You don’t need to buy a watch with Box and Papers (B&P)

Do you need to have box and papers with your watch? Absolutely not.

“Box and Papers” (B&P) refer to the original box that the watch was delivered in, and a variety of items, including original purchase receipt, certificates of authenticity/origin, manual/instruction booklet, warranty/guarantee card, and even hang tag (the little tag that is attached to the strap of new watches). Owners may also have kept service papers over time, decommission papers for military watches, and so on. “Extracts from the Archives” are of course not included at the time of purchase, so will be called out separately from B&P in offers. “Certificates of Authenticity” may be provided at the time of purchase, and included with B&P, or may be ordered (depending on manufacturer) later.

To find a vintage watch with (original) box and papers is exceedingly rare, so don’t expect to find these being sold with the watch you are purchasing…ever. And if they are, the inclusion doesn’t guarantee the authenticity of the vintage watch you are purchasing. Do a quick search on eBay for loose boxes and papers, then guess out where they go. Correct – they get paired with watches and then sold as sets. While box and papers included in a sale of a set may not be original to that specific watch, the accessories may still add to the appeal for many collectors. As vintage watch dealer Eric Wind says about those that ask for only watches with box and papers, “…it’s like having a sign on your back, instead of it saying ‘Kick Me’, it says ‘Rip Me Off.’ Because so many of the box and paper sets are put together, or added after, that’s not the criteria that you look for first…you look at the condition of the watch, then the provenance, and then it’s a nice thing if it has box and papers, not the first thing you look for.”

Unless there is provenance for the watch (and B&P), I am indifferent to whether vintage watches come with box and papers. While it will add value to most sales, and may make it easier to sell a package when the time comes, to me those don’t provide additional enjoyment or satisfaction in the interim. Plus the boxes and papers just take up more space. Now, if we had a watch room where I could display these items, I might feel differently.