The pre-owned watch market runs on terms it rarely defines. Each one below is defined once, plainly, with a stable address — cite the anchor, not a paraphrase.
The manufacturer’s catalogue number identifying an exact watch configuration — family, size, material, and generation. Prices attach to references, not model names: two Submariners with different references are different assets.
The original packaging plus the maker’s dated warranty documentation. Papers tie a serial to a first sale; verified papers raise both price and confidence, and unverifiable ones raise questions instead.
A watch accompanied by everything it originally shipped with — box, papers, hang tags, spare links, booklets. Full sets clear faster and price above head-only examples of the same reference.
Trade in genuine watches outside the brand’s authorised retail network — unworn pieces resold by dealers rather than counterfeit goods. Grey prices float with supply and demand, unlike fixed retail list prices.
Listings selling components alone — dials, bezels, movements, bracelets — rather than complete watches. Price aggregation must reject them: a bezel priced inside a watch median corrupts the figure.
A tax arrangement in the EU, UK and Singapore where dealers pay sales tax on their margin only, not the full price. It changes landed-cost arithmetic and is why sticker prices cross borders badly.
Watches from roughly the mid-1980s to early 2000s — modern enough to service, old enough to be discontinued. A distinct collecting category with its own supply dynamics and pricing behaviour.
Japan’s dealer buy-in trade: shops purchasing watches from the public outright at posted rates. Kaitori volume makes Japan unusually liquid and its asking prices unusually disciplined.
A customs-exempt storage zone where goods sit outside any import-tax jurisdiction while owned and traded. Watches held in free ports change hands without triggering duty until they leave.
CALIBRÉ’s authentication record: a watchmaker-signed evidence file — photography, serial cross-checks, movement readings, defect schedule — delivered before full payment and transferring with the watch when it sells.