Opening the sourcing brief
What you see on this site is the small part of the market that happens to be with us this month, and it is rarely the exact piece someone is looking for. A watch that is not listed anywhere may still be out there — with a supplier who has not photographed it, or with an owner who has not decided yet.
Give us the reference if you know it, or describe the watch and we will work out what it is. Modern or vintage, full set or watch only. The brief goes out to the people we buy from in Dubai, Hong Kong and Europe, and it comes back with a piece, photographs and a plain account of the condition — or with one of us telling you honestly that what is on offer is not good enough to send you.
We reply the same day, most often within a couple of hours. There are just two of us, so whoever replies is one of the owners.
A brief asks us to look; it does not commit you to buy. We publish nothing, and your name stays with us.
One of the two of us reads your brief personally. Here is what we do with it, and what you hear from us along the way.
It is judged, honestly
One of us decides whether the brief is findable as written. Where it is not — a configuration that surfaces twice a year, a full set on a reference that rarely kept one — we tell you that first, and what would have to change.
The right people are called first
A reference tends to sit where it was sold. The first calls go to the suppliers and dealers who hold that kind of piece, and, on something hard, to owners who have never offered it to anyone.
Nothing reaches you on a description
A candidate is photographed and seen in hand by one of us before it is sent to you, and where the piece calls for it we bring in someone who knows that reference better than we do.
You are told where it stands
Even when nothing has surfaced yet. Silence can look like a search that has been dropped, so we would rather write and tell you the market has been quiet.
Answer what you know and guess the rest; we will draw the detail out when we speak. Each step is kept as you go, so you can leave this page and come back to it.
A brief is the thorough way to start a search, but not the only one. The same detail can come out of a short conversation by message.