Terms of Use

Last updated: 15 October 2026

These Terms of Use (the “Terms”) apply to your use of The Reference at thereference.uk (the “Service”) and to your purchases of credits. The Service is run by Massimo Duse, Via Fontana 15, 6828 Balerna, Switzerland (“we”, “us”), whom you can reach at support@thereference.uk. By creating an account or using the Service, you accept these Terms. Our Privacy Notice explains how we handle your personal data.

1. What The Reference is

The Reference is an independent online catalogue of Rolex Certified Pre-Owned watches offered for sale by authorised Rolex retailers in Europe and the United States. We gather the listings the retailers publish on their own websites and show them in one place, so you can search and compare them. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Rolex SA or by any retailer. Rolex, the model names and “Certified Pre-Owned” are trademarks of Rolex SA, used only to describe the watches listed.

2. We don’t sell watches

We don’t sell, broker or deliver watches, and we are not a party to any sale. If you buy a watch, you buy it from the retailer, on the retailer’s own terms. We take no commission, and retailers don’t pay to be listed. We give no warranty for any retailer, watch, price or availability.

3. Listing information

Listings come from the retailers’ websites and are updated regularly, but they may be out of date, incomplete or wrong: a watch may, for example, already be sold. Until you contact the retailer of a listing through the Service (section 5), its price is shown only approximately: converted into euros (or another currency you choose) and rounded. Always confirm the price, availability, condition and guarantee with the retailer before you buy.

4. Your account

• Most of the Service needs a free account. You can sign in with Google or with a link sent to your email address.
• Use an email address you can access, and keep your sign-in secure. You are responsible for what happens on your account. Accounts are personal and can’t be transferred.
• The Service is intended for adults. You must be at least 18 to buy credits.

5. Contacting retailers and credits

• Browsing the catalogue and email alerts are free.
• A listing’s retailer, exact price and link to the watch on the retailer’s own website are shown once you contact the retailer through the Service. This sends the retailer nothing about you: you then get in touch with them yourself. Contacting the retailer of a listing uses one credit. The details stay in your account, and opening them again costs nothing. They show the listing as we last saw it on the retailer’s website; by the time you get in touch with the retailer, the watch may have been sold.
• Your account may include free credits; the app shows how many you have left. We may change the number of free credits we offer in future.
• You can buy credits at €1 each, tax included where applicable, from 1 to 100 per purchase. The payment page may show the price converted into your local currency. Each purchase is a single payment: there is no subscription and no recurring charge.
• Credits you buy are valid for 12 months from the day they are added to your account; credits you haven’t used by then expire. Contacting a retailer uses your free credits first, then your oldest bought credits. Credits belong to your account, can’t be transferred and can’t be exchanged for money.

6. Payment

We sell the credits. The payment is processed by Link, a Stripe service, which acts as merchant of record: Link takes the payment on a Stripe-hosted page, charges and pays the VAT or sales tax, and emails you the receipt and invoice. The charge appears on your bank or card statement as “LINK.COM* THEREFERENCE.COM”, or a shortened form of it. Link’s own terms also apply to the payment. Your credits are added as soon as the payment is confirmed, usually within seconds (some payment methods take longer), and we email you a confirmation of your purchase.

7. Immediate supply, right of withdrawal and refunds

• Credits are digital content, supplied as soon as your payment is confirmed. Before you pay, we ask you to confirm that you want your credits supplied immediately and that you understand that you therefore lose your right of withdrawal.
• If you live in the European Union or the United Kingdom, consumer law normally gives you 14 days to withdraw from an online purchase. For digital content that is supplied immediately with your express consent and your acknowledgement that you lose this right, the right ends when the supply begins. Swiss law has no general right of withdrawal for online purchases.
• Credits are therefore non-refundable, whether you have used them or not, including when they expire or your account is closed.
• This doesn’t affect your rights if something goes wrong on our side. If credits you paid for are not added, you are charged twice or contacting a retailer doesn’t work, write to support@thereference.uk and we will put it right or refund you. Link may also refund a purchase within 60 days under its own refund policy, for example if you didn’t receive what you paid for or didn’t authorise the payment; where Link’s policy is more favourable to you, it prevails.
• If a payment is refunded or disputed with your bank (a chargeback), we remove the corresponding credits from your account, never more than you have left. We may suspend an account while we look into a dispute or a suspected fraudulent payment.

8. Acceptable use

• Use the Service for your own search for a watch.
• Don’t copy, scrape, download in bulk, resell or republish the catalogue or the details shown when you contact a retailer.
• Don’t try to uncover a listing’s retailer or exact price without contacting the retailer through the Service, to get around the limit on free credits (for example with several accounts), or to disrupt the Service or its security.
• Don’t use the Service for anything unlawful.

We may suspend or close an account that seriously or repeatedly breaks these Terms. Where we can, we will warn you first.

9. Ending your use

You can stop using the Service at any time. To have your account deleted, write to privacy@thereference.uk; we will delete it within one month. Unused credits are lost when your account is deleted.

We may change, suspend or stop the Service. If we close it for good, we will tell you by email at least 30 days in advance and refund the credits you bought that you haven’t used and that are still valid.

10. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms, for example when the Service changes. We will publish the new version here with a new date and tell you about significant changes by email or in the app before they take effect. A purchase is governed by the Terms in force when you made it. If you don’t accept the new Terms, you can stop using the Service.

11. Our responsibility

• We run the Service with reasonable care, but we can’t promise that it will always be available or free of errors, or that the listings are complete and accurate.
• We are not responsible for the retailers, their watches, prices or conduct, or for any purchase you make from a retailer.
• As far as the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, and our total liability to you is limited to what you paid us in the 12 months before your claim.
• Nothing in these Terms limits our liability for intent or gross negligence, for death or personal injury, or any other liability that the law doesn’t allow us to limit, nor your rights as a consumer under the law.

12. Intellectual property

The Service’s design, software and text, and the way the catalogue is compiled, belong to us or our licensors. Listing details and photos come from the retailers’ public websites; trademarks and images belong to their owners and are shown only to identify the watches.

13. Applicable law and disputes

• These Terms are governed by Swiss law.
• If you are a consumer living in another country, you also keep the protection of the mandatory consumer-law rules of that country, and you can bring a claim before the courts where you live.
• Otherwise, the courts of Mendrisio, Switzerland, have jurisdiction.
• If you have a problem, please write to us first at support@thereference.uk: we will try to solve it quickly.
• These Terms are available in English, Italian, French and German. If the versions differ, the English version prevails.

14. Contact