Is Flipping Watches Worth It?

Watches are expensive and they always seem to be going up in value. This means pretty much every watch collector has asked themselves at some point if flipping watches could be the quick and easy way to make some extra cash.

While this can work and many people use this business model, it’s not as simple as you think and unless you are willing to lose some money, I would suggest you avoid it.

What Is Watch Flipping?

It really is just buying and selling watches.

The main difference between a watch collector buying a watch and then later selling it and a watch flipper is the intent and speed.

A flipper buys a watch with the sole purpose of quickly selling it on again, at a profit. Think of what the word “flip” means, it means to turn something around quickly.

A watch collector buys a watch to enjoy it and when they are bored of it, they might decide to sell it on. Hopefully for a profit, but not always.  

(You can read about this in more detail – What Is Watch Flipping And How Does It Work?)

Why Is Flipping Watches Difficult?

It sounds easy on paper, just buy watches at a low price and sell them for a higher value. It’s simple economics, but it’s also so much more than this.

Finding The Watches

Finding watches to buy is easy, but finding watches that are below market value is exceptionally hard and is even harder now due to the internet.

Most watch collectors know about their watch, they roughly know the value and demand of what they have. This is made even easier now by a quick internet search that can show them what other people are selling the same watch at.

This doesn’t mean it’s impossible to find a watch at a low price; it just makes it harder and means your profit margins are likely to be quite small.

The chances of finding a rare vintage Rolex in a second hand shop for £5 are pretty much zero, but being able to find one where you could maybe make £50 quid profit is possible, but even that is difficult.  

High End Watches Can Be A Nightmare To Sell

One of the biggest issues you will find if you want to be a flipper is that you might not know enough about the watches. Just knowing that a Rolex can cost 10k is not good enough.

You know to exactly what you are buying and understand the demand for that specific model. Certain models will do well on the second hand market and others not so much. You need to know what sells and what does not.

Watch Condition

You also need to understand the condition of the watch as any minor defect or change can be the difference between making a profit and making a loss. This is especially true with vintage watches. They can be an absolute midfield. It can be very hard to know if everything is actually original or if parts have been replaced.

Fake watches

You also have the nightmare task of making sure you have an authentic watch. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more fake watches in the world than originals. Some of these are in circulation with the purpose of ripping you off and someone might own one and genuinely not realise it’s fake.

Accidently buying or selling a fake watch may seem like a harmless mistake, but your bank account will not think so. You may also have to pay to have a watch authenticated, which is of course going to eat into your profits.

(You can read more about – What Are The Biggest Challenges Or Risks Associated With Watch Flipping?)

Service Costs Of Watches

Maybe you have bought a watch that is a little beat up, if you repair it, you might be able to sell it for more. However the cost of this might outweigh the profits, making it pointless.

You also need to be sure if it’s the right thing to do, especially with a vintage watch, you might lower the value by repairing and replacing parts since it will no longer be fully original.

If you can do some servicing yourself, it may help, but you then have to spend your time buffing out scratches and you will need to ask yourself if this is worth your time.

(You can read more about – What Makes Swiss Watches So Expensive?)

Sellers Fees

Depending where you sell your watch, you may need to pay a sellers fees.

These might not seem like much, but when you are selling quite high value watches, that little percentage can quickly add up. You may find that these fees eat into your profit.

You also have the issue of international customs if you are shipping overseas. While this should be on the buyer, it’s still annoying and might be factored into the amount they are willing to pay you for the watch.

If you are trying to source watches from abroad to sell locally, it could be an issue for you. 

Buy The Seller

The advice for watch collectors buying watches is to buy the seller. If you can trust who you are buying the watch from, then the watch should be okay.

This basically means if you are wanting to sell watches… people need to know who you are and they need to trust you. If you just appear online one day asking for a few thousand for a watch, you probably won’t get much interest. You could be any old scammer chancing their arm trying to sell a knock off watch.

This mean you are going to have to be active on social media and start building some trust in the community.

You might have to start by selling a lot of low value watches where the buyer will not be so cautious and as worried about who you are. However, there is less profit from these types of watches and less demand too, making it quite difficult to sell them.     

It Can Be Worth Flipping Watches

While I have mainly said it’s too difficult throughout this article, it does not mean it is impossible and that it’s not worth it.

Plenty of people are watch flippers and I am sure many make a profit. You also have loads of businesses where this is the exact business model.

This means it does work, but it’s not quick and it’s not easy. It will take a lot of hard work and dedication.

If you are able to repair watches, you could buy broken watches for a lot cheaper and repair them and then sell them. This is of course a lot easier said than done as watch repairs is a pretty tricky skill and not everyone can do it.

You could also buy watches and hold on to them, selling them after. However, this is very slow and knowing what watches will go up in value can be hard to predict and is equally as risky as buying something like stocks. 

(You can read more about – Is Watch Flipping A Profitable Business Venture?)

Should You Flip Watches?

You should just be a watch collector. Buy watches you want and enjoy them. If for any reason you don’t want the watch any more, then sell it and replace it with a different one. You might make a little finical loss, but you might make a gain.

It doesn’t matter the main thing is you got to enjoy the watch while you had it and you are now able to enjoy the chase of the new watch. 

(You can read more about – Why Are People Obsessed With Watches?)

Conclusion

Is watch flipping worth it? For most people, probably not. Unless you really know what you are doing and can really get hold of a lot of good watches at a below market value, you are probably going to struggle to even breakeven at best. 

It seems like it should be easy, but it’s really not. if you dedicate enough time and effort you can make it a success, but it is not as easy as might think it is, so it’s better to just enjoy watch collecting for what it is, rather than trying to make it into easy cash flowing business.

(If you are going to flip watches then you need to know – How To Safely Buy A Luxury Watch)