What Is Watch Flipping And How Does It Work?

Watch flipping is something you have probably heard about if you have started to get into watches. It will not take you long to hear them being mentioned and usually the whole process is talked about negatively, but what exactly is flipping and how does it work?

This is a complex question as there seems to be many different ways you can do this and the term is generally thrown around and can cover a lot of different things.

Essentially, flipping is just buying and selling a watch, hopefully for a profit but I will go through the different situations where this “flipper” term is used and you will see things can be a bit unclear …but hopefully by the end you will have a better understanding of what is actually going on.   

Watch Flipping Is Just Buying And Selling A Watch

If we just look at watch flipping very broadly, it is simply the act of buying and selling watches. You can of course argue that it is a little bit more complex than this, but it really does all boil to just buying and selling and trying to make a profit in the process.

However, when you hear the term “flipper” in watch collecting, it isn’t simply someone just selling a watch; it goes a bit deeper than that. It is usually used to describe someone who is basically playing the market to their advantage and quickly buying a watch …and flipping it (selling) for an easy profit.

It is often used as a derogatory term as the flipper is just in it for the money, they don’t care about collecting watches. They know the watch they are trying to buy is about to go up in value and with a little bit of negotiation, they can make an easy profit for pretty much doing nothing.

A lot of people see them as unnecessary middle men who are exploiting genuine watch collectors and at times this can seem true, but like anything in life, there are different levels to this and you will find both good side and bad sides to flipping watches.

Some people are just selling a watch they own and “flipping it”, other people may be making a business out of this and are basically full time watch dealers always trying to buy second hand watches at a lower price they can sell them for profit.

You then have the people are who are buying new watches that are in high demand and immediately selling them for profit.

The issues is that a lot of these lines can start to blur and I think why the term “flipper” can mean more than one thing.

(You can read more about – Is Flipping Watches Worth It?)

Why Do Watch Flippers Exist?

Why exactly watch flippers exist is a hard question to answer, but I guess you can just sum it up by saying “profit”.

Really the goal for any one selling a watch is to make money and it is a great market for this.

The world of watches is heavily based on supply and demand and any sort of flipper will try to take advantage of the low supply and high demand and leverage this to make a profit.

I guess it depends on how you look at it, some will say they exist out of greed, others will say they are just smart investors and likewise you will find some people say the flippers are good as they bring watches to the market, while others will say they make the supply and demand issue more problematic.

Really we need to ask do flippers exist because there is a good second hand market and they want in on the action …or does the strong second hand market only exist because flippers cause the market to go up.

The reality is that it is probably somewhere in the middle.  

Flipping Hard To Obtain Watches and New Watches

When most people think of flippers … they think about new watches and just generally new releases and this is where a lot of the negativity around “flipping” comes from.

This is where the greed is at its strongest and where the unnecessary middle man feeling comes from and I would fully agree.

As I’ve mentioned, watches can be in low supply and high demand, which means there is often a waiting list and it can just be generally hard to buy these watches.

This has resulted in the second hand market being crazy and the hard to get watches can often sell way above their retail value …This is a huge problem as the small supply, is still small …and the demand is still strong, but we now have watches trading on the open market where retail prices have gone out the window.

Flippers have seen this and taken advantage. They make it their goal to get these watches directly from retail, just to sell on the open market at a higher price.

How do Flippers Get The New Watches?

There are a lot of questions around how flippers get these watches, as the general consensus is that flipping watches like this is bad …yet we have a very healthy grey market …so that doesn’t really add up.

Some flippers will just be people like us, who have been waiting for the watch and then decided the easy profit is more appealing than keeping the watch, but there is also a small number of flippers who seem to always get the new watches.

There are plenty of theories around the relationship between the authorised deals and flippers …and while I’m sure it happens, I just don’t know have the knowledge on this to say how true it is …but I can certainly see why some people are suspicious about things.

