A confidential, written appraisal of a single watch or a whole collection, set against live market comparables — returned within twenty-four hours, at no fee. Because Maison Montres never takes title, the figure we give you is not a purchase offer dressed up as advice. It is the number a piece would realistically clear at today, prepared for the reason you actually need it: an insurer, an estate, a settlement, a transfer, or a clear-eyed look before a sale.
Most people who search for a watch appraisal are answering one of a small set of questions: what should I insure this for, what is it worth for the estate, how do we divide it fairly, what should it be recorded at for a transfer, or what would it actually fetch if I sold. Those are not all the same number — an insurance figure runs high by design, an auction estimate is set to win the consignment, and a dealer's offer is priced to leave the dealer a margin. An independent appraisal gives you the honest middle: a market figure, sourced from comparable sales, with the reasoning shown. We prepare it as a watch advisory house, on your side of the table, and we are happy to be the second opinion that checks someone else's number. British and Commonwealth readers: see our watch valuation page for the same service in UK terms.
An independent watch appraisal against live market comparables — confidential, 24-hour, no fee. Maison Montres returns a written appraisal of a watch or collection set against three to five recent comparable sales, at no charge and with no obligation. Suitable for insurance scheduling, estate planning, divorce settlement, gift and intra-family transfer, charitable contribution, or a pre-sale market check. Because we never take title, the figure is not a purchase offer priced for our own margin — it is what the piece would realistically clear at today. Formal signed appraisal documents, for insurers and courts, are issued for a flat fee quoted in advance.
An appraisal is not a single event with a single purpose. The figure you need depends entirely on the reason you are asking. These are the requests we see most often, and each is answered with the basis named in the report.
Insurance scheduling. Your insurer or broker needs a documented value to schedule the watch on a policy. This is a replacement figure, and it deliberately sits at the higher end — see the section below on scheduled value versus market value. Most specialist insurers want the watch physically reviewed and the document signed by a named, qualified appraiser.
Estate planning and probate. Executors and attorneys need a defensible fair-market figure to settle an estate, calculate estate tax, or distribute holdings among beneficiaries. A market appraisal, sourced from comparables and dated, is what stands up to scrutiny here — not an insurance figure, which would overstate the estate.
Divorce and matrimonial settlement. Where a collection is part of the marital estate, both parties are served by an independent figure neither side commissioned to flatter. Because we never take title, we have no position in the watch and no reason to push the number either way.
Gift and intra-family transfer. Passing a watch to a child or between family entities often needs a recorded value for tax and accounting. We provide a dated market appraisal suitable for that record.
Charitable contribution. A watch donated to an institution or charity may require a substantiating appraisal for the donor's tax position. We prepare a written market appraisal with the comparables shown.
Pre-sale market check. Before you sell — through us, through our sell-side brokerage, at auction, or privately — it is worth knowing the realistic clearing price first, so you can read any offer against an independent number. This is the most common request, and the fastest: an indicative appraisal reaches you within twenty-four hours.
You send a brief — reference, year, condition notes, documentation, and clear photographs. A confidential written appraisal reaches you within twenty-four hours, set against three to five live market comparables. There is no fee for the indicative appraisal and no obligation to do anything with it.
What the report contains. A single market figure or a tight range; the three to five comparable sales it rests on, with dates; an assessment of condition on our 1-to-10 condition grading; notes on documentation, originality, and anything that materially widens or narrows the range; and, where you have asked for it, a separate insurance-replacement figure clearly labeled as such. Where the watch is physically reviewed, the appraisal draws on the twelve-point authentication protocol, signed by a named watchmaker, and — on vintage, F.P. Journe pre-2010, AP A-series and B-series Jumbo, or any reference above CHF 50,000 — a two-tier independent specialist review.
What it is not. An independent appraisal is deliberately different from three figures it is easy to confuse it with:
Maison Montres never takes title. We do not buy the watch we are appraising, so there is no margin to protect and no incentive to quote low. When we run a sale for you, we do it as a broker on a transparent commission, and you see the buyer, the price, and the net to you in writing. The appraisal and any later sale are kept honestly separate.
These are the two figures collectors most often conflate, and the gap between them can be wide. Both are correct; they simply answer different questions.
Insurance-scheduled (replacement) value is what it would cost to put the same watch back on your wrist if it were lost, stolen, or destroyed — sourced at full retail where the reference is still available, or at scarcity-adjusted market where it is not. For a hard-to-find reference trading well above list, the replacement figure can sit meaningfully above any price you would receive selling it. That is intentional: it is the sum your policy must be willing to pay out.
Market value is the price the watch would realistically clear at today, between a willing buyer and a willing seller, net of nothing — the honest middle of recent comparable sales. This is the figure for an estate, a settlement, or a decision about whether to sell.
