People who store watches in safety deposit boxes:
Is it enough to just put them in the box or do you seal them in a plastic bag?
I ask because I am moving and for the foreseeable future will need to store my watches in a safety deposit box.
They don't have much monetary value but they do have a lot of sentimental value.
A few of them need to be sealed but I don't have enough time to get them sealed properly. Are deposit boxes dry enough that I don't have to worry about moisture getting into the case? They may be in there for a couple of years.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
SWK

 

I have a fire proof safe at home and when we travel I use my SDB .... I have watch rolls that fit nicely in the SDB. That would be my recommendation. SDB's are in bank vaults so climate control is not an issue.

 

I store all my Rolexes and Patek Philippes in the retailer's showcase. I like to share with everyone in town.

 

Next to your Speedmasters and your quartz Seamasters?

 

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And fancy Pens.

 

Exactly.

 

Work in progress

 

I had to store all of my watches in a safety deposit box for most of the summer due to an insecure living situation - I just wrapped them all in bubble wrap as the bank was climate-controlled, just about as well as my apartment is. You should be fine if you can't seal them up.

 

I most consciously take my watches and other valuables out of my SDB and place them somewhere else. Too many stories of people returning from their trip up country and the SDB and content been 'taken away' bij ""trusted"" staff...
And each watch has its own cotton 'sleeve', sitting on a rice-and-oats-bed in a closed plastic container...

 

Hmm... not sure how it works over there, but here the bank staff only have one key, and I have the other. I cannot access the box without them, nor they without me.

Also - no bank staff ever knew what I kept in the box as I was always provided with a private room to access it.

This was in a small bank branch in Queens, NY, so I'd imagine larger banks would be even more secure somehow.

 

Have to explain: we -over here- do rarely have the opportunity to put stuff in bank-safes (none available), so a lot of people I know have a SDB in the house. Sometimes a small one, sometimes a build-in one.
And the house-staff (whom I trust to the max....) sometimes..... When you are away for a longer period of time....
Well......

Knock on wood that I still am in the clear with this

 

This is a bank safe deposit box? Where? I think here a bank's safe deposit box has to be abandoned and unpaid for multiple years with multiple attempts to contact the owner before the bank can have the lock drilled.

What's the cotton sleeve? An old sock, with the toe cut off?

 

I don't see any issue to store watches in a bank safe. Moisture shouldn't be an issue there. And besides you nobody can take out the box nor shake it - so no reason to spend time on further wrapping or sealing.



I simply put my watches into those Rolex travel cases (with or without bracelet) and store them in the bank safe. Easy to store and quick to sort when I go there to make a rotation.

 

Safe deposit boxes in banks? If you have a valuable collection, I'd strongly advise reading the terms, and investigating the relative health of the bank in question.

 

Next to my others accessories

 

@Tony C. , what do you think of? Could you please elaborate?

 

@kov

Without going too far off on a tangent, there is a major, unavoidable economic crisis on the horizon. I have discussed the topic several times on various threads. Many banks around the world are systemically tied together, though some are in much worse shape than others. When there was a crisis in Cyprus a few years ago, a basic template was formed, and politicians and banks in many countries have now adopted "bail-in" laws. Essentially, if a bank is in danger of becoming insolvent, they are allowed to use some of their depositors' money to shore up their balance sheets. In return, depositors are given shares or bonds in the bank. In other words, their money is taken from them, and they are forced to become part owners of a bank that may or may not survive.

There are other details, and small account holders are supposed to be protected. In Cyprus, it was those with account of €100k or more who took the hit. But of course, plenty of those were small business owners, and even some of those who had their life savings in the banks were devastated.

Most people mistakenly believe that such crises are limited to small countries, but they will be proven wrong. This type of thing will happen in major countries as well. Italy is certainly on the brink right now. Ireland is also very fragile. Deutsche Bank is in serious trouble, though, at least in the short term, will probably not be "allowed" to fail due to its systemic importance, though that would lead to other serious problems.

Now, with regard to safe deposit boxes, they are typically insured, but only for a limited amount. In a systemic crisis, or in the case of an individual bank struggling to survive, there are no guarantees that their contents will actually be safe.

My advice would be to use either independent (non-bank) boxes, or those associated with smaller, more conservative, and safer banks (e.g. those with no systemic, or direct exposure to derivatives).

I understand that most would scoff at the idea that safe deposit boxes in banks are actually risky to use, but in my view, that reaction is based largely on normalcy bias. In other words, because so few have had bad experiences with the use of such boxes, the idea that they may actually be unsafe seems far fetched. Well, the very same dynamic was at play in Cyprus leading up to 2013. Who could have imagined that their life savings might have been at risk in a bank, of all places?

Feel free to PM me if you have any further questions.