Vacheron Constantin Has Made It Much Easier to Buy Their Pre-Owned Watches
Where would you go to look for a second-hand watch? Specific dealers, yes. eBay? Most certainly. But would you go the brand of the timepiece you’re looking to buy? Turns out, you should.
Vacheron Constantin is the most recent watchmaker to have launched a programme enabling collectors to buy verified vintage pieces. Watches within the Certified Pre-Owned watch programme (or CPO) will have been inspected, certified and maintained by VC's experts, and come with a minimum two-year international warranty, a digital passport and a certification proving it’s been checked over and is in working order.
This initiative launches with second-hand marketplace Watchfinder and is set to be rolled out with other partners in the near future.
Vacheron Constantin aren’t alone in promoting their pre-owned pieces. Rolex announced nearly two years ago that they were dipping into this market, now selling second-hand pieces within their stores – hardly surprising: the Bloomberg Subdial Watch Index tracks prices for the 50 most traded second-hand models by value, and found 45 of them to be from Rolex.
Richard Mille has their own resale stores. In London, it’s called Ninety, purposefully creating a space separate from its Bond Street store so as not to confuse its customers about what’s on offer. At Audemars Piguet, as well as now being able to buy second-hand styles, you can also trade in your old watch as a part exchange for a new one.
Within the Richemont group, VC is the second brand to be looking to the past for future sales. Cartier announced they were moving into the pre-owned market at last year’s Watches and Wonders, and data compiled by Subdial has found that prices of Cartier models rose 2.4% in last 12 months on the secondary market. No doubt that Vacheron Constantin are hoping for the same results, too.
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