Sell vintage watches by post across the UK

No pressure to begin with

Asking commits you to nothing. A WhatsApp message with a couple of photos of your vintage and antique watches gets you a quick indicative figure and a straight answer to any question. Whether you post anything is your call, made later.

GoldPaid has no high-street branches. It is postal-only and UK-wide, so you never have to travel.

What we buy, and why ask first

We buy vintage and antique watches, running or not. A solid gold or silver case is valued for its precious-metal content; a watch with value as a timepiece is assessed individually and we make a no-obligation offer. Vintage watches are the clearest case for asking first, because a desirable maker, model or dial can lift a watch well above its metal value.

So send a clear photo of the watch, the dial and any case-back or movement markings on WhatsApp before posting. We will tell you what we think you have and what we could offer for it.

• Vintage and antique wristwatches, working or not
• Art Deco, mid-century and dress watches
• Solid gold watch cases, 9ct, 14ct, 18ct
• Solid silver and gold-cased ladies’ and gents’ watches
• Broken and non-running vintage watches
• Gold-filled and plated watches, note: little recoverable metal value

We are straight about this. A sought-after vintage brand or a rare dial can do better with a watch specialist or at auction than it would here. When yours looks like one of those, we will tell you rather than take it as scrap. The honesty runs the other way too: a steel or gold-plated vintage watch, an old Seiko included, has no metal value at all, and the case-back markings that prove it are set out on sell watches, old and new.

Four moving parts, all visible

1. You ask, we steer. WhatsApp us photos of your vintage and antique watches; you get an indicative figure and no pressure to go further.
2. We send the label. A free Royal Mail Special Delivery label arrives, tracked and signed for, with a QR-code option if you cannot print.
3. You post when ready. No countdown. Use whatever padded packaging you already have.
4. We test, you decide. We weigh and XRF-assay every item, then send you the written offer, usually on the working day your parcel arrives. Accept it for a Faster Payments transfer, or decline it for a free tracked return.

Your parcel is signed for on arrival and opened at our Bristol office, where each item is weighed and XRF-tested before the written offer is prepared.

What the offer is built on

GoldPaid buys watches as timepieces, not only for their metal, so the maker, model and condition count as well as any gold or silver in the case. Any precious-metal case is weighed and XRF-tested, and the written offer shows the figure for each watch before you decide anything.

A vintage watch sold as metal has its solid gold or silver case weighed and XRF-assayed, with the movement, glass and non-precious parts excluded. A watch with standalone value as a timepiece is assessed individually and offered against that. Where a maker, model or dial carries a premium beyond what we would offer, that is flagged honestly rather than absorbed.

One parcel gets one written figure, itemised piece by piece. Any gold or silver jewellery in it is priced on the weight and purity we measure and the live precious-metal market, with our margin already inside the figure.

Postage and cover

Your parcel travels on Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed: tracked end to end and signed for on delivery. Royal Mail cover may be available up to £2,500 depending on the postal method and cover level used. GoldPaid can confirm the appropriate postal option before you post. If your items may be worth more, message us first and we can split them across more than one prepaid label, each with its own tracking number, at no charge. Full detail is on postage and cover, and is it safe to post gold? walks through posting valuables safely. If a parcel is lost on its way to us, the compensation claim goes to Royal Mail from you, the sender, using your Post Office receipt, and we give you our tracking records and help you make it. Lost parcels, step by step.

If you decide not to sell

There is never any obligation to accept. If the offer is not for you, simply decline, and we return everything free of charge by tracked, signed-for post, with no fee and no follow-up pressure. The full return process is on what happens if I decline the offer.

The written offer is dated and holds for a limited time, because metal prices move. If it lapses before you decide, we re-run it against the live precious-metal market on the day, at no charge. You can also accept part of a parcel and decline the rest, with no minimum and no penalty for splitting it.

Who this helps

This page is for inherited wristwatches, for dress and art-deco pieces that stopped being worn decades ago, and for broken watches with a solid precious-metal case. Each is looked at twice: once as a watch and once as metal. GoldPaid pays metal value. Where a watch looks worth more to a collector than its case is worth as metal, we say so in writing and you are free to take it elsewhere, with no obligation to us. Asking for a photo first is how a genuinely collectable watch ends up with the right buyer, and sometimes that buyer is not us.

The payment step

Acceptance starts payment: we aim to send a Faster Payments bank transfer within one working hour of your acceptance, to the account you give us. Nothing to bank and nothing to chase.

Who stands behind the offer

• Owner-run, with founder Rocco Clayfield personally accountable for the service
• Every item XRF-assayed, the result shown to you in writing
• Free tracked postage both ways, so a valuation carries no obligation
• Honest about its limits, including when a specialist would suit you better
• No fabricated reviews and no invented numbers, anywhere on the site

Common questions