Sell a Japanese watch
Tokyo Time is where people who want a Japanese watch come looking. Your listing gets a permanent page of its own and appears in every section it belongs to — its brand, its model line, its decade, its case size, its price bracket and its state.
What it costs
Basic
$9.90 one listing
One watch, listed properly, for six weeks.
- Live for 45 days
- Up to 8 photographs
- Its own permanent page, indexed by Google
- Listed in every relevant brand, model, era and location section
- Unlimited enquiries through Tokyo Time messaging
- Edit the listing any time it is live
- No featured placement
- No weekly bump
- No service documents
Premium
$29.90 one listing
Three months, a Featured slot, and room for the full history.
- Live for 90 days — twice as long as Basic
- Up to 24 photographs
- Its own permanent page, indexed by Google
- A slot in the Featured row on the homepage and on its brand page
- Moved back to the top of “Newest” once a week, four times
- Attach up to 3 service records or receipts
- 6,000 characters of description instead of 2,000
- Half price to relist within 14 days of expiry
Prices are in Australian dollars and are charged once, when you list. There is no commission and no fee when the watch sells.
How it works
- Make an account. An email address and a password, or your Google account. About twenty seconds.
- Describe the watch. Brand, model line, reference, year, movement, case size and condition are all chosen from lists, so buyers can filter on them. Then write the description in your own words.
- Add photographs. Up to 8 on Basic, 24 on Premium. Photograph the movement and the caseback if you can — it is the first thing a serious buyer asks for.
- Pay and publish. The listing is live immediately.
- Answer enquiries. They arrive by email and in your messages. Your email address is never shared.
Writing a listing that sells
The listings that get enquiries are the honest ones, not the enthusiastic ones. Vintage Japanese watch buyers are, as a group, well informed and suspicious — and they are right to be, because redials, replaced hands and swapped bezel inserts are genuinely common and often undisclosed.
- Say what has been replaced. A disclosed replacement crystal costs you nothing. An undisclosed one that a buyer spots in your own photograph costs you the sale and the next one.
- Say when it was last serviced, or that you do not know. “Runs well” means nothing on a watch that has not been opened in thirty years.
- Photograph the movement. It is the single most requested photograph and the one most listings do not have.
- Say whether the case has been polished. Not a fault, but it changes the value, and collectors can see it anyway.
- Give the case diameter. It is the commonest reason someone rules a watch out, and leaving it blank does not stop them ruling it out — it just stops them asking.
Questions
How much does it cost to sell a watch on Tokyo Time?
$9.90 or $29.90, paid once when you list. There is no commission and nothing to pay when the watch sells — what the buyer pays you is what you keep.
How long does a listing stay up?
45 days on Basic, 90 days on Premium. You get an email a week before it expires. Relisting within 14 days of expiry is half price on Premium.
Do buyers get my email address or phone number?
No. Buyers message you through Tokyo Time and you reply the same way. You get an email telling you an enquiry has arrived and what it says; your address is never passed on. If you want to swap phone numbers later that is between you and the buyer.
What happens after I pay?
The listing goes live immediately and gets its own page at an address of its own. Within the hour the site is rebuilt so it appears in every relevant brand, model, decade, size, budget and state section, and it is submitted to the search engines.
Can I edit a listing after it is live?
Yes, as often as you like, at no cost. The one thing that never changes is the web address — once people have linked to it and Google has indexed it, changing it would throw that away.
What if it sells somewhere else?
Mark it sold from your account. The page stays up, marked sold, which is genuinely useful to the next person researching what that reference goes for. There is no refund on the remaining days.