unsecured (i.e. did not have to go to the big vault to wear them). That's kinda like being Hugh Hefner, but all the bunnies had to wear chastity belts!

So I just went through a serious culling of my watch rotation, choosing watches that took up the most amount of wrist time. I computed the amount of watches I could keep on hand based on "purchase price", not even "replacement value". If I went by the latter, I would be left with I don't know, 3 watches?


(The cupboard is now bare.. not in the pic, vintage Connie)

Can't even fill a watch box now

So check your insurance! You can get wiped out if you don't read the fine print!

 

Is that a Tudor chrono in the top left of the watch box?

 

Yes

 

Nice watch box bro!

 

Wow , that is crazy!
Do you think if you itemize each watch with pictures, copies of valuations,
the insurance would be willing to cover you in an event?

 

No rider available from your home owner insurance?

 

You don't do riders for individual pieces?

Also, what watch case is that?

 

I don’t understand any of this. I pay watch by watch riders on my Umbrella Policy. Yea there’s a limit unless you pay extra.

 

Home owners doesn’t pay much for watches or jewelry. $2500 I think it was on the wife’s wedding ring. So others are correct you have to pay extra for cover even if it is available. Most likely a person needs to get insurance from a specialized insurance provider. Lot of us with tons of expensive shit with no coverage in case of loss.

 

Bit of a complicated story. The watches were supposedly covered as "inventory" on my business insurance. But for example, even if I have $1M covered in inventory (different types of inventory across multiple businesses), it only covers $2.5K in jewelry and watches. No riders for that available. Homeowners / umbrella insurance is a different story. But since I sometimes dip into vintage inventory for stuff I like to "borrow" for the evening, insuring individual pieces is not practical

 

Ahh that makes sense as watches are secondary to your other business and I assume you assumed coverage. I probably would have also, and I used to carry a P&C Insurance license in CA! In hindsight it makes sense as jewelry and watches are different then other business inventory due to ease of loss in a theft due to size and value. A home rider doesn’t really help you either as you need to declare each watch on the home rider which makes rotating an issue.

Good luck tough problem you have.

 

Completely OT but I like your Oyster Date - I had one for a short while and I love the simplicity of the case, dial etc - don't you find it rather small compared to the others in your box (let alone collection)?

 

Every time I buy an expensive watch or piece of jewelry or musical instrument (i.e. anything expensive), I get an insurance rider on our homeowner's insurance policy for those items. As an example, a $9,000 watch is covered for about $90 per year under my policy in the US.

If anyone believes taking photos or videos of their stuff is adequate for insurance purposes, and if anyone thinks homeowner's insurance automatically covers ANY items in their house without taking the time to cover those items specifically, they are sadly mistaken.

Computer in the den? Clock on the wall? Piano in the living room? Not covered unless you get riders for those items. At least that's how it is with most insurance in the US.

 

The cobblers children have no shoes.. $50 Tech Swiss, incredibly cheap if you factor in the stuff you actually put in there. I have 2 but now can't even fill up half of 1 haha

I think the clean lines, bright dial, and muscular lugs make it look larger than it really is, compared to say a Datejust with a fluted bezel and a darker dial. The modern bracelet also helps. On the flip side, it IS 34mm, so it can do dressier duty along with the Reverso.

I'm also on the lookout for a nice silver sunburst dial 1600, but kinda harder to find, especially in the condition I want it to be

 

I would add the you should read your policy and that strong coverage is not cheap. There are no bargains with good umbrellla policies.

 

But is it it NYC?!

JK. Thanks for the heads up. It’s always a good reminder to check your policies because if you aren’t covered for what you think you are covered for you typically find out too late.

 

excuse my ignorance. When you refer to a rider, you mean just having the watch and price listed explicitly on the insurance?

 

Generally it’s an additional policy or add on to a policy that increases coverage for certain items or liabilities.

 

thank you!

 

Solid reminder. I should read the fine print. The last I heard (read “possibly misheard”) was that my homeowners policy covered a certain allocatable level of insurance for jewelry, guns and furs.

I recall allocating more of the coverage to guns because my gun safe was worth more than my wife’s jewelry box and her wedding ring is covered with its own small articles policy. They asked if the amount on the firearms was sufficient, so I figured I could always buy more with my existing policy. Obviously it wasn’t a million bucks, but I want to say I got to allocated 10-12k of “particular coverage.”

I couldn’t imagine the pain it would be to write small article policies for watches... particularly for people who buy, sell, and trade them like baseball cards