How I Source and Buy Watches

Someone asked how I source my pieces a few weekends ago, whether I shop around, and what actually matters when I'm choosing a seller. Simple question. Long answer.

The split.

Over the last year and a half, somewhere between 40 and 50 percent of my pieces have come through one authorized dealer, Shreve, Crump & Low here in Boston. The other half comes from everywhere else. Company-owned boutiques, pre-owned shops, sellers scattered across the internet (Pucks & Timepieces, 1916 Company, DialSociety, MyWatchLLC) . I've never had a problem buying from a range of places, and I still do.

One of my mentors told me something years ago that stuck: buy the seller, not just the watch. The more you work with someone, the more they learn your taste, and the more the service actually gets tailored to you instead of to whoever's walking through the door that day. A few weeks ago I was at Shreve looking at a piece I liked, and Glen talked me out of it. He knew what was already in my collection and thought this one would clash. That's not a sales pitch. That's someone who's paid enough attention to know my collection better than I sometimes do in the moment. You don't get that from a one-watch-and-gone relationship. You get it from buying the seller.

The game.

There's a question buried in all of this about allocation, and I have strong feelings on it. With Rolex, and a handful of other luxury categories like Ferrari, getting access to the piece you actually want often means playing a game first. Buy watches you don't want so you can eventually order the one you do. I've seen the math on this. Spend $65,000 on pieces that don't interest you for the right to buy a $16,900 Oystersteel Daytona. And if you're not buying watches to prove loyalty, you're buying jewelry instead.

I get why that system exists. I'm a businessman too, and allocation strategies aren't irrational from the brand's side. But as a customer with plenty of other options, I'd rather not play it. I'd rather pay slightly over retail and get the watch without the audition.

That doesn't mean I avoid retail. Far from it. Both of my Zenith GFJ and Chronomaster Lapis Lazuli, both of my Laurent Ferrier pieces, my Parmigiani Fleurier, and the Vacheron Constantin 1921 Historiques I'm currently waiting on are all retail purchases. The issue was never the price tag... It was the game some brands make you play to get there.

What makes me trust a seller.

Somebody who wants to actually get to know me, isn't shady, isn't pushy, and comes with real references. That's who I want to work with. I don't need the champagne and truffles that sometimes come with the experience, I don't drink alcohol, so that part's wasted on me anyway. What I want is someone who gives it to me straight and doesn't push. I like advice. I listen to it but that doesn't mean I take it every time.

Walking 47th Street in Manhattan is genuinely fun for exactly this reason, you see an incredible range of pieces in one afternoon. But out of everyone you'll pass on that block, there are only a handful I'd actually buy from (@JemWatch). The watches on display don't tell you much but the person behind the counter is what is most important. Maybe all of 47th Street is fine but they honestly do not help themselves with the reels and the tiktoks, at least in my opinion.

A concrete example of why the seller matters as much as the watch.

This came up literally at the counter with Tai from Shreve. Someone asked whether it's smart to buy a used Lange listed as recently serviced. I didn't have a strong opinion, so I handed it to him. His answer split the question in two. Some Lange collectors want the aging on the German silver main plate left alone, since that patina only comes from time and can't be rushed. Others want a freshly serviced piece, a clean start. Tai hasn't serviced his own Lange in ten years on purpose, he wants the age to keep developing. Neither approach is wrong. What matters is whether the watch runs correctly on a timegrapher, whether the winding and date functions are clean, and whether the seller can actually speak to the watch's history instead of just its listing description.

That's the whole argument for buying the seller in one exchange. A stranger online can tell you a watch was serviced. Only someone who's handled hundreds of them can tell you whether that's even the right thing to want. Buy the watch and...the seller.