4 Important Tips for Insuring & Storing Fine Jewelry & Luxury Watches

Having proper insurance is crucial if you own highly valuable fine jewelry and luxury jewelry. Most people overlook that homeowner insurances don’t cover the loss of jewelry. If you don’t have meaningful paperwork that proves what you own, it’s your obligation to get your items appraised. Moreover, some insurance companies don’t even cover jewelry losses at all or only if you add the jewelry to your policy. Here are 4 very important tips for the safe handling of your private jewelry.

1. Gold Jewelry Getting Evaluated by the Gold Price

Most gold jewelry like classic wedding rings, gold chains, bracelets, or brooches are priced based on the current gold price. For getting kind of a free appraisal, working with a reliable online jewelry appraiser like reDollar is the best way to save money but still get paperwork. You just need a scale (available on Amazon or eBay for less than 10 dollars) and knowledge about your jewelry is gold purity. This is pretty much everything you need to get a value estimation for your gold jewelry. Make some photos of your jewelry and ask friends or family to testify your lawful ownership. Save the information in the cloud as if somebody would break into your house, computers may be stolen too. Make sure you find proper storage for your data.

The current gold price is from importance to price gold jewelry

2. Fine Jewelry & Diamond Jewelry Require Professional Appraisals

A professional appraisal is required for getting fine jewelry or luxury watches insured against theft or loss. The insurance company wants you to provide a value-proof of the item for which you are claiming compensation. We recommend working directly with GIA – The Gemological Institute of America or an independent GIA accredited appraiser. An appraisal costs typically between $75 and $150 but very complex jewelry pieces can be more expensive as more time is involved in the appraisal process. Is it worth to get an appraisal? Yes, 100% as the appraisal contains all important specifications and characteristics including one or two photos. Also serial numbers are listed what helps law enforcement by doing investigations in local pawn shops and gold buying outlets.

An appraisal contains jewelry specifications and one or more photos

3. Store and lock your jewelry in a safe or rent a safe deposit box

Better safe than sorry. Acquire a safe or rent a safe deposit box at your local bank. If you buy a safe, make sure to buy a water and fireproof model. Don’t assume that a hundred dollar safe is a great protection. Adjust your budget depending on the jewelry you store. Experts’ advice is spending 20% of the stored value on the safe. Use your mind and decide if a 250,000 dollar Rolex watch is appropriate stored in a 500 dollar safe. Another really great way of storing high values is a safe deposit box. Pretty much all big banks like Wells Fargo, Bank of America or Chase are offering safe deposit boxes. You can benefit from the bank’s security system, but you need to consider that most banks are closed on weekends and in the evening. Accessing a safe deposit box outside from normal business hours is in most cases not possible. Please be aware that safe deposit boxes ae NOT insured. You need to get extra insurance for it. The Safe Deposit Box Insurance Company currently offers rates as little as $25 for $5,000 insurance, $50 for $10,000 insurance, $90 for $30,000 insurance, $200 for 100,000 insurances, $500 for 250,000 insurance and $1,000 for 500,000 insurances (paid annually). Their rates are very competitive, and you don’t need to provide a proof for the items you store. They just pay you the insured amount if anything gets lost – no questions asked. Your box could even be empty.

Always lock your jewelry in a safe

4. Better refrain from wearing diamond jewelry or gold watches in the public

Just recently a New York businessman was robbed in his car as he wore a very expensive Rolex watch. He was hanging his watch-wearing-hand out of his car smoking a cigarette. Caught in traffic, a group of young gangsters forced his watch off his wrist. A painful and expensive experience could have been avoided just by not wearing or showing a super expensive watch in the public.

The rule applies to men and women equally. While women should reconsider wearing flashy diamond rings or earrings, men may better leave the luxury watch at home. Please keep on wearing your beautiful jewelry but always ask yourself if the environment where you are going to wear your luxury pieces is appropriate.