Maison Montres partners with family offices, multi-family offices, wealth advisory firms, and private banks whose clients hold significant watch collections. We work as a specialist resource alongside the wealth advisor — never replacing the relationship, never operating direct-to-client over the partner.
For most family offices, the watch collection is a meaningful but undermanaged asset class — significant by value, opaque by valuation, demanding by servicing, and often without a documented plan for succession or transfer. The wealth advisor knows the client, the goals, and the broader portfolio. We know watches. The right structure puts both expertises on the same side of the table.
Maison Montres is a Geneva-based watch advisory house, established 2026, with an active specialism in contemporary independent watchmaking and the AP Royal Oak / vintage Patek tiers. We partner with family offices, MFOs, wealth advisory firms, private banks, and venture and private equity firms whose principals or clients hold significant watch collections. Engagement letter is between Maison Montres and the partner; the partner remains the client's primary point of contact. White-label structure available where preferred. Quarterly reporting in formats compatible with Addepar, Asset Vantage, Black Diamond, or bespoke. Insurance liaison, servicing oversight, succession and transfer planning. Pricing on application — every partnership is sized differently.
For a family office advising on a household with a serious watch collection, the collection is rarely on the same footing as the rest of the portfolio. The cost basis is recorded but rarely refreshed against current market valuations. Pieces are insured at replacement values that bear no relation to the actual market — sometimes too low, sometimes materially too high. The documentation is dispersed across the household, the safe, the original retailers, and the family office's files. Service intervals are missed. Counterfeits go undiagnosed for years. When a piece is sold — to fund a different purchase, to rebalance the collection, or as part of an estate event — the disposal happens through whichever dealer the principal happens to know, at whatever price the principal is offered.
This is not a failure of the family office or the principal. It is a failure of specialism. Watches require expertise that does not sit naturally inside a wealth advisory firm — and rarely sits inside a single dealer either. The right structure puts the watch specialist alongside the wealth advisor, with the client relationship anchored at the family office and the watch work executed against a documented, written engagement.
Maison Montres is built to be that specialist partner. We do not operate as a dealer. We do not take title to inventory. We work on the collector's side of the table — and, by extension, on the partner's side of the table — with the same documented twelve-point protocol, the same lifetime authenticity guarantee, and the same incentive structure that aligns our work with the long-term performance of the collection rather than the volume of transactions on it.
1. Intake. The partnership conversation begins with a brief on the partner firm — the type of practice (single-family, multi-family, wealth advisory, private bank), the client base, the typical collection profile, and the partner's preferred engagement structure (referring partnership, retained advisory, white-label). Engagement letter is drafted to match the partner's preferences. Maison Montres signs the engagement with the partner; the partner remains the client's primary point of contact throughout.
2. Diagnostic phase per client. When the partner introduces a client, the engagement begins with the same diagnostic phase as a direct portfolio management engagement — portfolio valuation, weak-spot analysis, written roadmap. The diagnostic deliverable goes to the partner first; the partner decides how to present it to the principal. The diagnostic phase is priced and contracted separately from the ongoing mandate.
3. Mandate execution. If the principal decides to formalise an ongoing relationship, the mandate begins. Quarterly reporting flows to the partner in the partner's preferred format. Sourcing, brokerage, authentication, servicing oversight, and insurance liaison are executed against the written mandate. The partner is copied on every material decision and every transaction.
4. Reporting integration. Quarterly valuation reports are produced in formats compatible with Addepar, Asset Vantage, Black Diamond, or in a bespoke format the partner specifies. Watch holdings are presented at serial-level granularity, with current secondary-market valuation against recent comparables, condition trajectory, documentation status, and concentration analysis. The reporting integrates into the partner's broader client reporting rather than sitting alongside it.
Three structural arrangements for how a partnership can be configured. The right structure depends on the partner's preferred client relationship topology and how the work fits into the partner's broader practice. All three are available; the engagement letter is drafted to match the chosen structure before any work begins.
Quarterly portfolio review. Documented review of every holding, with current secondary-market valuation against recent comparables (Phillips, Christie's, Sotheby's, Antiquorum, private-channel transaction data), condition trajectory across the trailing twelve months, documentation status, and a recommendation: hold, exit, or service. Delivered to the partner in the partner's preferred format.
Sourcing for additions. Active sourcing for the gaps identified in the roadmap, through our private collector network and direct boutique relationships. Twelve-point authentication on every sourced piece, with two-tier review on vintage and any reference above CHF 50,000.
Exit advisory on underperformers and concentrated holdings. Direct, written recommendations on disposals, with brokerage on the seller's behalf. We act as the principal's agent — never the dealer's.
Custody of the documentation record. Original papers, archive extracts, service records, prior dossiers, photography — consolidated in our Geneva atelier under a documented chain of custody, accessible to the partner and the principal at any time.
Insurance liaison. Annual valuation letters in formats accepted by Hiscox, Chubb, AIG Private Client, and Privilege Underwriters, with serial-level granularity. Where the partner wants to compare brokers, three specialist underwriter quotes are provided at no charge.