Why Is Flipping Hard To Get Watches Bad?

As I mentioned the general consensus is that flipping a new watch for a profit is frowned upon. If you have been on waiting list for a certain model, and you get it …then flip the watch …the dealer will be angry and upset and “black list you” which basically means they will not sell you any more watches in the future as you can’t be trusted and you are exploiting the system.

This is exactly what should be happening, but it’s clearly not working. Just go to Chrono24 and see how many brand new watches are listed for sale.

The real issue is that this makes life harder for actual collectors. Let’s say a new watch is realised and there are 100 units for sale in a shop, and these all get snapped up by flippers and maybe one or two genuine collectors. Let’s say the watch costs £150 but the flippers put them online tonight for £500. Now any actual collectors who want this watch need to pay way over retail. 

You don’t believe this is happening …just look at the moon swatch. This is exactly what happened. There where queues down the street and the watches sold out and a lot of the people who got one where listing them for crazy prices online later that night.

My real question is what exactly have they done to add value to this watch? Nothing …They have just exploited the high demand.

I guess you can compare it to ticket touts/scalpers and we all know how annoying they are. If these people didn’t exist, genuine people could just buy the tickets …or watches, at the price they should be, but instead we have this crazy secondary market.

Should We Use The Secondary Market?

This is where things become very blurry, as the second hand market is needed. There are genuine people out there who want to sell a watch they own, and buying these allows people to get a good deal on a watch they want

The whole concept of the second hand market is fine and I also think it is totally acceptable if people want to make a living from selling second hand watches.

I think the issue we all have is the people who are selling brand new watches. Watches that are walked out a shop and sold for double the price online as they are hard to get and there is a waiting list. This is the “flipping” that we all have an issue with and where people are out just to make as much money as possible.

I would say we should just stop buying from these people, but the demand is high. That is why there is a waiting list in the first place. So of course if someone is going to offer to sell their watch right away …of course someone is going to take the bait and they don’t care about the extra cost, as it helps them avoid the waiting list.

I do think this does encourage more people to flip and this is frustrating. There are 100s of brand new Rolex for sale right now on the second hand market at inflated prices, and I feel there are 100s of people who should have been able to buy these at retail instead.

I guess there is no real easy way to fix this problem, but I feel the second hand market isn’t totally to blame for the issue.

Flipping Broken Watches

A more accepted approach to flipping watches, is selling broken watches …well you buy them, fix them up and sell them on.

This is very common with vintage watches that are a little beat up and just need some love to get them back to being useable again. Most people see this as a lot more ethical than flipping new watches, and so long as you are transparent about the fact that the watch has been restored everyone wins.

The original seller gets rid of their broken watch, the flipper gets to (hopefully) enjoy fixing the watch and makes some profit, then the new buyer gets a cool watch that should still be good value and everyone gets to feel happy they have helped recycle …well not recycle, but you know what I mean, a broken thing has been restored and given new life.

You will find that this method of flipping is not as common for a few reasons. The first being that the process of restoring a watch is not easy and most people don’t want to learn how to do it. It also takes time and effort, so you don’t make your money as quickly.

Then you have the supply and demand issue …well the supply is low, but so is the demand, so it can be hard to sell these compared to the new models that everyone wants.

There also isn’t that much profit in these watches, so after buying them and fixing them up, the level of profit is just not as high as you can get when you get a new watch and try and flip it.

I am a big fan of this style of flipping. We should encourage more of it so that we can all end up with more interesting watches.

Flipping Modded Watches

Another type of flipping that you will occasionally see is modded watches, which is basically when a standard watch is taken by the flipper and upgraded or “modified” in some way.

This can be done is all sorts of different ways, it may be as simple as changing the crystal to a different one, or modifying the dial by painting something on it to make it unique.

The cool thing is that this is commonly done with cheap watches. You can buy modded G-shocks for example. The seller will sell them a little above the retail price of the normal watch, to make sure they are paid for their modifications and time.

