Sell Your Audemars Piguet
We buy Audemars Piguet outright from private sellers across Australia, settling by bank transfer on authentication. In practice that means Royal Oak: it accounts for the overwhelming majority of the Audemars Piguet we trade, with Offshore behind it and Code 11.59 occasionally. If you own a Royal Oak, you are describing a watch we handle constantly rather than one we price cautiously because we rarely see it.
The Smiling Second is run by two brothers, both practising doctors. We are not an anonymous trading name — we are identifiable people with professional reputations, and neither of us needs a watch deal to go a particular way. That is why our offer holds when the watch is as you described it.
No watch is ever authenticated by us. That work goes to an independent watchmaker every time: in Melbourne, bring the piece to our Collins Street boutique and the assessment takes about thirty minutes, so payment reaches you before you leave. In Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and the Gold Coast, leave it with our watchmaking partner and settle on their assessment. Anywhere else in the country we arrange insured transit and complete on identical terms. You never post it yourself and you never wait on a courier.
How we buy nationally, across every brand, is set out on our sell a watch page. This page is about Audemars Piguet.
Which references are we actively seeking?
Royal Oak in almost any configuration, and the list below is where demand currently concentrates rather than a limit on what we will look at:
- Royal Oak Jumbo Extra-Thin15202, 15202ST, 16202, 16202BC
- Royal Oak Selfwinding15500ST, 15510ST, 15400ST (41 mm) · 15450ST, 15451ST, 15550ST (37 mm)
- Royal Oak Selfwinding Chronograph26331ST, 26300ST, 26240ST, 26240OR, 26242OR, 26715ST · Frosted Gold 26239BC, 26239OR
- Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked15407ST, 15407OR
- Royal Oak Offshore26420TI, 26420RO, 26420CE, 26420SO, 26420OR, 26470ST, 26471SR, 26401RO, 26186SN, and the Offshore Diver 15710ST
- Royal Oak Dual Time26120ST
- Royal Oak limited editions15100ST, the Royal Oak Foundation "Time for the Trees"
- Code 11.5915212NB Starwheel, 26393BC Chronograph
- Ladies and smaller cases67651ST, 26078IO
- Neo-vintage14700BA
Gem-set pieces are welcome where the setting is factory. We do not deal aftermarket settings, and on Audemars Piguet that distinction is worth more than on most brands.
Audemars Piguet that has come through us
Three Audemars Piguet we have had in stock, photographed in our own studio. There are more in the Audemars Piguet collection.
What is your Royal Oak worth today?
One figure, usually the same day. Independently authenticated, then paid before you leave.
Get a figureDo you need the box and papers?
Preferred, and they will always produce the strongest figure — but not required. We look at watch-only Audemars Piguet on a case-by-case basis and buy them regularly. An incomplete Royal Oak is still a Royal Oak, and we would rather price it honestly than turn it away.
Our position does vary by brand, and it is worth knowing which you are dealing with. Rolex and Vacheron Constantin work the same way as this. Patek Philippe, Richard Mille and F.P. Journe do not — there we buy complete sets only.
How does the sale run?
Tell us what you have
Reference if you know it, model and case size if you do not, plus the year, the condition as you see it, and whether the box and papers are with the watch. Photographs of the dial, caseback and bracelet let us move straight to a figure.
A figure, usually the same day
We price against what that reference is trading at now rather than against published asking prices, and you receive one number with the reasoning behind it. No opening bid to be negotiated upwards.
Independently checked, then paid
An independent watchmaker examines the piece — thirty minutes at Collins Street, or with our partner in your city. Once cleared, an instant clearing transfer completes it.
What are we actually looking at on a Royal Oak?
The finishing is the watch
More than the reference and the dial colour, which is where most quick valuations stop. The Royal Oak is a case-and-bracelet watch: Gérald Genta's design lives in the alternation of brushed surfaces and polished chamfers, and that is precisely what wear and careless polishing destroy first.
At this magnification the difference between an original case and a refinished one is obvious. It is equally obvious in the hand, which is why the assessment matters more here than on almost any other brand.
It is also why we ask for a photograph of the case at an angle rather than a straight-on shot of the dial. The light has to catch the chamfer before either of us can judge it.
Three things carry most of the value, and all three show up in a photograph.
Two further things we ask about rather than photograph: the service history, including any work the movement is due, and whether any gem-setting is factory rather than added later.
None of this is a search for reasons to pay less. It is the difference between an offer that survives inspection and one that does not.
How firm is the offer?
Firm, on one condition: tell us what the watch has been through. A service due, a case that has been polished, a replaced bracelet link or clasp — declare it and we build it into the figure from the start, where it stays. It never returns as a deduction at the counter, which is the moment most sellers dread and the reason many delay selling at all.
What no offer can absorb is what it was never told. If the watchmaker finds an unreported service requirement, or a case that has plainly been refinished, the number has to be looked at again — the watch in front of them is not the watch we priced. Declare it upfront and this simply never comes up.
Authentication is done by independent watchmakers, not by us. They have no stake in the number we offer you.
