Contact Us

We provide a SERVICE WARRANTY coverage of 12 months from the date of purchase on all of our brand name watches (with the exception of some vintage watches) and offer a 14 days return policy.

All of our watches are fully inspected, serviced and timed by our highly experienced technician before being offered for sale.  This is why we are able to offer a 12 month and 24 month guarantee.  We have our own workshops closeby, so in addition to a mechanical overhaul, the case and dial can be restored if required and this would be highlighted in the watch description.  This highly specialist work is carried out by our expert craftsmen. The watch case is carefully cleaned and inspected for any weakness around the lugs. If necessary these are strengthened on the inside of the case. The case is then very lightly and carefully polished if required. Where necessary the dial will be expertly restored or refinished by one of the foremost expert dial restorers in the UK and again this would be highlighted in the watch description.

Yes. You can save up to £160.00 if you do not wish to take the 12 months warranty, please contact us in advance to discuss.

Our UK delivery is FREE and we use Royal Mail Special Delivery, Next Day (signed for) Service including full insurance. For the rest of the world we ask you to contact us directly as we DHL / FEDEX for International deliveries as we find they offer the best service including full insurance and this cost varies from country to country.

We usually send out orders within 24 hrs day of receiving payment. UK orders are delivered within 24hrs of being sent. In this way you should wait no longer than 2 days for your delivery. Depending where you are, international deliveries can take up to 3 weeks, but they are usually delivered within two weeks, and often much sooner.

All funds must be cleared before goods are despatched.

This is of importance to overseas buyers who are outside the European Union:- Customs charges at the point of import are solely the buyer’s responsibility. Please check locally as we will not be able to provide any detailed advice on this. We always provide the correct order value on the customs declaration and insure the item for the full value.

From the day you receive your goods we offer a 14 day money back guarantee. This is in addition to your statutory consumer rights. If you wish to return an item please contact by telephone quoting the reference number provided. Goods must be returned unworn, unused and in the same condition they left our office with the original box, documentation and spares if applicable. The goods must be returned in the same standard of packaging via special delivery or another insured postal / courier service, at your cost.

We only accept payment by PayPal, Bank transfer . We prefer PayPal. If you wish to use a credit card, you still can – Select PayPal at check-out and PayPal will give you the option to pay by credit card.

ALL OF OUR WATCHES ARE GUARANTEED 100% GENUINE

All our watches are 100% authentic and original. We have our own highly experienced technician who checks and confirms the authenticity of every watch we sell.  We offer a lifetime authenticity guarantee on every watch we sell therefore, if in the unlikely event a watch proves to be anything but totally authentic and as described, we will give you your money back.  We take this extremely seriously and so whenever you buy from TheWatchSalon Company, you can be assured that you can buy with safety and confidence.

Reputation is everything to us and we make all the necessary checks using databases that are supplied to the trade and ensure the watch has a providence and if in the unlikely event we are unsure about the background of a watch we avoid it.

As an extra reassurance, all our watches listed here are also listed on eBay, where we have been trading in vintage watches for over 10 years. During this period we have maintained 100% positive feedback, which gives you more guarantee than your local high street shop, who are unable to provide “real customer feedback” in such an open forum.

Please check TheWatchSalon Shop on Ebay to find our 26 pages of 100% positive ebay feedback.

It is true that many ‘old school’ watch collectors express a strong preference for un-restored dials and they will often state that a good original un-restored dial will form a large part of a vintage watch’s value. However, most collectors and dealers will tell you there is much more to this. Dials age at varying rates due to light, humidity and changes in temperature and while most of us would prefer a vintage watch which has been hidden in its box and never seen the light of day, such watches are exceedingly rare and unvaryingly will remain off the market and hidden away.  Like vintage cars in museums, there is something a little unfortunate about this. After all, both were made to be used and enjoyed.  In the case of watches, used with care of course, but not hidden in away in a draw or safe.

