There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
"... Crime happens, and it happened to one of our own. Mad Martigan was robbed last month, and concerning his watches, left him with just his trusty Luminox Sentry until he can build his collection back up. Many condolences were offered, and hornspun84 offered the silver lining that Mad Martigan can rethink his collection and purchase back what he wants. The conversation turned to insurance and cataloging valuables. The good news is that Mad Martigan found his stolen guitar pop up for sale on Craigslist, and the detective working his case got it back for him. ..."
https://threads.dappered.com/showthread.php/23335-Well-gents-back-to-one-watch-for-me
Honestly, not something I contemplated (at least with my meager little 'collection'), but it is a side of owning a watch that gets over looked. How do we protect our pieces? I figured there were be some clause in most homeowner and renter policies to limit exposure of the insurance company to this, but if a collection approaches a replacement value of at least several times the usual 1k limit for 'jewelry', then getting a specific rider per piece, or using a specialty insurer may be worth it.
I did so with my grand piano, it's not anything super fancy (someday I will get into something serious though like a Shigeru or Charles Walter, Mason Hamlin etc, but I don't have 45-70K disposable savings to throw that way), I used an instrument insurance company to make sure if disaster strikes (more likely for my piano than a thief disassembling and running off with it), I'm not coming up 10-12K dollars short over the 1K limit on standard household items to replace it.
Given that watches can easily either per piece or very quickly as a collection can exceed that 1 thousand dollar cieling, seems would be a good idea to insure in addition to taking smart steps to protect oneself.
Any thoughts from members? How do you take precautions against theft /loss? Did you insure with a rider or specifically specialty insurer policy? Did you catalog with photos, receipts /purchase invoices etc?
Would seem especially difficult with vintage pieces or rarer geek worthy pieces, maybe insure as antiques? Just not super sure what's reasonable or options available out there and what others with fairly substantial pieces or collections have done.
Thoughts?
Discuss.