The past decade has seen an increasingly popular boom in the demand for pre-loved watches, with interest from watch collectors and aficionados continuing to rise. For them, a rare pre-owned timepiece has a unique aura, each individual one telling its own compelling history—and, as any collector will know, when it comes to purchasing pre-owned luxury goods, provenance is everything. Enter the partnership between Bucherer Certified Pre-Owned and auction house Sotheby’s—the world’s premier destination for purchasing art and luxury.
Built on the desire to cater to people who are searching for sought-after timepieces, this new digital shopping service, offered as part of Sotheby’s luxury online shop at Sothebys.com launched a couple of years ago, will allow collectors worldwide to have access to one of the largest collections of pre-owned luxury watches through Sotheby’s online marketplace, with each piece certified by the Swiss luxury retailer, Bucherer.
As one of the most distinguished names in watches and jewellery, Bucherer’s reputation and knowledge represent an unquestionable standard of quality, which expanded into the pre-owned watch market in 2019.
Introducing its Certified Pre-Owned arm to the business, the maison disrupted the luxury pre-owned watch market by ensuring greater quality-control and certification, thanks to its strong ties to the world’s most prestigious watch brands and a large customer base of watch collectors. Today Bucherer is one of the biggest players in the Certified Pre-Owned watch business worldwide, offering an assortment of timepieces from the world’s most sought-after luxury watch brands.
In a statement, the Swiss maison said it had “found a like-minded partner in Sotheby’s,” which stocks range of more than 10,000 collectibles from art, jewellery, collectible sneakers, furniture and more on its online shopping destination.
The partnership aims to expand Sotheby’s presence in the rapidly growing pre-loved market, with collectors now having further access to hundreds of watches from horological heavyweights that everyone wants on their wrists—all of them specially serviced by Bucherer’s watchmakers.
“Any collector knows that when buying pre-owned good, provenance is everything”
Each piece also comes authenticated and with a two-year international warranty—a unique perk Sotheby’s claims no other auction house is currently offering. Each piece bought will come with a special certificate from Bucherer that guarantees your purchase is genuine and in perfect working condition. Additionally, the certificate will include the signature of the watchmaker who opened and last inspected the watch before it was delivered to the buyer.
“By bringing our curated Certified Pre-Owned watches on Sotheby’s premier online marketplace and combining our respective expertise, together we are creating a unique opportunity for watch lovers worldwide to express their personality by purchasing iconic pre-owned watches online alongside a strong curation of other luxury-goods categories,” says Patrick Graf, Chief Commercial Officer at Bucherer. Thanks to this new partnership, finding that sought-after watch just got a whole lot easier.
For more, visit sothebys.com/bucherer