Audemars Piguet's pre-owned certificate rests on a register only it can read

In brief

On 26 October 2026 Audemars Piguet opened The Watch Keepers, a platform on which it resells its own watches, WWD and Luxury Tribune reported the same day. It is open in Switzerland and the rest of Europe first. A watch qualifies two years after its first sale. The seller enters the serial number and proof of ownership online, then sends the watch by courier to an Audemars Piguet service centre. There the maker's watchmakers check it against the archive registers and grade the case, dial and bracelet on a five-point scale, Hypebeast and Watchonista reported. The buyer receives a certificate of authenticity, a two-year warranty on its working and a travel pouch. A full service is not included. If the watchmakers find a fault they propose one to the seller, billed separately, Watchonista reported. The watch remains the seller's property and is stored by Audemars Piguet until it sells. The seller picks a fixed price or bidding and pays the only commission. Luxury Tribune gave the schedule as 20 percent on the first 25,000 euros, 15 percent on the next 25,000 and 10 percent above that. Watches by SJX wrote that the fee had not been disclosed and counted 42 watches listed on launch day, against the roughly 100 the maker says it means to show at any one time.

The certificate turns on who holds the register. Anyone can read a serial off the case and match it to papers. Only the maker can match that serial to the entry made when the watch left Le Brassus, and to its service records since. That is the check the platform sells, and Hypebeast noted that it rests on information resellers do not have. The grade is a second claim, on condition, and the warranty a third, on working order from the sale date. None of the three says the watch has been serviced. Rolex has run a certified pre-owned programme through its authorised dealers since December 2022, Watchonista noted. Audemars Piguet sells under its own name and never takes ownership. For scale, LuxeConsult's Secondary Market Report 2026, published 23 October, put the pre-owned watch market near CHF 23 billion, with 2025 growth of about 7 percent, Luxury Tribune reported. For the economy, the Federal Reserve held its target range at 3.75 to 4 percent on 28 October 2026. The 10-year Treasury yield was 4.91% on 2 November, US Treasury data show. The University of Michigan's final October consumer sentiment reading, published 23 October, was 48.0 against 53.6 a year earlier, with the year-ahead inflation reading at 4.7 percent.