Never Wire Before You See Your Serial

One rule removes most of the risk from a five-figure purchase. It costs the seller four minutes. Any seller who will not do it has told you something important.

There is a moment in every remote watch purchase where the risk concentrates. Everything before it is reversible. Everything after it is not.

It is the moment your money leaves your account.

Wire transfers are, by design, close to irreversible. That is why sellers like them, and it is not sinister — it is the same reason they are used for property transactions. But it means the entire safety of your purchase depends on what you knew at that moment.

So here is the rule, and I would apply it whether you are buying from me or from anyone else.

Why this specific test

Each element is doing a distinct job. Remove any one and the test stops working.

Video, not photographs

A photograph is a still frame that can be lifted from anywhere. Video of a watch being handled — turned in the light, the bracelet articulating, the seconds hand moving — is far harder to fabricate and far easier to check.

The serial number, legible

This ties the video to the individual object rather than to a model. It also lets you confirm the serial matches every document you have been shown and every claim about the watch's production era.

A handwritten card with your name

This is the element that does the most work and the one most often left out. Without it, a seller can send you footage filmed six months ago, of a watch that has since been sold, or of a watch that belongs to somebody else entirely.

Reused footage is a genuine and common problem. Your name, handwritten, in frame, defeats it completely — the video cannot have existed before you asked for it.

Today's date

Confirms the watch is in the seller's possession now, not that it was at some point in the past.

Your name, handwritten, in the frame. The video cannot have existed before you asked for it. That single detail defeats an entire category of fraud.

What else to ask them to show

While the camera is running, four things cost nothing extra and tell you a great deal.

1. The flaws. Ask them to point at each deficiency rather than lighting around it. A seller who volunteers marks on camera has told you they expect you to look closely and are comfortable with that.
2. The case at an angle. Under a single light source, slowly. This is where refinishing shows and where a flat overhead photograph hides it. See overpolishing.
3. The complications operating. Chronograph start, stop and reset to zero. Date change. Bezel rotation with the clicks audible.
4. The papers, on camera, with the watch. Both in the same frame, serials visible. Documents photographed separately from the watch are documents that may not belong to it — see what a full set actually proves.

The better version: do it live

A recorded video is good. A live video call is better, and it is the standard I would encourage you to hold out for on any significant purchase.

On a live call you control what gets shown. Ask them to rotate the watch. Ask them to point the camera at the lug you are worried about. Ask them to turn it over now. Nothing can be prepared, edited, or selected in advance, and the entire category of "footage of a different watch" disappears.

It also does something a recording cannot: you meet the person. Ten minutes of conversation while someone handles a watch tells you an enormous amount about whether they know what they are holding.

What a refusal means

Sellers decline for reasons that are not always sinister. The watch may be with a photographer, at a service centre, in a safe deposit box, or held by a partner in another city. Those are real situations.

But note what has happened. You have asked for a four-minute action that would let you commit a large sum with confidence, and you have been told no. Whatever the reason, you are now being asked to send money based on trust alone.

The correct response is not accusation. It is patience: "That is fine — I will wait until it is available and we can do it then."

A legitimate seller will accept that immediately. Watch what happens next. If the reply introduces urgency — another buyer, a price that expires, a deal that must close today — you have learned everything you need to know. Pressure applied immediately after a verification request is the single most reliable warning sign in this market.

Protecting the money itself

Verification handles the watch. The payment rail is a separate problem and needs a separate solution.

Be precise about terminology here, because it is routinely abused. Escrow means a licensed third party holds your funds. A service that inspects or authenticates a watch but never takes custody of money is an authentication service — valuable, but it is not escrow, and describing it as such is exactly the sort of imprecision that leaves buyers believing they are protected when they are not.

You want both, on separate rails: an independent party verifying the watch, and a licensed agent holding the money.

Also verify the account

One additional step, because this is a real and growing problem: confirm bank details by phone, on a number you sourced independently, before sending anything.

Payment redirection fraud works by compromising or spoofing an email thread and sending revised bank details at the moment payment is due. It is common in property transactions and it has arrived in this market. If you receive updated account details by email — particularly with any note of urgency — treat it as fraudulent until confirmed by voice.

What we do

Every watch is offered with video of that specific piece, serial visible, your name handwritten in frame, before any discussion of payment. If you would rather do it live, say so and we will schedule it. If you want the transaction routed through independent authentication and licensed escrow, I will set it up rather than merely permit it.

None of this is generosity. It is that I would rather you were certain than agreeable, and a client who verified everything on the first purchase does not need to on the fifth.

General guidance only, not legal or financial advice. Escrow and authentication providers vary by jurisdiction — review the terms of any service before relying on it.