Pre Owned history

[rushca01]

Have you ever googled the name on the warranty card of a pre owned watch? I would NEVER ever contact them, but thought it was kind of interesting thought experiment.

[Tools]

This is what privacy laws are intended to protect.

[jb335]

lol, maybe.

Ok, yes I have.

Of course never contacting or doing anything. Just curious.


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[rmwill]

I am glad that with the new cards creeps who buy a watch that I sold would not be able to.

[cdmorenot]

Well.. if someone looked me up they'd find me quickly. My last name is hyphenated and it is what went on all of the warranty cards...

I've only purchased two used pieces... one did not come with a card and the other had the name erased.

[Stan Cooper]

My pre-owned P-serial 2001 16710N was a full set, and the punched warranty certificate came with the AD's name, the date of sale, and the name of the purchaser. I never bothered to Google him and have no desire to now. He had it serviced by the NYC RSC in 2012, and the service warranty card was also included.

[KatGirl]

No! Why would you?

Kat


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[996marty]

I wouldn’t be interested in who had owned any of mine previously

[omar-rye]

"Hi Albert, this is going to sound weird... Were you the guy who sold a Datejust II 10 years ago in the Washington Area? If so, can you tell me how the nick on the bottom lug occurred? I'd like to share in the memory.

Sincerely yours,
the new owner, Omar"

[Jackie Daytona]

Although I generally agree with the sentiment and don’t care, some of them probably do have a somewhat cool provenance.

Every now and then I’ll notice celebrities that wear Rolex regularly change their collections. It would be sort of cool to know if it was the ex… whoever watch.

For instance I noticed Richard Hammond had a 216570 for a couple of years, and recently seems to have the 16570 instead. The 216570 is probably circulating somewhere. That would be somewhat neat to know.

[173rdabn]

NO!

[Old Expat Beast]

I Googled the name on a Rolex paper from the 1960s that was originally bought at an overseas USAF base and the owner turned out to have quite an interesting career that took him around the world. I didn't spend more than an hour on it, but the trail went from Europe to the USA and Far East before retirement in California.

I still have the watch and paper and while it's not my history, it's the watch's history and knowing a bit about where it originated and where it travelled to makes it seem a bit more special, and I can appreciate being its custodian a little more than if I knew nothing about it.

[andrewjb88]

Not a watch no but a few years ago I did for a car.

I purchased a 1990 MK2 Golf GTI which had a engine conversion (1.9TDI), at the time in the UK you could pay £5 to get any previous records that the DVLA held on the car so I did that. I received back a load of documents including the original bill of sale which confirmed the car was purchased for a company through some kind of off shore sales programme, I googled the company and found the company although it had changed names, I emailed them.

8 months later I got an email back apologising for the length of time it had taken to get back to me, but the formed owner of the company who is now well retired had dug out some old photos of the car and confirmed it was his company car. He also confirmed to me that the car originally had "P" wheels on it which were off Pirelli models.

You cant do this anymore in the UK now, they wont allow you to access old owners details.

[andrewjb88]

Originally Posted by Old Expat Beast

I Googled the name on a Rolex paper from the 1960s that was originally bought at an overseas USAF base and the owner turned out to have quite an interesting career that took him around the world. I didn't spend more than an hour on it, but the trail went from Europe to the USA and Far East before retirement in California.

I still have the watch and paper and while it's not my history, it's the watch's history and knowing a bit about where it originated and where it travelled to makes it seem a bit more special, and I can appreciate being its custodian a little more than if I knew nothing about it.

I bet if you got in contact with family members (presuming the owner is dead) they would literally snatch your hand off for that watch now.

[Easy E]

The only thing I’ve ever checked was the AD stated on the card.

[rushca01]

Originally Posted by Old Expat Beast

I Googled the name on a Rolex paper from the 1960s that was originally bought at an overseas USAF base and the owner turned out to have quite an interesting career that took him around the world. I didn't spend more than an hour on it, but the trail went from Europe to the USA and Far East before retirement in California.

I still have the watch and paper and while it's not my history, it's the watch's history and knowing a bit about where it originated and where it travelled to makes it seem a bit more special, and I can appreciate being its custodian a little more than if I knew nothing about it.

Cool story and thanks for sharing. This is inline with what I’m talking about. I would never invade anyone’s privacy but do we have any privacy in 2024?

[Old Expat Beast]

Originally Posted by rushca01

Cool story and thanks for sharing. This is inline with what I’m talking about. I would never invade anyone’s privacy but do we have any privacy in 2024?

It didn't take much research in this case. Everything I found was in archived news articles. I didn't search family records or anything like that.

[rushca01]

Originally Posted by Old Expat Beast

It didn't take much research in this case. Everything I found was in archived news articles. I didn't search family records or anything like that.

Sorry, wasn’t implying that you were invading their privacy.

[Old Expat Beast]

Originally Posted by rushca01

Sorry, wasn’t implying that you were invading their privacy.

Oh I know you weren't, I was just adding extra detail for interest, and in case anyone thought I was

[brandrea]

I tried to locate the original owner of a 5513 that I bought. Since the watch was owned by one person, I sort of thought it’d be neat to know a bit about the fellow.

Turns out he had passed away, but his daughter was kind enough to tell me a bit about her dad and his history with the watch.

[HHIslander]

I can’t find those characters on my keyboard

[Harry-57]

I wouldn't pass on the warranty card or paperwork for a watch with my name or address still on it and I would never dream of contacting the previous owner of a second hand watch. Rolex warranty cards omit names for a reason. Voyeurism aside, the laws are tighter, at least they are in the UK and the EU.