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With an Inherited Watch Collection, Doing Less Is the Smartest Move

Specialists from Sotheby's and Phillips explain what heirs must do before cleaning, repairing or selling an inherited timepiece.

Once upon a time, a retired New York City civil servant inherited a Rolex from an uncle he cared for during the final years of his life. Uncertain what it was worth, he guessed around $10,000 and hid it in a flowerpot in his Queens apartment for safekeeping. When he eventually brought it to Sotheby's, the watch turned out to be a rare vintage Daytona known to collectors as a “John Player Special.” It sold for $768,000.

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The sale, according to Geoff Hess, Sotheby’s global head of watches, dramatically changed the man’s financial circumstances. “That’s an extreme example,” he told Observer, but families routinely inherit watches without understanding what they are, what they might be worth or which details matter. An unassuming watch can prove significant; an imposing one can turn out to be less valuable than it appears.

The days immediately following inheriting a watch collection are therefore the wrong time to start cleaning, repairing or sorting the collection for sale. The safest approach is simpler: gather everything, alter nothing and have the full collection assessed by a watch specialist. Also important is to put the timepieces, and everything associated with them, into a secure place. “Keep everything,” said Isabella Proia, head of sale and senior international specialist for watches at Phillips. “It’s important to err on the side of holding onto too much.” That includes boxes, warranty papers, receipts, service documents, spare bracelet links, straps, booklets, presentation materials and even handwritten notes. Together, Proia said, they can help establish provenance and history.

The importance of each of these extras varies by era. Modern watches are more likely to retain their original packaging, making completeness more important to collectors; vintage pieces may have been separated from those materials decades ago. “For the most part, what they do is enhance the........

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