Servicing oversight. Coordination with the watchmaker for the reference, scheduling and witnessing major services, documenting the work in the dossier.
Market intelligence. Proactive briefings on developments that affect the specific holdings: brand-level allocation changes, secondary-market clearing-price movements, counterfeit advisories, auction results in the relevant reference range.
Succession and transfer planning. Where the principal is thinking about generational transfer, sale to a single buyer, or partial liquidation for an estate event, we work with the partner and counsel to structure the transfer efficiently. Piece-by-piece valuation, condition documentation, the dossier transfer protocol, and the brokerage strategy where pieces are being sold rather than transferred in kind.
Single-family offices. Where the principal's collection has reached a scale where the family office requires a documented specialism alongside the wealth advisory work. Most engagements begin here.
Multi-family offices. Where multiple principals across the MFO's book hold serious watch collections, and the MFO wants a single specialist resource rather than a per-client referral. White-label engagement is common in this configuration.
Wealth advisory firms. Where the firm advises high-net-worth households and wants a credible, documented specialist for the watch component of the broader portfolio. Engagement is typically referring; revenue sharing on transactions; annual retainer for advisory work.
Private banks. Where the bank's wealth or private banking arm advises clients with significant watch holdings and wants a specialist partner for valuation, insurance, succession planning, and the brokerage of disposals where the gavel is the right channel.
Venture funds and private equity firms. Where general partners, limited partners, or principals across the fund's leadership hold serious collections — increasingly common as recent vintages of funds have produced founder-collectors who treat horology as a parallel passion-asset class. We work directly with the fund's family-office function or with the principals individually, depending on how the fund is structured. Engagements often begin around an exit event, a partnership transition, or a specific reference (the founder commissioning a pièce unique to mark a fund vintage; the partner liquidating a position to fund an LP capital call). Discretion is operationally critical and structurally guaranteed.
Estate counsel. Where the watch component of an estate requires specialist valuation, transfer documentation, or brokerage. We work alongside counsel and the executor on a per-engagement basis.
Partnership conversations begin with a brief on the firm and the typical client profile. The engagement letter is drafted to match the partner's preferences — referring, retained, or white-label.
Yes. Maison Montres partners with family offices, multi-family offices, wealth advisory firms, and private banks whose clients hold significant watch collections. The engagement is structured around the partner relationship rather than direct-to-client: we work as a specialist resource alongside the wealth advisor, with the client relationship anchored at the family office or advisory firm. Engagement letter is between Maison Montres and the partner; the partner remains the client's primary point of contact.
The default structure is a referring partnership with revenue sharing on transactions and an annual retainer for advisory work, with the specifics agreed in writing before any engagement begins. White-label engagement is available for partners who want the work to be branded as their own; in that case, Maison Montres operates as the specialist back-end, with the client-facing materials, reporting, and engagement letter branded to the partner. Pricing is on application — every partnership is sized differently.
Quarterly portfolio review with current secondary-market valuation against recent comparables; sourcing for additions; exit advisory on underperformers and concentrated holdings; custody of the documentation record; insurance liaison with annual valuation letters in formats accepted by Hiscox, Chubb, AIG Private Client, and Privilege Underwriters; servicing oversight; market intelligence briefings; family-office reporting integration in formats compatible with Addepar, Asset Vantage, Black Diamond, or bespoke formats; succession and transfer planning where the client is thinking about generational transfer, sale to a single buyer, or partial liquidation for an estate event.
Yes. Annual valuation letters are produced reference by reference, signed by a named watchmaker and counter-signed by the principal of Maison Montres, in formats accepted by the major specialist insurers (Hiscox, Chubb, AIG Private Client, Privilege Underwriters). Estate valuations follow the same protocol with the additional documentation required for probate or transfer purposes. Where the family office wants to compare insurance brokers, we provide quotes from three specialist underwriters at no charge.
Yes. Where the principal is thinking about generational transfer (passing the collection to children or other family members), sale to a single buyer (the entire collection going to one collector or institution), or partial liquidation for an estate event, we work alongside the wealth advisor and counsel to structure the transfer efficiently. This includes piece-by-piece valuation, condition documentation, the dossier transfer protocol, and the brokerage strategy where pieces are being sold rather than transferred in kind.
Within an ongoing partnership engagement, we handle the full breadth of the client's collection — including houses that are not at the centre of our active specialism (Rolex, A. Lange & Söhne, Vacheron Constantin, and other brands available on request). The reasoning: for a partnership client, the collection is the whole, and a specialist who refuses to work on three references in a thirty-piece collection is not a useful partner. Outside the partnership context, we will name better-placed houses for direct Rolex sourcing where appropriate. Inside the partnership context, we handle it.
Headquartered in Geneva at Place du Molard 5, with an additional office in Dubai (DIFC, Gate Avenue). All offices by appointment, Tuesday to Saturday. Reach the house at contact@maisonmontres.com or via WhatsApp.