How do you protect your collection?

[P4GTR]

I've heard more and more horror stories about home invasions lately. Now today, a neighbors house was robbed in the middle of the night. We live in a nice area, picture typical suburbia.

I am a gun owner, and feel my wife and myself are well protected between me, the .45, and the dog. The problem is, how do I protect my belongings when I am not home? What if there were a fire, flood, etc?

I can't stomach the idea of taking a complete loss in the watchbox department. With pictures of everything, How would you suppose one should handle insuring our kind've hobby when talking with an agent regarding home owners?

Please discuss...

[HauteHippie]

TL-30

[Logan]

I have my collection noted on the home and contents policy at an agreed value. I've supplied the insurance company with a list of the watches and their original costs. I also keep the Paypal records to back that up.

The insurance company was surprisingly happy to accept all that, there was no drama over them being replicas, although I did have to explain that they were not the canal st type. They did think I was a little mad though..

Having said that I have never had to actually claim. Most insurance policies do exclude illegal goods. Replica's are not strictly illegal to own or import for personal use here in New Zealand but there is obviously some danger if you catch the wrong person when you make the claim, or they thing you're having them on. Also watch for depreciation clauses where goods are depreciated to "todays value" when you claim. Theres a chance they could claim used fake watches are valueless. Its much better to have an agreed value for this kind of product.

Remember the golden rule of insurance.. Tell the insurance company EVERYTHING before you need to make a claim. Be totally up front about them being replicas so there is no argument later. (obviously that may vary in less replica friendly countries.. eg Italy & Switzerland).

I also have a suitably mounted and hidden floor safe to actually keep them in. If you're really concerned consider a safe deposit box and rotate a selection out to home for wearing every few weeks.

[ubiquitous]

I've been making it a habit of only keeping one watch in the house at all times, and it's the one that stays on my wrist. Everything else goes in the safe deposit box now... With all of our documents and our valuables...

[lanikai]

I have my collection in various safe locations..

Never keep all my eggs in one basket

[cougaree]

I hear your guys... since our watches are darn automatics/manual winds, they will have to stay on our wrist sometime of the week... it's so hard to keep them in bank security boxes with winders...

[mastrmindalliance]

I have the sneaky-ist custom built in floor stash spot. Even if i pointed it out to you, you wouldn't be able to see it. Its very clever. mind you it was done as part of a major renovation a few years ago, inside are multiple custom safe boxes.

I really should keep my watches in there though.

[mt666tm]

Bank safety deposit box for big ticket items that you don't need immediate access too... a hidden safe in the house for everything else

[jchurch]

I live by Joe Horn lol... He shoots people who try and steal my stuff when I am not home to shoot them myself.

I really rely on an alarm, wall safe, and watchful neighbors. For my legit stuff I rely on the insurance company.