Some advice please.
This is the situation. Our local, high street jeweller offers a specialist valuation service. They bring in a 'proper' valuer, and sub-contract the work to him. He was asked to do an 'insurance valuation'.
The watch in question is the following:
1967 Omega / Meister Speedmaster (Pre-Moon, Professional).
Original bracelet not fitted, worn but present.
Reasonable non-Omega bracelet currently fitted.
Some wear to tachymeter bezel, and some general patination from being worn daily (but fairly carefully) from new for 30 years or so. Overall though, very nice indeed: still smart, but with a bit of history to it, rather than some you see on e-Bay that have that towed-by-car look to them
.
One owner.
Original Omega / Meister box.
Original Meister invoice, as bought direct from them when purchaser working in area.
All running fine, but no service history.
Back to the valuation. In the paperwork, it says that the valuation takes account of ' ..... , scarcity and relevant market forces .... '.
What they've actually done is recorded the serial number, taken one picture (printed about 75mm x 50mm, no detail visible), valued as new-for-old £2150, and charged £100 for it.
Now, I'm not very sharp, but even I could Google 'Omega Speedmaster' and write the price down
. I was rather expecting some sort of reference to the condition (none whatsoever), what they could be expected to sell for, and what you'd have to pay for one from a dealer.
So, am I being un-reasonable, i.e. have we simply asked for the wrong sort of valuation from the wrong person? We were rather expecting a figure that would cover us going into a quality watch dealer, who had a similar (pre-moon) in stock and being able to buy it.
What would you do to make sure your watch was correctly covered on insurance? The single item value limit on the (Aviva / Norwich Union) insurance is £1500, and anything over that requires an 'insurance valuation'.
I did wonder whether I might simply phone some 'proper' classic watch dealers, and ask for a one owner '67 Speedy, preferably a Meister, and see what they say. Do this a few times, making notes, and return to the original valuer for his thoughts / refund / revision as appropriate?
Many thanks
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