How to Ship Your Rolex to Bob's
You've accepted a quote, and now comes the part that makes most sellers nervous: putting a Rolex in a cardboard box and handing it to a stranger in a FedEx uniform. Fair enough. This page covers exactly what we send you, how to pack the watch so it's protected and fully covered by insurance, and what happens from drop-off to our evaluation table. The whole thing takes about fifteen minutes of your time.
Haven't gotten a quote yet? Start with our complete guide to selling a Rolex or go straight to the Sell Rolex quote form.
What We Send You
After you accept your quote, we email you a prepaid FedEx shipping label with insurance covering the full amount you were quoted. Not FedEx's standard liability, and not a depreciated estimate: the number on your quote is the number your watch is insured for, through our own shipping insurance policy, at no cost to you. The label, the overnight service, and the coverage are all paid before your watch leaves your hands.
One detail worth knowing: because coverage runs through our policy rather than the carrier's, the label won't mention what's inside, and neither should you. More on that in the checklist.
Packaging Step by Step
Good packing isn't just about protecting the watch. Our insurance policy, like every shipping insurance policy, excludes damage caused by insufficient packing, so these steps are how you keep your coverage airtight. Here's the literal checklist:
- Photograph the watch before you pack it. Dial, case, bracelet, clasp. Two minutes of photos gives you a dated condition record.
- Gather everything that goes with it. Box, papers, spare links, extra straps. Each item can add to your final offer, and it all ships together.
- Wrap the watch itself. Use a soft cloth or small bubble pouch around the watch, with extra attention to the crystal, then a layer of bubble wrap around that. If you have the original Rolex box, place the wrapped watch inside it.
- Box in a box. Put the wrapped watch (or the Rolex box) in a small box with cushioning so nothing shifts, then place that box inside the FedEx shipping box with padding on all sides. Shake it gently; if you hear movement, add more padding.
- Put your name and quote number inside. A note inside the inner box lets us match your watch to your quote the moment it's opened.
- Never indicate what's inside on the outside. Don't write "watch," "Rolex," "jewelry," or anything similar on the box, and don't reference the contents if a FedEx employee asks casually. A plain, boring box is a safe box, and keeping contents confidential is also a condition of the insurance coverage.
- Attach the label and seal every seam with packing tape. Reinforce the edges; don't rely on the box's own flaps.
Drop-Off and Tracking
Take your sealed package to a staffed FedEx location and hand it to an employee rather than leaving it in a drop box, and keep your drop-off receipt. That receipt is your proof of handoff and timestamps the start of transit coverage.
Two things you specifically do not need to do at the counter: don't pay for anything, and don't declare a value. It feels wrong to ship a Rolex without declaring its value, but insurance is already in place through our policy at your full quoted amount, and declaring a separate value with the carrier can actually conflict with that coverage. Everything is handled; you're just dropping off a box.
Your label includes FedEx tracking, so you can follow the package on FedEx's site the whole way, and our team monitors inbound shipments daily. Shipments travel overnight, so your watch typically arrives the next business day. The full legal details of the program are in our seller shipping terms.
What Happens on Arrival
The moment your package reaches our facility, the cameras are already running. It's opened on video, the contents are verified against your quote, and the recording continues through the entire evaluation by one of our in-house experts. There's no window where your watch is off the record, which protects both of us: your watch is documented in exactly the condition it arrived, and the evaluation you're paid on is the one that happened on tape.
From there, we call you to confirm the final offer, and payment goes out the same day you accept. It's one piece of the larger process we've built around seller protection; the full picture is on our why sellers choose Bob's page.