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What to expect at a Sydney handover

The examination happens in person, in Sydney, with a certified watchmaker. We do not publish the workshop or its address, and you are given a time and a place once there is an appointment to keep.

Expect the serial number between the lugs to be read and recorded, and expect to be asked how the watch came to you. Neither is idle curiosity. Section 19(2) of the Pawnbrokers and Second-hand Dealers Act 1996 (NSW) provides that where a dealer is aware the unique identifier of goods has been removed, obliterated, defaced or altered, the dealer is presumed to suspect the goods may have been stolen, and section 19(1) requires a suspicion to be reported to an authorised officer without delay. Section 19(3) defines a unique identifier as numbers, letters or symbols marked on or attached to goods as a permanent record so as to distinguish them from similar goods, which describes a watch serial almost word for word.

So if the serial is worn shallow by past polishing, or hard to read, or the case back has been swapped at some point in the watch's life, say so when you first send photographs rather than letting it surface at the bench. It is an ordinary thing for an older watch and it is far easier to deal with early.

Bring identification. Section 15 requires documentary evidence showing your name and address on each occasion, obtained before the goods are accepted, so it is not a formality a buyer can waive to be helpful.

New South Wales law, and what it lets you check

The statute here is the Pawnbrokers and Second-hand Dealers Act 1996 (NSW), pawnbrokers first in the title. Section 3 makes the Secretary under the Act the Commissioner for Fair Trading in the Department of Customer Service, which is why the scheme is fronted by NSW Fair Trading.

New South Wales names the goods rather than describing them. Section 3 defines second-hand goods as goods of a class or description prescribed, and the prescribed list NSW Fair Trading publishes covers jewellery that includes gemstones or precious metals, and names watches. Two things you can do with that before you deal with anyone here:

• Ask which licence they hold. Section 7 makes it an offence to carry on a business of buying or selling second-hand goods except in accordance with a licence, so a New South Wales business buying watches should be able to answer without hesitating.
• Buy a certificate from the register. Section 13 requires a register recording each licensee's business and storage premises, and entitles any person, on payment of the prescribed fee, to a certificate containing information extracted from it. That is a document you can keep, which is not the same thing as a register you are allowed to look at.

Section 21 then governs what happens to the watch afterwards: a licensee must keep it for 14 days without altering its form or disposing of it, at premises notified under the Act. Section 21(1A) starts those 14 days from the day the purchase was recorded rather than from the handover, so the real wait runs slightly longer than the figure suggests. Victoria requires seven.

Buy Your Watch trades on Victorian licence SHD-0017882 under the Second-Hand Dealers and Pawnbrokers Act 1989 (Vic) and buys from sellers across Australia. This page is general information about New South Wales law, not legal advice.