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Insurance and valuation of watch collections

946 views 9 replies 9 participants last post by  WaNGARAI 
#1 ·
Having gathered a good range of watches it dawned on me that I hadn't fully considered valuation and insurance in the event of theft/loss.

I track what I have paid for watches etc., but what about their valuation (and accrual)? I have reviewed the excellent Vintage Seiko Valuation Guide by @ewand & @Jim W , but my question is, how have forum members valued their collections so that they are approved / insured with the underwriter?

Does anyone use a specialist insurer, I did see an item on Hodinkee (I think?) about their own specialist insurance that reflected increase in watch values over time.

I would value (no pun intended) the thoughts of others :)
 
#2 ·
when my house burned down, one of the most valuable "things" that i lost
was my watch collection. all i had to do was go back through my paypal
and credit card records to tally up what i had spent on acquiring and improving
my watches. this did nothing for me in regards to the appreciation issue,
but i was perfectly happy to get back what i had put into this hobby. so,
if you have a good insurance policy on your house and belongings,
well, i think i would have fared just as well had my collection been
stolen.

if that doesn't sound like an agreeable outcome to you, then i'd guess
you need a fancier policy that might take appreciation into account.
do such policies exist? how expensive might they be? we need
an insurance expert to chime in here....
 
#3 ·
Wow, sorry to hear about your house, @peterrizzo

@WaNGARAI to add a watch to my homeowner's policy, my insurance company requires either the sales receipt for the purchase, or a professional, written appraisal. If you decide to go this route, your agent will tell you what's required.

Tim Mosso recommends you insure watches under a standalone/specialty policy, so a claim for a watch doesn't impact your homeowner's rates, and so you can get coverage for "mysterious disappearance," a scenario your homeowner's insurance might not cover:

 
#8 ·
I just purchased a fire resistant safe. I still need to finish the installation. Having done the same house fire thing, I don’t think I could recover the current collection if it happened again.


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#9 · (Edited)
I would value (no pun intended) the thoughts of others :)
I took this head-on a couple of years ago, and since we're both in the UK, this might be relevant...

Specialist add-on watch insurance wasn't viable, really; either they wouldn't insure me, or the excess was really high, or it was ridiculously expensive. I spoke to a couple of brokers and they said the best route would be to add on to the household insurance. In my case, we have had flooding before so that complicates things further (since finding an insurer who would do both declared high value items and cover flood risk was tricky). Some also came back with rules saying that I would need to get every watch valued by a jeweller, and would need to notify them of every subsequent purchase and sale. Yeah, like I'm going to do that :D

In the end, I found a really good broker - Macbeth - and they found an insurer who would cover everything and not require me to need to disclose individual items unless they're over £10,000 value, and even then, I could self-disclose current valuation. The only stipulation - apart from the fact they were a good bit more expensive than the regular insurance I had before with standard valuables cover (ie the combined high value items insurance and a slightly higher level of insurance on the house, probably added £1000 a year to the cost) - was the need to have a professionally-installed safe. I went for an Insafe Eurograde - Insafe Grade I Safes High Security Safes £10,000 Cash and £100,000 Valuables Rating - which is bolted to the floor in an out-of-the-way location, and that cost about £1200 IIRC. My only gripe is I wish I'd bought a bigger one :D
 
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