Why are your offers strong?
Because we are not pricing in a margin for a slow sale. A dealer expecting to hold a Royal Oak for months has to build that time into the buying price — it is the honest cost of retail. We usually know where a piece is going before we own it, often to a client already waiting on that exact reference, so the figure we quote does not have to carry the cost of stock sitting in a safe.
Get a figureWhere can I sell my Audemars Piguet in Australia?
Three ways in, all ending at the same place — one figure, and payment on authentication.
How does selling to us compare with the alternatives?
Selling to us
Timing: figure the same day, funds on authentication.
Certainty: one number, held when the watch is as described.
Cost: nothing deducted from the agreed figure.
Privacy: serial protected, seller never named.
Private sale
Timing: however long the right buyer takes to appear.
Certainty: an offer is only an offer until the funds clear.
Cost: no commission, but the counterparty risk is yours.
Privacy: the watch is advertised in public.
Auction
Timing: a fixed sale date, then a settlement period after it.
Certainty: unknown until the hammer falls.
Cost: seller's commission plus associated fees.
Privacy: the lot is catalogued and photographed publicly.
Consignment
Timing: when the right buyer appears, not before.
Certainty: no fixed date, though the piece stays insured with us.
Cost: a fee of 5–10% depending on the watch.
Privacy: as discreet as an outright sale.
We will say plainly when consignment suits a particular Royal Oak better than an outright sale. For most sellers it does not.
Why do other dealers call us on a Royal Oak?
Because the business began on their side of the trade. It started as a purely wholesale operation, dealer to dealer, and it still runs on the same arithmetic: low margin, high turnover. A retail-first dealer needs a wider margin for perfectly sound reasons — they carry the watch, the premises and the wait for the right customer. We were never built that way, so quick turnover at thin margins lets the number sit closer to the watch's real worth while the trade still works for us.
We buy at wholesale from dealers around Australia, and a Royal Oak in precious metal is exactly the piece that ties up a shop's capital. When one needs to move, we are often the call. Coming to us yourself removes a step — you are dealing with the end buyer rather than someone who will resell it — and the figure reflects that.
How do I find my Audemars Piguet reference?
Audemars Piguet does not label its watches the way Rolex does, so it is worth knowing where to look. That said, send photographs and we will identify almost any Royal Oak without you hunting for a number at all.
- The warranty card names the model rather than the full reference. On the modern cards we handle, the fields carry the serial number, the warranty number and a description such as "Royal Oak" — useful for identification, but not always the complete reference. Read us the serial and we can work from that.
- The caseback carries the case number. Audemars Piguet engraves the case number on the back, and on many Royal Oaks the reference appears alongside it. This is the most reliable place to look on the watch itself.
- The full reference is long. An Audemars Piguet reference runs to a string like 15202ST.OO.1240ST.01 — case metal, bracelet and dial variant all encoded. The first five or six characters are usually enough for us; send the rest if it is legible.
- An Extract from the Archives. Audemars Piguet maintains records back to the nineteenth century and will transcribe a watch's original specification and sale details. It is the definitive answer on an older piece, and we have bought watches accompanied by one — the 1990 Royal Oak pictured above came with its Extract.
If none of that is to hand, photograph the dial, the caseback and the clasp and send them through. Identification is our problem, not yours.
Can you sell an Audemars Piguet discreetly?
Two different things sit under that question — what happens automatically, and what can be arranged.
Your serial is protected as standard. Watches we buy are generally catalogued, including in our sold archive, because that is how a dealer shows what it handles. The number identifying your particular watch is not part of that. Serials are published nowhere — not on our site, not on any platform — our photography is framed so the engraving cannot be read, and we never publish images of warranty cards or an Extract. A serial loose in the world is a serial that can be misused.
Your name stays out of it. We do not tell buyers, other dealers or anyone else who sold us a watch.
Complete privacy, where the piece calls for it. Some watches should not appear anywhere at all. We can place a Royal Oak with no public listing, nothing on the site and nothing visible to the Australian retail network — arranged in advance, case by case, rather than as a default.
And the honest cost of that. A watch placed entirely privately is never tested against the open market, which has a modest effect on the figure. You should know that before choosing, not afterwards.
A serial loose in the world is a serial that can be misused. Yours stays with you.
Questions sellers ask us
My Royal Oak has bracelet stretch. Is that a problem?
Not a problem, just a factor. Nearly every worn Royal Oak has some. Tell us and it is priced in from the start rather than discovered later.
Will you buy a Royal Oak without the box and papers?
Yes, case by case. The figure reflects the incomplete set, and the watch is independently authenticated exactly as a full set would be.
How quickly does the money arrive?
By instant clearing transfer once the watchmaker has cleared the piece — in Melbourne, before you have left the building. No holding period and no staged payment.
Can you source my next Audemars Piguet?
Frequently that is the reason for the sale. Tell us the reference you want and our sourcing service starts looking, here and internationally.
When you are ready, send the reference or the model and we will come back with a figure — or look through the Audemars Piguet we hold and have traded to see what passes through us.
Get a figure
