Jewellery + watch insurance valuation

If you own jewellery or watches of significant value, having an accurate insurance valuation is an important step in protecting them. A professional valuation provides a detailed record of your items and establishes the correct replacement value should they be lost, stolen, or damaged.

At Jacobs the Jewellers, we offer professional valuations for jewellery and watches carried out by qualified valuers to recognised industry standards. Each valuation includes a thorough examination of the item, detailed descriptions, photography, and research into current market values to ensure your insurer has an accurate replacement figure.

Many insurers require valuable items to be individually documented once they exceed a policy’s single item limit, and valuations are often recommended to be updated periodically to reflect changes in market prices.

Below you’ll find everything you need to know about our valuation service, including how the process works, upcoming valuation dates, fees, and helpful guidance before bringing your items in.

FAQs

It may be worth taking a read of our valuations for insurance frequently asked questions here. It's got a lot of information in an easy to read Q&A format.

Insuring your jewellery or watches

If you would like to know about an option for insuring your jewellery or watches, you may wish to look at TH March; and for an online quote from them click here. This is one provider we know of specialising in jewellery + watches with a good reputation within our industry although we suggest you check your household policy as there may be an option there. There may be other stand alone policies available, and please seek professional insurance advice if you need it.

Selling valuations

Wondering if we'd be interested in buying your jewellery or what it's worth? Click here.

Valuations for divorce or separation

Please note these have a strict set of guidelines before we can perform an appraisal for this purpose. Read more here.

Settings checks for insurers

If you need the settings checked on your jewellery as requested by an insurance company, we can provide a formal letter. Prices below.

Formal Valuations

Quite often people may want to have their watches or jewellery valued for insurance, probate or other specific purposes such as private sale, formal division of assets and divorce settlement. There are also Post Loss Assessments for those people who have lost their jewellery and don’t have a valuation (helping them quantify their jewellery’s value to support an insurance claim).

You can always talk to us about your circumstances and what you want your valuation for. We’re happy to advise and guide in our comfortable central Reading shop. Have a look at the list below for a handy checklist of things to bring in to help the conversation.

For the more technical valuations (insurance, probate, etc.) we are one of the few jewellery shops in the Reading area who appraise on-site working with registered members (MIRVs) or fellows (FIRVs) of the Institute of Registered Valuers (IRV).

Valuations for insurance/ probate process

Typically our on site valuations work on a monthly cycle, on or around the first few days of each month: our schedule and valuation dates are below, book an appointment to drop off online here. We do offer valuations off site if you need it sooner than a 4 week cycle, or an express 5 working day service (subject to a £35 surcharge per item + capacity with valuers). Our valuations are usually carried out by qualified valuers with extensive experience, commonly via the Guild of Valuers.

How it works

1. Before you come in:

We ask you to fill in our 'drop off' form, by clicking here. This makes sure we have all your details correct for your upcoming report.

2. Booking in/ dropping off

At least a few days before our scheduled appraisal day.

You will need to bring in to the shop:

Your articles
Any receipts
Any previous valuations
Any boxes, ideally original ones
Any warranties (even old ones), service or repair history paperwork, certificates or third party papers relating to the articles (watches or jewellery)
Your insurance policy’s single item limit, if needed for insurance
The deceased’s name and date of passing, if needed for probate
Please note that withholding any pertinent information will potentially void our work, require recalculations and require additional fees

We will make an initial inspection of the articles based on this information and your requirements and take you through the IRV’s standard valuation checklist. We advise of any repair work required or suggested.

3. Appraisal Day

Our valuer looks over the items, photographs them and documents all information. Your items will be ready to collect a week after (see section 3 below) after, unless we need to perform more checks - we will keep you informed of this eventuality.

4. Research and documenting

Your actual valuation is prepared, values researched and the document created. The final version is usually ready 1 week after appraisal days, and you can collect your items at this time.

Our fees are detailed below. If applicable, we’ll advise if we need to take external advice or resource and the reasons why.

On occasions, we may use a Non-IRV valuer, but this will always be made clear to you in advance.

