Luxury watches get a second life, but only after a two-year waiting period
Audemars Piguet’s new platform for used watches adds layers of bureaucracy to the resale process.
The story
Audemars Piguet launches a certified pre-owned platform called The Watch Keepers, offering authentication, sales, and a two-year warranty for second-hand watches.
Source: wwd.com
Our reading
The Watch Keepers platform requires sellers to ship their watches to a service center, where they’re checked against company records and graded on five criteria. It’s like a high-end version of a garage sale, but with more bureaucracy and fewer mismatched socks.
By requiring a two-year wait after the original sale, Audemars Piguet ensures that even its used watches maintain a certain exclusivity. It’s not just a resale market—it’s a curated second life, where timepieces are given a new lease on luxury.
The brand’s insistence on a five-point condition grade feels less like a service and more like a performance review for a very expensive heirloom.