Most serious collectors need both. The higher figure goes to the insurer so the watch is properly scheduled and the policy is not under-covered; the lower figure informs estate planning, family transfers, and any decision to sell. We are glad to supply both in a single report, each clearly labeled, so there is no risk of one being used where the other belongs. If insurance is the live question, our note on watch insurance sets out how scheduling and appraisal fit together.
Rolex is the most liquid brand in the secondary market, which makes appraisal comparatively tight: current-production sport references trade in narrow, well-documented bands, and an indicative figure can usually be set with confidence. The spread widens for discontinued ceramic, for precious-metal variants, and for vintage, where condition and originality move the number far more than the reference alone. Papers and box add a measurable premium; absence of papers widens the range rather than closing the door.
Vintage Patek is where appraisal becomes genuinely specialist. Two examples of the same reference can sit thousands apart on dial variant, case sharpness, and — above all — provenance. A documented chain of ownership, an Extract from the Archives, and a known prior sale each carry a premium that a reference-only appraisal cannot capture. Modern Patek is more legible, but allocation-driven references still trade above list in ways the catalog does not show.
The Royal Oak and Royal Oak Offshore are appraised on quite different drivers. The Royal Oak — and the A-series and B-series Jumbo in particular — is provenance- and condition-sensitive, and the early Jumbo references warrant two-tier specialist review before any figure is committed. The Offshore market is broader and more configuration-led: case material, dial, and edition status set the band. Conflating the two leads to appraisals that are wrong in both directions.
F.P. Journe is the clearest case of production-year scarcity driving value. Early-production pieces — the brass-movement Souveraine references, pre-2010 examples, and the first runs of a given caliber — command premiums that a buyer unfamiliar with the maker will simply miss. Appraisal here turns on movement generation, dial signature, and series, not on the model name. Any pre-2010 Journe receives two-tier specialist review.
Akrivia, Rexhep Rexhepi, Simon Brette, MB&F, De Bethune, Voutilainen, Greubel Forsey and their peers are the most production-year-sensitive of all. Output is measured in tens or low hundreds per year, so the difference between an early and a later example of the same model can be decisive, and secondary-market data is thin enough that comparable selection is the whole exercise. This is the tier where Maison Montres' private sourcing and collector network make the appraisal materially better than a database lookup.
An appraisal is only as precise as the evidence behind it. None of the following is mandatory — we will appraise a watch on photographs and a description alone — but each item supplied tightens the range and raises confidence in the figure.
Where a watch is held under, or being considered for, our portfolio management service, much of this documentation is already on file in the eight-element collector dossier, which is exportable as a PDF and travels with the watch.
A short note will reach the founder. An indicative appraisal returns within twenty-four hours, at no fee.
An indicative market appraisal is free. Maison Montres returns a confidential, written appraisal within twenty-four hours of submission, set against three to five live market comparables, at no charge and with no obligation. Where a formal appraisal document is required for an insurer, an estate, or a court — with a named signatory and the watch physically reviewed — we issue it for a flat fee quoted in advance. The indicative appraisal is never billed.
No. The indicative market appraisal carries no fee and no obligation. You send the reference, year, condition notes, documentation and photographs; we return a written appraisal within twenty-four hours with the comparables it rests on. Only a formal signed appraisal document — for insurance scheduling, probate, or a settlement — carries a flat fee, agreed before any work begins. We never take title, so we are not quoting a price we then hope to buy at.
They answer two different questions. An insurance-replacement appraisal states what it would cost to replace the watch at full retail or scarcity-adjusted market — it deliberately runs high, because it sets the sum a policy must cover. A market appraisal states the price the watch would realistically clear at today, between willing parties. Most collectors need both numbers: the higher figure to schedule the watch with an insurer, the lower figure to understand what a sale would actually return. Maison Montres supplies either or both, and labels each clearly.
For scheduling a watch on a policy, most underwriters and specialist insurers accept a written appraisal from an independent watch advisory house with a named, qualified signatory and the watch physically reviewed. Our formal appraisal document is prepared to that standard. Requirements vary by insurer and jurisdiction, so we recommend confirming the format with your broker before commissioning the document; we will prepare it to their specification.
An indicative written appraisal reaches you within twenty-four hours of a complete submission — reference, year, condition notes, documentation and clear photographs. A formal signed appraisal document, which requires the watch to be physically reviewed under our twelve-point authentication protocol, typically takes five to seven business days from receipt of the watch.
Yes. A vintage Rolex without papers is fully valuable; absence of papers simply widens the range and raises the weight placed on physical authentication. We assess case geometry, dial originality, parts correctness, and service history under a two-tier independent specialist review, and where possible request a Rolex archive extract on the owner's behalf to partially restore documentation. The appraisal states the adjustment that the missing papers imply, in writing.