It’s not always easy finding the right watch for you, but never mind what you do want; here is the pre-owned watch specialist Watchfinder & Co. to tell you about five kinds of watches you should most certainly avoid.
A Watch From A Non-Reputable Source
Say you’re ready to treat yourself to your favourite Rolex Submariner. Perhaps it’s hard to get hold of, so you look a little further afield, to somewhere you’ve not really heard of before, that doesn’t have any reviews—and it’s there. The pictures are a little blurry, there’s no phone number—but yet you can feel your credit card finger twitching. That’s why this is the first watch you should avoid: the one from a non-reputable source.
Have patience, wait a while, because while the worst you can expect would be to lose all of your money completely, the best you can expect from shopping from a questionable outlet will be to always wonder whether or not the watch you bought is really everything it was supposed to be.
A Watch Just For Investment
Try as the manufacturers might to convince you, a premium watch is not a practical asset. It tells the time, sure, and that’s a useful thing, but that sits secondary to the ownership experience and enjoyment of wearing a hand-made timepiece. So it stands to reason that buying said watch is as much a purchase with the heart as it is with the head.
So this is the next watch you should avoid—the one that’s just an investment. Buy the watch you want, the one you’d be happy to wear day in, day out, because if you don’t you’ll only end up moving it on and replacing it with something you actually want. 
A Watch Without Thinking About Servicing Costs
There was a time when a Ferrari 360 Modena could be purchased for around £30,000, the price of your average family car with a few bits like air condition and parking sensors thrown in. Like a pre-owned Breguet, for example, equally tempting. But here’s the folly: the Ferrari may have cost the same as a family car to buy, but it certainly won’t cost the same as a family car to run.
High end watches can have service intervals as frequent as every two years, with associated costs of £500-plus depending on the complication. If you’re not careful, you could end up with a bill that costs almost as much as the watch itself. 
A Watch Someone Else Tells You To Get
Say you’ve got your eye on an Omega Planet Ocean. You love the way it looks, really like the in-house movement, and you’re confirming your thoughts by dipping your toe into the comments on one of the many popular watch forums. And there he is, that one guy on the forum who thinks it’s rubbish, who thinks you should get a Rolex or a TAG Heuer instead.
And somehow his passion is so compelling that you start to doubt all the confidence you had only moments before. Other people’s opinions are just that: opinions. You and only you know what will make you happy.
The Watch You Could Have Now Versus The One You Could Save For
There’s that impatience again, only this time it’s whispering something about a watch you can’t quite afford yet. You’ve been saving for a while, you’re almost there, but just not quite—things is, the little voice says, you could have a cheaper watch right now instead.
This right here is probably the hardest of all the watches to avoid, the one you could have now over the one you really want but still need to save for. It’s a guaranteed path to regret.
Now you know what to avoid, it’s time to think about what to get. With over 5,000 watches in stock from over 70 brands such as Rolex, Cartier and Omega, a fully accredited service centre and 12-months Watchfinder warranty on every purchase, Watchfinder is the number one place to buy, sell and exchange pre-owned watches. Visit Watchfinder online at watchfinder.com or make an appointment at the showroom on 5th Avenue.
Photography by: Watchfinder & Co
