What's specific to Chicago

Chicago licenses secondhand dealers, and it has written a record rule for watches specifically — the most detailed one this site has found in any city code. It also does something no other jurisdiction covered here does: it makes the entire chapter turn on what the case is made of.

The statewide duties, which Chicago cannot undercut, are in the Illinois guide.

Whether you are covered depends on the metal

Chicago's definitions are unusually load-bearing. "Secondhand property" includes "jewelry or watch made of precious metal or precious stone or gem", and precious metal means gold, silver or platinum. A precious stone or gem is a genuine diamond, emerald, ruby, sapphire or pearl of any value, or any other genuine stone or gem worth more than $100.

So a gold Day-Date is plainly in. A plain steel sports watch, on the face of the definitions, is not jewelry, not a watch made of precious metal or stone, and not any of the other listed categories — audio-video equipment, construction materials, sporting gear, currency.

That reading is not an accident of drafting, either. Chicago maintains a second licence class, "secondhand dealer – non-valuable", defined as a dealer who does not deal in jewelry or watches of precious metal or stone, or in currency. The city clearly contemplates dealers who sit on the other side of that line.

Two cautions before you rely on it. A diamond-set steel watch looks like secondhand property, because a genuine diamond counts at any value. And falling outside Chapter 4-264 is not the same as falling outside the law: the state Resale Dealers Act reaches "jewelry" without defining it, so a steel watch may still be caught there.

The licence

You need one for each separate place, premises or location — and for each automated recycling kiosk, which tells you something about what this chapter was last amended to deal with.

The fee is $1,100.00, and § 4-5-010 provides that unless otherwise stated fees are assessed every two years. For comparison, a pawnbroker licence in the same schedule is $5,280.00 per year.

The commissioner investigates whether you have complied with state law and the Code, and whether you are of good character and repute. The chapter sets no time limit on that investigation.

From January 2027 these fees adjust upward each January by the CPI adjustment in § 1-4-090, capped at 2.5% a year.

The watch record rule

This is the reason a Chicago dealer needs to read the ordinance rather than a summary of it. Section 4-264-050(b)(2)(i):

The description of each watch shall include: the brand name; model number, if available; a description of the metal or metals of its composition; a description of the band; a description of the face by number, color and cut, shape and type of stone or stones, if any; and a description of any inscriptions appearing on the watch. In addition, each watch shall be photographed in color.

Every watch. In colour. Plus the general requirement that applies to all articles — brand, model number, manufacturer serial number, and a description of every other identifying marking, including inscriptions.

All of it goes into LeadsOnline at the time of the transaction, not at the end of the day. No entry may be erased, obliterated or defaced.

The seller goes in too: name, residence address, date of birth, social security number, weight, height and gender.

Two reports before noon

The Chicago report goes to a location designated by the Superintendent of Police every day before 12:00 noon, covering everything bought the preceding day, with the hour the property was received and a description of the seller. The photographs go with it.

Note that the state Act independently requires a daily report before noon to the appropriate law enforcement official, from its own separately approved record book. Chicago's LeadsOnline filing and the state's record book are not obviously the same instrument, and confirming that one filing discharges both duties is worth doing at the outset rather than a year in.

You may only buy between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Section 4-264-110 is short and absolute. A licensee may not buy any secondhand article or thing outside the window running from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

An evening house call, a late deal at a show, a midnight handshake on a watch that just came up — all of those are purchases the ordinance does not permit.

The rules that cost money

Stolen property comes back, and you eat the loss. Under § 4-264-090(c)(1), where any person is found to be the owner of stolen property you bought, the property is returned to the owner without payment of the amount you paid for it. No good-faith carve-out appears on the face of the section.

Repurchase agreements are prohibited. Section 4-264-101 forbids any oral or written agreement giving the seller a right to repurchase that is superior to any other willing buyer's. A friendly "call me first if you want it back" is exactly the arrangement described.

You cannot stack licences at one premises. Section 4-264-100 makes a secondhand dealer licensee ineligible, at that premises, for a pawnbroker licence, a junk facility permit, or a weapons dealer licence.

No buying from minors without written parental or guardian consent signed in your presence and included in the daily record, and no buying from anyone who appears intoxicated or under the influence of a drug.

The holding period is the state's

Chapter 4-264 sets none of its own. The operative rule is 815 ILCS 398/40 — 10 days for an individually identifiable article, and the items must be stored at the location where they were purchased for the whole period. That is the floor Chicago is not permitted to lower, and it has not raised it.

Which means the storage rule applies in Chicago with full force: buy at a show downtown and the statute says the watch stays there for ten days. How that works for a dealer without a fixed retail location is a genuine question, and it is on the attorney list above.