Hey everyone - I have come from gen watches and typically when you purchase a pre-owned gen it will retain a decent amount of its value for resale so long as you buy pre-owned. I wanted to know if people in this community who mod watches to become almost full gen typically get their money back if they pass it on to another member via a sale? Of course not to make money on anyone but to get back what was put in. Does that typically happen? I am planning on building myself a sub with a gen movement and have wondered if I grew tired of it could I sell it here and get back what was put in gen parts wise. Look forward to the feedback!
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Gen watch build resale
- Thread starter rolex_submariner
- Start date
If you look in m2m and do a search of this type of watch you will likely find a lot of evidence to support what I will tell you next....
with gens
you buy new and sell you are going to take a substantial hit ...25%-50% or more most of the time. You buy pre-owned and re-sell you will recoup most of your purchase price...90% ish
with reps
you buy new and sell shortly after in good condition your will recoup almost all of your cost....90% ish. If you keep the rep for a while, maybe 2 yrs or more and there have been more recent versions you will also take a substantial hit. 50% or more sometimes.
with frankens
this is an entirely different beast. Sales can vary wildly depending on case to case. Gen parts are expensive and there are many less buyers than the are for gens or for reps so it can be difficult selling these. If you do the work yourself you should be in pretty decent shape as long as you can be a little patient. If you can't afford to take a bit of a hit I wouldn't advise going this route.
with gens
you buy new and sell you are going to take a substantial hit ...25%-50% or more most of the time. You buy pre-owned and re-sell you will recoup most of your purchase price...90% ish
with reps
you buy new and sell shortly after in good condition your will recoup almost all of your cost....90% ish. If you keep the rep for a while, maybe 2 yrs or more and there have been more recent versions you will also take a substantial hit. 50% or more sometimes.
with frankens
this is an entirely different beast. Sales can vary wildly depending on case to case. Gen parts are expensive and there are many less buyers than the are for gens or for reps so it can be difficult selling these. If you do the work yourself you should be in pretty decent shape as long as you can be a little patient. If you can't afford to take a bit of a hit I wouldn't advise going this route.
Yeah I guess if I move forward and do this build it would really be a watch that I wouldn’t plan on ever selling. Of course you never know if you could need the money some day but the hope is that the watch wouldn’t be the only source...I just figured if I built a full gen SubC or 16610 everything gen except mid case, if that type of build would have decent interest in the resale section. These types of builds would cost quite some money so I’d expect the market to be a smaller audience.
It’s like anything else — if it’s done well and it ticks a lot of the marketplace’s boxes, you’ll be fine. If you dump $5k into your grail but it’s done shoddily or ends up looking like a turd, the loss will be commiserate.
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Another factor which affects the marketplace is current demand. a submariner is such a common watch in so many different levels of builds out there, it's a difficult sell. Going anything beyond the insert dial hands and date wheel, the rate of return on investment will drop off drastically. in many cases you do better to part out the watch versus selling it as a hole for the reasons mentioned above by nalomb . unless it's assembled by a well-known and well-respected modder or watch Smith, it's up in the air as to how well it's going to be put together. one example was I had a friend who bought a franken with a genuine movement. When he received the watch, the movement was only being held still by the crown, and the Autowind wasn't working. He took it to one of our well-respected watch Smith who's sorted out the problems, including the fact that the original builder hadn't used a movement ring to hold the movement still. There was an unexpected couple hundred dollar expense, at least in his case the problems were solvable. Not always is that the case. Build it for yourself, and if you ever do need to sell it prepare yourself that you might need to part it out and sell the pieces separately versus as a whole.
You always lose money as you can’t add on any of your shipping costs / fees etc.
I’ve sold 3 Franken watches on here and lost close to 1k for the privilege.
They are satisfying to build and I have to admit my impatience means I don’t always pick up parts at the most competitive prices.
Subs sell like hot cakes so as long as you pick up the parts at a good price you should have no trouble in selling for pretty damn close to what you paid.
Just keep track of what you’ve spent on parts and labour as you will need that info when you come to sell.
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I’ve sold 3 Franken watches on here and lost close to 1k for the privilege.
They are satisfying to build and I have to admit my impatience means I don’t always pick up parts at the most competitive prices.
Subs sell like hot cakes so as long as you pick up the parts at a good price you should have no trouble in selling for pretty damn close to what you paid.
Just keep track of what you’ve spent on parts and labour as you will need that info when you come to sell.
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