A sample valuation is shown below which demonstrates the level of professional standard required by the Institute of Registered Valuers of its members.

MAIN FEES

PREMIUM WATCH SURCHARGE: All Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Cartier, Jaeger leCoultre, Patek Phillipe, Panerai, Hublot, Omega, Breitling and Tag Heuer watches attract a £30 surcharge owing to the time taken to verify authenticity.

First time documenting Insurance, probate, family division + most common valuations to IRV standard valuation Valuations are provided as an electronic PDF file, paper copies are an additional £10	£100 for first item, £75 for subsequent items - please see above for watch surcharge.
	£200 per hour multiple with 3 to 4 items per hour a guide - please see above for watch info
	We reserve the right to quote for unusual item/s or batches (3/4 + items depending on types) and can advise at the time - contact us for a better idea.
	Jacobs purchases are entitled to a complimentary Proof of Purchase for Valuation¹ with replacement price at time of sale. To upgrade to an IRV standard valuation, a 25% discount is applied to published IRV prices.
Revaluing a Jacobs previous IRV valuation Valuations are provided as an electronic PDF file, paper copies are an additional £10	£75 per item or £200 per hour multiple with 3 to 4 items per hour a guide Please see above for watch surcharge.
¹Updating a Jacobs Certificate of Proof of Purchase NB from 12 months after purchase and not a formal valuation	£35
Setting appraisal / Claw Check / Claw inspection A formal letter confirming your item of jewellery’s setting is in good condition	£50
Post Loss Assessment please see above for watch info	From Jacobs £75 per item deductible from subsequent purchases.
	Or: £200 per hour multiple with 2 to 6 items per hour a guide. Pro rata deduction from subsequent purchases.

All prices include VAT. Effective June 2024.

Express 5 day service

Attracts a £35 surcharge per item, if available.

High Value Reports

Please note high value valuations (£75,000 or more) will attract a fee to cover additional insurance while on site of £50 per £50,000 of value, per week with us. Please contact us for more information if you need guidance.

If items are not collected within 4 weeks of a report being completed, they will be subject to a safe keeping charge, then disposed of after 6 months. More details are provided when dropping off your items.

BOOKING DEPOSIT AND POSTPONEMENTS/ CANCELLATIONS

We ask for 50% deposit of the likely end bill value at the point you reserve your space with us - this is between £50 and up to a maximum of £250 for large quantities. This can be paid in store or via a secure payment link sent to you. Your space is not guaranteed until your deposit is in place.

Should you need to reschedule or cancel your reservation please contact us asap. We will try to fill your reservation but changes to your booking within 7 days off appraisal date may result in fees as a result of our now unfilled capacity.

Please do read the explanatory notes for how we work + pricing below the dates.

On rare occasions we can adjust the timings below a little, but please contact us beforehand.

2026

Items with us by for pre appraisal checks (all Monday except where indicated)	Appraisal Day	Reports ready
January 12^th	January 15^th	January 20^th
February 9^{th - FULL}	February 12^{th - FULL}	February 17^{th - FULL}
Second date: February 16^{th - FULL}	February 20^{th - FULL}	February 26^{th - FULL}
March 9^{th - FULL}	March 12^{th - FULL}	March 17^th
Saturday April 4^th	April 9^th	April 14^th
May 4^th	May 7^th	May 12^th
June 1^st	June 4^th	June 9^th
June 29^th	July 2^nd	July 7^th
July 27^th	July 30^th	August 4^th
Saturday August 22^nd	August 27^th	September 2^nd
September 21^st	September 24^th	September 29^th
October 19^th	October 22^nd	October 27^th
November 2^nd	November 5^th	November 10^th
November 23^rd	November 26^th	1^st December
December 14^th	December 17^th	December 22^nd

Click here to see a sample valuation document.

GVJ Linear Black On White2

You've had written conformation your space is reserved for the date you want
You've made an appointment to drop off your item/s, along with all boxes and paperwork
You understand the fees
You've completed your 'valuation take on form' online
You've booked a collection date for a few days after appraisal day

If you need any help or have any questions please do get in touch via our contact page.