Jewellery and watches
Checking a watch retailer
This is the category where brand-led verification disappoints most. None of the fourteen main watch manufacturers offers a free public serial-number lookup, and seven of them state explicitly that their archive extract does not certify the watch is genuine. What remains verifiable is the retailer: its registration, its legal disclosures, and its ability to account for its supply.
79 retailer profiles in this category
The archive extract does not prove what people assume
Audemars Piguet states that its extract only certifies that the case and movement numbers appear in their records. Breitling adds that the document is issued without any physical inspection of the watch. A perfectly valid extract can therefore accompany a counterfeit carrying the right numbers, which is why seven competing houses added that reservation.
The warranty depends on the network, not the product
All fourteen brands condition their commercial warranty on an authorised purchase evidenced by the card. Rolex declines to reissue a card under any circumstances. That does not make an out-of-network purchase illegitimate, but it shifts the question: without a card, traceability of the purchase is what counts.
What we check on these retailers
Registration with the national register, legal disclosure compliance, domain age from the registry, and whether they answer requests for supply evidence. None of this bears on a product's authenticity: it bears on whether the seller is identifiable, which is verifiable.
These retailers were recorded from public sources. A low score marks a thinly documented profile, never a problem found with the seller.