Let's say I'm buying a cal. 861 Speedmaster that the seller says has been recently serviced, and because of this, will grant a 12-month warranty on accurate time-keeping. How much of a premium should this add to the price of the watch?

Many thanks,

M'Bob.

 

First off, don't EVER believe a seller, particularly an eBay seller, when they say a watch has been "recently serviced". What scale of time is "recently"..... glacial or galactic? I don't even trust all but a few people when I'm told a watch was "just serviced".

Second, it's worth it to have your trusted watchmaker do a service so you know it's ready to wear.

However, if the watch REALLY was serviced in the last year, I'd say it would add $200 - $300 to the value for a chronograph.

 

I have just had my smp serviced at swiss time services in the uk and because the bezel was scratched it cost £834 and has been returned in brand new condition. I would ask for a valid receipt of service !

 

If it had been recently serviced and there was paperwork to back this up, I'd be prepared to pay $200-300 extra, purely because I don't have the hassle of sending it away myself for several weeks.

If it's from a private seller with no paperwork to back up the service claim, I wouldn't pay any extra and I'd send it to my watchmaker to check it out anyway.

 

My maxim is, "without proof, it didn't happen."

 

If you had Rich Mille personally service your SSS then my answer would be probably a lot.

in your example, you're not really buying the service, you're purchasing a (1) year warranty which is actually pretty valuable / maybe like 300 USD.

 

Many thanks for all of your insights.

M'Bob

 

They grey marks varies. Was looking at Aqua Terras and found I could have a sizeable chunk off the price if I bought it sans the one year warranty