How could I safely move the watch collection to another country?

Get a local safe deposit box?

Well are you asking how to get around customs, or what is this about. Because naturally you have to declare whatever you bring exceeding a certain value. But if you are legally migrating to another country there are special rights where you can bring your household and yes that would contain watches gold or even a brand new car into your new country. And putting all in a safety deposit box is like waving at people hey here are my valuables if you want to rob me 🤔🫣

I made the move several years ago from Germany to the Philippines.

Yeah its a tricky subject for sure, depends on the value of your collection as well but for me, it is going to involve at least 2 safety deposit boxes in each country and moving them in stages. At one shot, at least for me was too risky.

put it in a watchroll and bring it yourself with a anti theft bag i think

I am going to permanently move to another country, otherwise I would definitely use a safe box for a temporary safe holding of the collection.

Thanks Sfreak, I want to make everything legally indeed and I did not know about the special rights you mentioned. My move is on the opposite direction than yours. Actually you are suggesting me something obvious I should have thought about: I shall ask to the German Customs authority how to manage the move of the watches to avoid surprises.

Great tip! Thank you man! If I understand correctly, I can hire someone to make it easily by minimising risks.

From where to where 3rd world to first or visa versa changes which method :)

Singapore —-> EU, legally but minimising risks.

So from a super safe place to maybe unsafe or high theft , see some parts of London , Paris etc . Then I would have them Couriered to a safe pick up location declared as personal possessions not to traded or sold . And insured for an agreed value . Whilst wearing your best most expensive watch on you when you fly . Good luck with your move 🙂

Thank you!

Always keep in mind tax is the most important thing in Germany only law you should never break, just bend as much as possible. So if you fly to Europe 10000€ in cash + whatever you usually wear is fine so if your outfit cost 100000€ that’s also fine. If you have purchase proof for you new watches definitely bring those. You can email „auswärtiges Amt“ for general questions or the next embassy (even though they are more than useless nowadays because of all the budget cuts) I hope you speak German or you’ll have a hard time. Also 15 minutes early is what we call on time ;-)

Thank you very much! My German is quite basic but I should be able to express myself... I will definitely bring along all the purchase proof I have for each watch!

Thank you!

Best of luck and if you have any questions just message me here on wc :-)

Thank you very much 🙏

Sounds like a carry-on to me.

Sorted

I had to go through something like that not much ago. I shipped the boxes and kept the watches with me. I traveled with my wife and kids. I own about 30 watches too, but some of them are unexpensive watches (UW) such as Gshocks, Swatches and some seikos… however, there were about 15 nice pieces (Rolex, Tudor, GS, Seikos, and a couple of Tag. Here is what I did, the UW were distributed into my kids’ backpacks, me and my wife wore one watch on each wrist, covered with a windbreaker jacket/sweater, a couple more in my jeans’ pockets. It was a very stressful moment but nothing really happened. In my case, I was moving to a very dangerous latin american country, in which wearing a USD 500 Seiko 5 can be quite daring, imagine allowing a National Guard captain seeing a Daytona and a Sub together… hehe

A couple things to consider:

-leaving a country with a lot of used watches is not illegal.

-when entering a country, normally, there are no body scan procedures.

-look into the destinations country tax legislation, if such country is not dangerous, and you can enter the country without any tax repercussions, you might just enter with all your watches without any need of hiding your “babies”

Happy to further talk if needed

Congratulations (?) on your move! I know nothing about European customs law so can’t speak to that. However for the actual transportation here are my thoughts.

First I have been through Singapore a few times and the airport is fantastic. Also I have been to Frankfurt and that airport is good too. I think the airports in Germany should be pretty safe especially for stuff you carry with you.

Something to consider is that carrying something that no one else knows you have is best. I generally use a very low key ordinary carry on and do not ever put watches in the original box for travel.

If you are very concerned, I suggest taking 6-9 with you (wearing one). Keep the others in your carry on bag. The divide the rest of your collection into a few parcels and use one (more?) companies like DHL to ship them. The main international shipping companies are highly reliable so your risk is low, but if any one parcel is lost you only lose a portion of your collection.

Overall I would not be too paranoid. Singapore and Germany should be pretty safe if you don’t draw attention to yourself.

We're all off them , Who says you can't

Tal it with you on the plane

That's sounds like very sound advice I would get yourself a cheap canvas watch roll for the pieces you carry with you and try not to bring any heavy hitters or anything too recognisable. The remainder should be handled with care and appropriately insured by one of the international carriers, surely they have dedicated services for this type of goods. The price might be steeper than your typical parcel but hey that's better than any other alternative. Some of those costs might be covered by an employer or a business depending on your situation...Fingers crossed everything will be alright.

Thanks, it is a good advice!

Thanks, good idea spreading the watches in family backpacks!

What's the max number off watches you've carried through the border?

Good question I am moving 2 and have 120 yikes

In the past I have carried just a couple of watches (holidays, business trips)… now I will instead need to move the entire collection of about 30 pieces.

I'll have to do the same, not sure when but within 5 years for sure.

First, I'm trying to keep the high end watches (say, worth more than 5k USD each) to the minimum in my collection - I'd say no more than 4.

When the time will come, I can see having at least 2 trips, bringing no more than 3 watches at the time (1 on the wrist, 2 in a roll in my carry on). Leave them in a safety box in the target country. Rinse and repeat

I'll ship boxes and papers with all the furniture and stuff with the moving company.

Yeah, 30 is a lot. I have in the past traveled with 4-10, maybe 12 pieces in my backpack and wrists but 30 is a sh*load. You may want to ship the cheap ones via DHL. But I wouldn't entrust expensive ones to them because (1) I have heard stories where in transit warehouses watches get stolen and (2) from what I understand DHL insures watches only up to a certain limit (5K USD?). I saw a comment below that someone suggested sending some watches via insured DHL but I wouldn't be so sure that this is prudent for high-end pieces for the reasons I gave above.

Another point that I want to make is this: while it is true that unless you show, nobody knows what you are carrying, and major international airports are pretty safe but it is true that you dont want to be declaring them to the customs at the arrival airport in, say a latin american country, because the local capt or colonel may get ideas when he sees that Daytona. Yes, there is generally no security check upon arrival but sometimes there is a customs inspection. Also, think about the long run. How do you plan to take those watches out of that country once you decide to leave. There will certainly be a security/customs check at exit. You know what I mean?

Thanks, good point about the courier, I heard similar stories as well. The target country is Germany, so any customs check should be fine once I have made sure to meet all the requirements , some of which have already been mentioned here by others.