This type of flipping is pretty niche though, the demand isn’t always as big and neither is the profit, but if you know what you are doing you can find some models that people want modded and they will sell well.

Making A Profit Isn’t As Easy As You Think

I think when it comes to flipping, a lot of people assume it is easy money. You get a watch and quickly flip it and while this can be case for some watches, it is not all of them.

There are only a small number of watches that are in such high demand that there is a waiting list, such as Rolex, watches like this will sell very quickly …although as I mentioned earlier you can find 100s of these on sale right now online.

This kind of says that while the demand is high …people don’t want to be ripped off. A lot of the prices are just crazy and I think a lot of people see this as outrageous and these watches may take a little longer to sell than the seller may realise.

I have a feeling that if they reduce the price, they would shift faster, especially if it was below retail …but then there is no profit made, so you can see why they don’t want to sell.

This is where the volatility of the market comes in. There are people who bought watches way above retail during the pandemic …and now the market has settled down, they will never make that money back. If anyone foolishly bought a watch as investment then, they are going to not be so happy right now …making a profit isn’t always as easy as you might think.   

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

Are You A Flipper If You Sell A Watch?

No, I wouldn’t say you are. You could say that you have flipped a watch, especially if you didn’t have it for that long, but you are not a flipper.

A flipper is going to be someone who is buying watches to sell, not just buying watches for themselves …then after a few months deciding they want to sell the watch on.

The intent is just slightly different, flippers are buying watches as a business purchase that are expecting to sell on quickly, rather than buying watches to own and enjoy …and then maybe selling on.

Isn’t Flipping Just The Same As Being A Watch Dealer?

This is an interesting question. In theory, they are pretty much the same, but maybe there a few subtle differences?

Both a flipper and a dealer are trying to make money on watches, they buy and sell and they are trying to make a profit.

When you actually try and say what the difference is …it’s not easy. I guess you would say that a dealer is doing things on a larger scale, they are actually a business and tend to buy in more watches and have  them sat around in stock for a while. A flipper may just be buying one watch and then selling it on and repeating this over and over again, rather than keeping things in stock, but I guess it depends how they want to operate.

They could also both be sourcers but again this depends how they want to operate. This is when you go to them and say you would like a certain watch …then they go and try and find it and then give you a call when they do.  

When you actually look at it, there isn’t much, if any difference and maybe it comes down to intent. A dealer will just want to make an honest business out of buying and selling watches. A flipper is often seen as someone who is more opportunistic and just out for the profit, but not always.

…maybe It’s just  semantics, the name isn’t important, they are doing the same thing and really it comes down to their reputation and honestly, but you could really interchange the name and it would make no difference to the end result.

Is Flipping the Same As An Authorised Dealer?

An authorised deal and a flipper are very different. An authorised deal is basically an official seller for the brand. They get sent brand new watches from the factory and are selling at retail price …they are the shop front of many brands.

If we think of Rolex, they don’t have their own shops …they only sell through an official authorised dealer.

I think the confusion can lie in the fact that some authorised dealers are also second hand dealers, so an authorised dealer isn’t a flipper …but they can be one at the same time.      

Which means you can go to the same person to officially buy a new watch, as well buy and sell second hand watches from them too.

Maybe this is how we answer the question above, the difference between a flipper and dealer is that a dealer is also selling new watches, as an authorised dealer …although you can get solely second hand dealers …so the confusion continues.

Conclusion

As you can see the term flipper can cover a lot of different styles of buying and selling a watch and really the whole second hand market and flipping watches is an interesting market.

Hopefully now you can understand things a little more clearly and see how things work and why some people may not like the idea of flipping, while others do.

The buying and selling of watches is very interesting and the more you dig into it, the more you will start to see it is a very complex system, it is so much more than simple buying and selling.

(You can read more about – Frequently Asked Questions About – Watch Flipping)