What does “Stamped Papers” mean?

Stamped papers are warranty papers that the authorised dealer completed and marked with its dealer stamp at the original sale. Older certificates were usually stamped by hand; on many modern cards the selling dealer's details are printed rather than stamped, but the trade still says 'stamped' to mean the papers were properly completed when the watch was sold.

Stamped, dated papers support a watch's authenticity and show where and when it was first sold, which helps resale and is what most buyers expect. When checking them, make sure the stamp or dealer details, the date and the serial all fit together and look consistent with the brand's practice for that period. Papers that are stamped but undated, or whose dealer details don't fit the market the watch was supposedly sold in, raise questions worth asking before you buy.

Example: 'Papers stamped by the AD, dated 2008, serial matching.'