Watch Insurance

Watch insurance policies are designed to insure expensive watches against risks such as loss, accidental damage, theft and robbery. They are really designed for people with expensive watches that are not adequately covered by home contents insurance policies.
 
Why Insure Your Watch?
If you own an expensive watch, then it is very important to make sure it is covered against things like loss, theft and damage, as if it isn’t you could be left with a very expensive bill if anything happened to it. Some watches these days cost hundreds and even thousands of pounds- brands such as Rolex, Omega and Tag Heur command very hefty price tags and it makes a lot of sense to insure these expensive items.

 
If you are lucky enough to own an expensive watch, then you can imagine how bad you would feel if something happened to it, especially if it was given to you by a good friend or a relative. However you would be even more upset if you discovered that your watch was not covered under your contents insurance, and that you had to stump up a lot of money for a replacement.
 
Contents insurance is designed to insure items within your home, but there is a good chance that your watch might be stolen or damaged outside of your home so it might not be covered by a standard contents insurance policy. Some contents insurance policies will also cover items that you take out of your home and carry on your person (watch, mp3 player, phone etc.) but there is normally a limit on this personal possession cover, and it does not extend to all contents insurance policies. Even if you did have personal possession cover within your contents insurance, if your watch was worth more than the personal possession cover limit you could still find yourself having to pay for most of the replacement costs.
 
Getting Watch Insurance
If you want watch insurance, then there are two main options open to you- you can purchase a standalone watch and jewellery insurance policy, or you can arrange with your contents insurer to cover your watch completely under your personal possessions cover. A good first step is getting an insurance valuation for your watch, and to find out from your insurance company whether your watch is completely covered. If it is not covered for the full amount, then you could ask them to ensure that it is, and to make it a specified item on your insurance policy. To do this they might increase your insurance premiums to mitigate the extra risk, or place you on a new contents insurance policy, such as a high net worth home insurance policy.
 
However you may prefer to purchase a standalone watch insurance policy, which will act as an independent policy for your watch alone. The advantage of these policies is that they are normally a lot more flexible, as you can often choose which risks you want to insure against, though on the downside it is often a more expensive method to cover your watch.
 
Checklist
1. Know how much your watch is worth and what it would cost to replace.
2. Check with your insurer that it is fully covered.
3. Check that it is covered against all of the risks that you want it to be – e.g. loss, theft, damage and robbery.