Recommended workflow
Set it up once, properly.
Six steps, in the order we recommend. None of them are required by the application — you can open it and start entering watches immediately — but skipping the backup steps is the single most common way a register is lost permanently.
Before anything else — read this one
Your recovery key matters more than any other step here. It is a separate secret from your passphrase, shown once during setup and never again — it is not on your USB drives, and it is not something a vault backup replaces. Print it and store it apart from your vault copies. There is no password reset: lose the passphrase and the recovery key together, and the register cannot be opened by anyone, permanently.
Our Recommendations: Remember, watch collecting is a marathon, not a sprint.
Add one watch at a time.
Gather the photographs, documents and details for a single piece first, then enter it as completely as you can. Market values and insured values are entirely your own figures — the application does not appraise, does not fetch prices, and cannot check anything against an outside source, because it has no way to reach one. You are responsible for the accuracy of everything you enter; see the Terms for how valuations and financial figures are treated.
Review, then repeat.
Check the entry is correct before moving on to the next piece. Repeat this, one watch at a time, until the collection is complete. An entry made carefully once is worth more than a collection entered quickly and never checked.
Secure your vault — and your recovery key.
Under Data, choose Save encrypted vault (.vault.json). Make two copies on separate USB drives, and keep the drives in two separate, secure physical locations — a home safe and a bank safety-deposit box is a reasonable split.
Your recovery key is a different secret, shown once during setup, and it is not on either USB drive. Print it and store it apart from the vault copies — together in one place, a single loss takes both. There is no password reset: lose the passphrase and the recovery key together, and the register cannot be opened by anyone, permanently.
Generate the physical documents.
Under Docs, produce the Insurance schedule, Sales & disposition and Estate register. Each opens in your browser; press Cmd-P (Ctrl-P on Windows) and choose Save as PDF. No password or account is needed for this step — the application still has no network capability, so nothing leaves the machine to produce them.
Print two copies of each and store them alongside your USB drives, so every physical location holds a complete set: the encrypted vault, and the paper record.
Maintain your records.
Repeat the backup — vault export and printed documents — whenever you make a change that matters for insurance, property or estate purposes: an acquisition, a sale, a loss, a change in coverage. The most recent backup is the only one that counts.
Enjoy the view.
The register handles insurance schedules and estate planning properly, but it is also simply a place to see a whole collection organised in one view. Looking at an entire rotation laid out at once is often the most useful thing it does.
Still have a question?
Most things people ask before or during setup are already answered — backups, passphrases, imports, insurance figures, what happens if something goes wrong.