I purchased a preowned Rolex Explorer II(217570) recently and thought it would be nice to share my purchase experience. First, I am fine with both brand new and preowned watches and for Rolex, I believe preowned is the way to go as they can usually be sold at close to their purchase price.

I have two Rolex models on my wish list and the Explorer II was the first one that I pulled the trigger on. The other model is the Deepsea Sea Dweller.

I had decided on the black dialed Explorer II initially but gravitated towards the white dialed Polar Explorer after looking at both models in the flesh. The white dial with black accents is simply stunning, especially on the 42mm case with Maxi Dial and larger hands.

There are many shops selling preowned Rolexes in Singapore. I started by looking at their facebook pages to find out the market price. I also looked at the SGROC Trading Group page where private sellers and dealers conduct their sales. Price depends on many factors including condition of the watch, year of production, and whether it comes with box and papers, etc.

Next, I visited some of those shops to try on the watch and find out their prices. My friend, TC Yeo had earlier recommended two 2nd hand dealers but one of them is too far out and the other only open on weekdays up to 6pm which is not so convenient for people like me who work from 9am to 6pm.

After checking out a few shops, I have more or less decided who I should buy from.

In the next two days, I went to the bank and withdrew cash. I did this at the counter instead of the ATM because I could get notes in larger denominations.

With the cash, I went back to the shop to inspect the watch again and do the bargaining. I don’t buy watches on credit card installment and paying by cash actually helps to lower the price. Once the price is agreed upon, the next step would be to verify the serial number and parts.

My Explorer II was purchased at Koh Watches Enterprise at People’s Park Centre. They are very friendly and flexible on pricing. I also found them to be very professional when going through and verifying the numbers on the watch. Here are the numbers that were verified with me during the purchase. They even recorded the numbers on the invoice as I verify them.

– Serial number on the inner rim at the 6 o’clock position
– Model number between the 12 o’clock lugs
– Number on the folding clasp
– Number on the end links of the bracelet
– Number on the case back
– Movement caliber (in this case, it is 3187)

Once everything was verified, we counted the cash and it was a done deal.

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