Ok, so I've given this some thought
Perhaps when we are dealing with someone over the internet who's in a different state, we could tell them to send the watch to the service centre to be serviced, at our cost
Yes, this will incur some extra cost for us, but it seems to be the most foolproof way to authenticate the watch
If the seller is unwilling/unable to bring the watch to be serviced by the service centre, even when we offer to pay for it, I'd say that's a pretty huge red flag
The only legitimate reason I can think of for the seller to be reluctant to do this is if he considers the possibility that we aren't serious about buying the watch and change our mind after he got it serviced, therefore ending up wasting his time and money
What do you guys think?
I mean, overall this sounds like the easiest/best way to authenticate pre-owned watches, yet it is not a common practice. Is there something that I am missing?