Watches: pre-purchase judging points

For watches the two failures that come up most are these: dial printing that is centred in the seller's photo but drifts against the rehaut in daylight, and bracelet end links that leave a visible gap once the watch is on a wrist. Both are decided by photographs a seller can take before dispatch, which is why the points below start where they do.

Watches carry the highest value per gram in this catalogue, which makes cover and declared value the two decisions that matter most.

For watches, 6 distinct things have to be visible in the set a seller sends — beginning with three live listing pages for the same reference, saved with the price line, the selected variant and the date visible in the same capture:

• three live listing pages for the same reference, saved with the price line, the selected variant and the date visible in the same capture
• the three saved comparables beside the row's own page, with the movement, crystal and case-material lines of each quoted word for word
• one written reply naming the movement family, the case material and the crystal type, sent inside the platform thread before payment
• the inclusions line of the listing and the seller's written answer about box, spare links and paperwork, read side by side
• one frame per watch with the dial filling the image and the crown at three o'clock, camera centred on the hand pivot, plus one raking frame of the same dial lit from about thirty degrees
• a macro frame of the smallest text block on the dial, taken close enough that single characters fill the frame and the dial surface beside them stays in focus

Asking for that set in one message is what the photo request wording is for. When a seller skips one of these shots, the gap surfaces first at price band and the shortcut a low number buys, which is why that point sits at the top of the list above. What each angle can and cannot show is set out on the photo limits page.

Watches carry the highest value per gram in this catalogue, which makes cover and declared value the two decisions that matter most.

2 gauges cover this category, listed beside this column with the date each parameter set was last read. On watches orders the line that moves first is watches carry the highest value per gram in this catalogue.