Even in normal careful use, a 60 year old wristwatch dial is likely to show significant tell-tale signs of ageing. This may take the form of crazing, pitting, fading, local staining and scratches. A typical collector’s tolerance for such ageing is usually much greater than that of the average wearer and so the market for such watches is smaller and therefore the laws of supply and demand come in to play and this will tend to even out the price and value. It is perhaps sufficient to say that a quick poll of today’s vintage watch dealers will tell you that around 90% of today’s buyers prefer watches with restored dials rather than ones with damage through ageing.

Also many of the major watch manufacturer’s service centres, have routinely refinished or replaced aged dials as part of a major service, and so this further complicates the picture.

Carats and Karats

The term carat is used as both a unit of mass — especially for gemstones — and as a measure of purity for gold. In the United States and Canada these terms are spelt differently — as carat and karat respectively — to avoid confusion. But many people get them confused anyway.

The term carat originates from the Greek keration for “fruit of the carob”. Carob seeds were used for precision weighing of gold and gemstones, since it was thought that carob seeds had a uniform weight. The modern carat, known as the metric carat, was adopted in 1907, defined as a weight of 200 mg. This is actually very close to the mass of larger carob seeds. One carat can be divided into 100 points, a measurement often used in the diamond trade.

Interestingly, the term karat also derives from the name of the carob seed. So how did they get from the weight of the carob seed to the purity of gold? And why is pure gold defined as “24 karat”? A precise answer is not easy to find, but the connection appears to derive from the Roman Emperor Constantine, who introduced a gold coin that weighed exactly 24 carob seeds.

Under the karat system of fineness of gold, pure gold is 24 karat or 24k, 18k is 75% pure and 12k gold is 50% pure. This system is gradually giving way to the millesimal finess system which expresses purity in terms of parts per thousands of the alloy. Thus 22k gold is marked as “916” under this system, or 91.6% gold. It is certainly a simpler and less confusing method.

Therefore a Carat (Ct or ct) is a weight measurement in reference to precious gemstones such as Diamonds, Sapphires, Rubies and depending on where you are in the world a Carat may also be used in place of the term karat. However the term karat is never used in regards to gemstones.

A karat (K or k) is the measurement of the purity of gold. Gold itself is very soft, and like silver, it needs to be alloyed with other metals to make it stronger and less expensive. 24 karat gold is considered pure gold, or 100% gold.

While many people think 24 karat gold is the best quality you can buy, the soft metal is less durable and it can scratch or damage easily. To prevent this, gold is alloyed with metals such as silver, copper and zinc. When producing white gold alloys, nickel, copper and zinc are used. So, the karat is measured by the ratio of gold to the alloyed metal.

The standards:-

18 karat ( .750) contains 75% pure gold.

14 karat ( .585) contains 58.5% pure gold.

10 karat ( .417) contains 41.7% pure gold.

9 karat (.375) contains 37.5% pure gold.

10k 14k and 18k are standards used in the U.S.

9k and 18k are standards used in the UK and Europe

1 karat of gold = 1000/24. So 9 karat is 37.5% gold. Divide the carat of gold you have by 24 and the result is the percentage.

9k    9/24   37.5%
10k  10/24   41.67%
14k  14/24   58.33%
18k  18/24   75.00%

The remaining percentage of the metals are based on the type of gold you have:

Yellow Gold – Copper, Silver

Rose, Red and Pink Gold – Copper, Silver

White Gold – Nickel, Zinc, Copper

Green Gold – Silver, Zinc, Copper

WATCH TYPE SECONDS GAIN/LOSS PER DAY             WORST    TYPICAL   BEST

Vintage mechanical Swiss watch in good repair           +/-60        +/-15          +/-5

Modern mechanical watch non-certified                       +/-10        +/-5            +/-2

Modern mechanical watch chronometer certified       +6/-4        +/-3           +/-1

Modern quartz watch non-certified (normal)               +/-2          +/-1           +/-0.1

Modern quartz watch chronometer certified (rare)    +/-0.02     +/-0.02    +/-0.0