Horological Meandering

Care and Feeding of a Watch Collection 4: Boxes and Papers

Mar 01, 2015,18:29 PM

Welcome to post 4 in the series of Care and Feeding of a Watch Collection. In this post I will tackle watch boxes and papers.

Boxes and Papers

Boxes

Watch boxes are wonderful, exasperating and ridiculous. There are many articles here on the PuristSPro website about extremism in watch packaging. Here's one that exceeds the volume of the watch by 100 times or more.

Here's a typical stack from a moderate collection. These photos have been previously posted on this site by other PuristS.

Mine are jammed into a cabinet in our entry hall, in drawers in my office, and who knows where else.

Please be aware that you want to keep them in a cool dry place (Art, I'm going to save you the trouble of inserting Traveling Wilburys)

COOL DRY PLACE

If you live in a hot humid climate like Singapore, your boxes may rot away.

If you are lucky, some of your watches will come with minimal packaging. For example, the MIH Chronograph comes in a cardboard box with the newspaper of the day and a letter.

You might get a nifty aluminum case, within which you will find your watch and its accessories.

If you are unlucky, you will get wacky boxes like this IKEPOD flying saucer, and have to figure out where to keep a round foam/velour disk.

However, it's more likely that even a moderate watch will come with outer and inner boxes, some padding, a wiping cloth, bezel protector, screwdriver, some books, a couple straps, etc.

IF YOU WANT TO BE A REAL COLLECTOR, KEEP EVERYTHING!

Depending on the brand and the watch, papers and boxes can add 25% or more to the value of your watch, should you ever choose to sell it. The older the watch, the more valuable documentation becomes.

If you are like me (excitable) you might have a little frenzy on your desk when a new watch arrives. When the red mist subsides, take a photo so you are sure you've gotten everything you bargained for, and don't throw away any boxes until you get every single thing out of them. I recently found a nice book that the seller had graciously given me but didn't mention it. I found it weeks AFTER I opened the box. It was under some padding in the bottom and I nearly missed it.

This is what you should have after all the packing material has been set aside and you have carefully cleaned up the debris.

This display is for an IWC:

Here's a typical Seiko package:

If you bought a used watch, don't forget to compare what the seller advertised with what you actually received in the box!!

I have gotten multiple receipts and warranty cards that don't come close to matching the watch I purchased.

Thankfully, the watches themselves have always been the ones I paid for, even if some of the accessories didn't show. If you moan and complain immediately, you might get the seller to send you the extra stuff.

Papers & Accessories

These typically can be divided into several categories:

FINANCIAL / TRANSACTIONAL

This set of papers includes the bill of sale, invoice, credit card receipt, shipping label on the box, customs declaration statement, etc.

GENERAL PACKAGING

Inner box, hang tags, plastic wrapper, dial or bezel protector, watch pillow, etc. Particularly for Rolex, Panerai, etc. these are critical to the price and resale of the watch.

WATCH OPERATION

User manual, special push-pin, spare parts, winder, screwdriver, spare links, straps or buckles, cleaning tools, etc.

Chronometer certificate

Testing reports

SERVICE

Warranty Card, Warranty booklet, previous service receipts

SHIPPING

Outer boxes, foam shims or packing, etc. sounds very boring, but hey, we are anal-retentive people or we wouldn't be collecting this stuff. If you can, save it all.

MARKETING

Brochures, Gifts, Chocolate ... (it's ok to eat the goodies)

I prefer to keep all this stuff together, because in my misspent youth as a collector, I just chucked it into a box, and now I have a foot-thick pile of papers in that box. You saw them in the prior posting.

MORE EXAMPLES

Because I have all these photos, I decided to put up a few. I tend to do these setups when I am selling a watch, but now I do it at the beginning of my ownership as well.

NOTE: The wasp came of his own accord.

Everyone gets a watch once in awhile that gets your adrenaline going. It's fun to do a photo sequence of those special items if you can muster the patience. Now that most people have a phone in their camera, it's not too difficult.