Vacheron Constantin launches pre-owned service (finally!)
The booming secondhand market accounts for a full quarter of luxury-watch sales (as of EveryWatch’s survey in March). So what took venerable Vacheron Constantin, with its 260 years of watchmaking history, so long to launch a Certified Pre-Owned scheme (especially given Rolex launched its equivalent two years ago)? The simple answer may well be because of its history.
Providing secondary (or tertiary) customers with certified, two-year warrantied peace of mind, a stream of sold-on timepieces will – as with Rolex at Watches of Switzerland and Bucherer – be re-sold via the brand’s authorised partners. It’s a setup designed for collectors looking for watches like the white-gold Overseas chronograph (pictured below) that meet the highest quality standards.
The time factor comes into how Vacheron Constantin has reached this point. It’s the end of a winding road, ‘ticking’ off a steady stream of additional service-points, which began with a bold guarantee in its own right: all watches produced since 1755 can be restored.
Vacheron Constantin has a mighty task on its hands, stock-checking its Genevan factory’s Restoration department for original components and historical tools, plus scouring an archive brimming with registers, sketches and technical plans.
At the other end of the technological spectrum, you have Vacheron Constantin’s digital passports, launched in 2019 via Blockchain, preserving unique information such as its ownership history – part and parcel of the newly launched Certified Pre-Owned programme.
The scheme launches in partnership with Richemont Group stablemate Watchfinder, where clients can also partake in a part-exchange: their old watch can be used against the purchase of a new Vacheron. Watchfinder itself will be instrumental in the CPO’s further roll-out, extending to auction houses.
In the heritage-obsessed watch-verse, the old and the new are finally becoming one and the same.