Tourneau Trade-In

So I gave myself an early birthday present over the weekend. I got a new watch. I wasn't planning on it, but it sorta just happened.

I went to the Tourneau store on 34th street in an attempt to get my old, broken watch appraised and find out more about the Tourneau trade-in policy. It just so happened there was an unannounced sale going on and the two watches I liked were both on sale. One was a Tag Heuer watch called the Aquaracer. Waaaay out of my budget, but a nice looking watch. It was on sale for just shy of $900 (it was a recertified watch). The other watch (a Tourneau watch called the Seapearl) was also on sale. Before looking at either of them, I asked the salesperson (who was very nice and helpful) point blank how much they would give me for my old watch. He told me that I would first have to pick a new watch before they could give me an estimate. So I told him I wanted the Tag. (Even though I was sure I wasn't going to buy it.)

He checked with the store manager and came back offering me $275 for my old watch. Mind you, my old watch is dead. A Tag watch for under a thousand is a pretty good sale, but still way outta my budget (even recertified!) So I asked about the other watch I liked, the Tourneau Seapearl (which was new). Suddenly the value of my watch fell. They'd give me $125 for my old watch if I bought the Seapearl. I asked him why it mattered? He was honest about it and told me — the amount you get for your old watch is dependent on how much you pay for a new watch. Sleazy, but at least he was upfront about it.

In the end, I got the Seapearl (the one in the pic) on sale and minus an extra $125 for my old watch. Not bad. I asked him what they'd do with my old watch. He said they'd try to fix it and re-sell it as a recertified watch or gut it and use the parts on another recertified watch. Considering the folks at the Tourneau Store on Columbus Circle told me my watch was "unfixable," I'll be curious to see if my old watch ends up inside the pre-owned watches case.