Buying a new watch is a significant purchase. With more modest models costing up to £1,000 and luxury, high-end timepieces potentially setting you back tens or even hundreds of thousands, you want to be sure that you don’t end up having second thoughts about your purchase. Fortunately, sidestepping buyer’s remorse is fairly easy as long as you take a few precautions.
As the name suggests, buyer’s remorse is the feeling of regret you occasionally feel after making a purchase. Predominantly, it tends to only occur with more significant investments – bet you can’t remember a single time you’ve spent the whole day rueing that avocado toast you bought. And it tends to be more pronounced the more pressure placed on your decision. Having to whittle down a wide range of choices or acquiring a product that you’ll be living with for a long time can increase the chances you’ll worry afterward if you made the right choice.
Clearly these are all factors that can apply to buying luxury watches. So how do you make sure you’ll be pleased with that new timepiece by the time it arrives? Follow these steps and you’ll be sure to delight in your latest purchase for a long time yet.
Get a good deal
We’ve all made spur of the moment purchases that leave our bank balances look decidedly unbalanced and there’s nothing that can leave you questioning your latest acquisition like the dent it’s taken out of your savings account. So perhaps the most obvious way of avoiding buyer’s remorse when shopping for a new watch is making sure that you don’t spend beyond your budget.
First of all, set an amount you’re willing to spend and stick to it. That will prevent any pangs of regret when your bank statement arrives. When buying a new timepiece, shop round multiple sellers to make sure you’re getting the best deal or, even better, visit a marketplace that allows you to compare many different luxury watches side by side. And don’t shy away from buying pre-owned luxury watches – they allow you to get much more bang for your buck, while also letting you get your hands on limited editions and vintage watches that are no longer available.
Avoid fakes
Very little will bring you down to earth with a bump after buying a luxury watch as fast as realising that it’s counterfeit. But while you don’t want to get conned with a fake watch, they’re not always that easy to spot, with the vast majority not being identifiable at first glance – long gone are the days of easily spottable charlatans with names like Rollix or Brittling.
According to new research from luxury pre-owned watch specialist, Watchfinder & Co., there are an estimated 1,010,572 fake watches circulating the UK market alone, with 35% of counterfeit sales now involving watches. As a result, 14% of British consumers have found themselves conned into buying counterfeit goods.
And the preponderance of fakes doesn't mean they've gotten any easier to spot – quite the reverse. Thanks to the easy availability of 3D printers and CNC machines, scammers have gotten increasingly skilled at producing sophisticated fakes – while five years ago Watchfinder & Co. found 80% of fakes were easily identifiable and only 20% needed closer inspection to spot, this has now reversed, so that just 20% can be identified as fake at a glance. Unfortunately, this doesn't translate to better quality – the aforementioned research found that 16% of fake watches broke after a short period of usage.
So how can you identify whether you’re being sold a pup? Well, there are multiple subtle tip-offs, ranging from weight that feels a little off to slightly blurry edges around printed lettering. For a more comprehensive breakdown of the warning signs to look out for, check out this handy guide for more expert tips for avoiding fakes.
Narrow your choices
It’s wonderful how many choices there are for collectors these days. Not only are luxury brands like Rolex, Omega, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet more accessible than ever but the pre-owned market opens up a whole world of rare editions and discontinued classics. But while all this choice means you have an even better chance of finding a watch you’ll love, it means that feeling sure you’ve made the right choice is all the harder.
The best way to tackle this kind of choice paralysis is to find ways to narrow your options down. Naturally, if there are specific brands you prefer the style of, this can make your decision much easier but there are other factors that can prove just as decisive. Do you want to spend under a £1,000 or over £10,000? Do your tastes trend modern or are you looking for something strictly vintage? Would you prefer an oversized case or something more discreet? Answering some of these questions ahead of time mean you can narrow your options down significantly and focus your energy on picking from a select few models.
Set a cooldown period
So you’ve decided on your dream watch and are pretty sure you want to buy it. No time like the present, right? Well, not necessarily. Giving yourself a short cooldown period allows time for that choice to settle in your mind. Not only that but it allows any doubts or questions you may have a chance to surface before you’re fully committed, meaning you can seek out additional information from the seller that will put your mind at ease. Even just sleeping on it can be enough time to ensure that, when it arrives, that new addition to your collection will put a smile on your face.
Look out for sellers that offer a warranty
Even if you’re thrilled with your purchase and it looks great on your wrist, that can rapidly sour if it stops ticking six weeks after you bought it. Particularly when you’re buying a pre-owned luxury timepiece, you want to be sure it will continue to run smoothly. That’s why it’s always worth shopping with sellers that offer a warranty on pre-owned watches – that way you can be sure that in the remote chance your timepiece experiences a manufacturing or mechanical defect in a set time after your purchase, you’ll be entitled to a repair that will keep it alive and ticking for years to come.
Keen to avoid buyer's remorse when buying a pre-owned luxury watch? Then your best bet is a pre-owned luxury watch specialist like Watchfinder & Co. – not only do they offer great deals for a range of budgets but they have comprehensive processes in place to inspect and authenticate every single watch they sell and offer 24 month warranties on all stock.
