
According to Tirath Kamdar, General Manager of Luxury at eBay, “For 25 years, watches have been one of the top-selling categories on eBay thanks to the marketplace’s unmatched selection of luxury goods.
Vintage chronograph ebay verification#
They perform a meticulous inspection and provide a verification that you’re getting just what you expect.įor watches over $10,000, there is an escrow payment option that adds an extra layer of protection until the review can be completed. for more than $2,000 gets some quality time with independent experts. With the “Authenticity Guarantee” service launched in 2020, each watch sold in the U.S.

Luxury Watches on eBayĮven without the excellent provenance, Shapiro was able to rest easy in his purchase as eBay takes their vintage watch marketplace very seriously. Despite the large price tag, he made the investment with a light heart and never regretted his decision. He learned that the watch belonged to the original owner and was being sold in excellent condition.

This wasn’t his first foray into collecting vintage watches, so he took a trip to Paris to meet with another collector for a closer look. It was the first water-resistant chronograph to go into regular production, and approximately only 800 of them were produced between 19. It was a stunning stainless steel chronograph with oversized pushers. His next Patek Philippe chronograph purchased on the auction site was a Patek Philippe Reference 1463. Like most collectors, he started small and “traded up” to the more expensive and desirable over time. Provenance doesn’t get much better than that! He was able to verify in a book he happened to have on hand featuring this very timepiece. Patek Philippe made approximately 1,500 examples between 1936 to 1964. Once he came across a Patek Phillipe, Reference 130 chronograph in yellow gold applied Breguet hour markers, and he was hooked. In his three decades of collecting, he’s come across a few exciting finds. Michael Shapiro has a long history of such hunts, combing eBay’s luxury marketplace listings for a glimpse of the undiscovered diamond in the rough.

There are plenty of stories, relayed in awed tones, of extremely rare timepieces auctioned off by less knowledgeable family members for far less than their value. One such hunting ground for the rare and valuable is eBay. There are plenty of outlets for buying vintage watches, including some of the largest and most prestigious auction houses all over the world. It’s no wonder that beautiful and rare watches from long ago have captured the attention of the connoisseurs. We like to hold the objects from history in our hands and think about the path those things have traveled. Antiques have always fascinated us with their air of the romanticized past and their whispers of days gone by. Vintage watches, verified and carrying the signs of their age, are at the heart of a recent trend for collectors of valuable timepieces.
