The Watch Auction You Can Actually Afford Is Here

The news is full of record-breaking auction sales of art, jewelry, and watches, which can lead many people to dismiss auctions as affordable places to find high-quality pieces. Bonhams, a leading auction house, aims to change that with its summer sale of watches that are attainable and can, in fact, be quite the steal. While curating the sale, its watch experts found so many incredible and interesting watches that they had to split the sale into two parts. The first finished in July, and the second is happening right now.

Watches Online features 67 timepieces ranging from mid-19th-century pocketwatches to modern Rolex, Omega, and Patek Philippe watches and everything in between. Nearly every watch is estimated to be under $10,000, including pieces on gold bracelets. It is next to impossible to walk into a boutique and buy many of the most popular watches at retail prices these days, so many shoppers turn to the secondhand market, where prices can be higher. People are paying a premium to have it now and to skip waiting, and flippers are taking advantage of the shortages and high demand to spike prices. We aren’t seeing that at this auction, so it’s one of the few places these days where consumers can actually find a deal.

Additionally, many watchmakers use quartz movements instead of mechanical movements in their entry-level or their smallest watches. The majority of these timepieces were made before the quartz era, so watches that would feature quartz movements today feature mechanical movements — a bonus for purists. An example is this beautiful 25mm Omega Constellation watch — today, the 25mm models all feature quartz movements. And its starting bid is just $1,000 for the 18K gold watch. A classic Rolex steel and 18K gold Datejust is estimated at $5,000-$7,000, while a modern version would cost $12,000, and there’s a Patek Philippe women’s Calatrava on an 18K white gold bracelet estimated between $4,000-$6,000. There are also some more unusual watches, like a 1960s Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox alarm watch.

The downside of buying a watch at auction is that auction houses do not guarantee the watches are in working condition. You can — and should — request the condition report to be sure it was ticking at the time of cataloging before placing your bid. After, take it to a reputable watch repair shop or to the brand to have it serviced, which can cost anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars if you need replacement parts. While it’s more work than buying a watch in a store, you can find some absolute gems and have a more unique timepiece on your wrist.

Watches Online closes on September 2, so get your bids in now.