Safes For The Certified Protection Of Watch Collections

A certified safe configured to protect a valuable watch collection provides a legal proof of standard and a range of upgrade options to future proof your investment while storing valuable time pieces securely and safely long term.

Future proofing valuable time piece storage

As standard, all Certified Safes Ireland™ safes intended for the secure storage of a valuable watch collection come with an integrated VdS certified wiring channel. This allows a watch winder and alarm integration cable to pass into the safe along a protected and certified cable route without the need to drill an additional hole into the barrier material that may invalidate the safes burglary resistance certification. Each safe we supply for watch collections comes prepared with mountings for seismic sensors and door contacts allowing you to integrate your safe immediately with alarm, duress and audit monitoring or to upgrade at a later date if it becomes a condition of insurance cover as your collection grows in value. 

Customisation

Our extensive range of Austrian, German, and Scandinavian manufactured safes not only have the highest level of accredited European burglary resistance certification available but can also be customised with off the shelf components such as pull-out collectors’ shelves, lockable drawers, pull out drawers and lockable compartments. If a bespoke solution is more what you had in mind, we can provide for any and all designer options, from simple RAL colour options, to working closely with Italian and Scandinavian design studios to customise your safe to integrate with and compliment existing aesthetics.

Home surveys are free of charge

Home surveys are free of charge, without obligation and entirely confidential. We have years of experience installing home safes both large and small into houses built in Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian eras, common in Ireland. We are regularly referred by architects, insurers and wealth managers who appreciate the knowledge of structure and diligence required when fitting a home safe into an older and sometimes protected structure.

The importance of legally accredited European certification

EU Parliament regulation 765/2008 created the system that provides the legal basis of accreditation for the burglary resistance certification of safes. The ultimate protection against misrepresentation and a legal proof of standard of burglary resistance, accredited European certification is the most important factor in maintaining insurance cover long term, as well as being the basis for all insurance rate recommendations in Europe. If you consider that 70% of safes tested for burglary resistance by accredited European testing labs fail on the first attempt the practical implications of accepting unaccredited claims of burglary resistance are obvious.

The relationship between legally accredited European burglary resistance certification and insurance cover

With the exception of the UK, insurance rate recommendations throughout Europe are sourced from the insurance industry itself and provide a guide for both insurers and consumers in selecting a safe suitable for a given level of risk. In Ireland, the only source of insurance limit recommendations in relation to cash and jewellery cover for certified safes, sourced directly from the insurance industry, are Irish Safes Rating Group rates. Although you may encounter alternative and often highly inflated rates advertised by some safe sellers, especially when it comes to jewellery cover, such speculative marketing rates have no basis in reality and are a good indication of the overall reliability of a supplier. Official insurance rate recommendations in all European countries only apply to safes with accredited European certification of burglary resistance to European standard EN1143-1 as a legal proof of standard.

Accredited European certification marks

Recommended rates of insurance cover rise in line with certified burglary resistance grade of a safe, which can range from 0 to VI, as ascertained by an accredited European testing laboratory and subsequently certified by a completely independent accredited certification body, however, the final rate of cover is subject to the overall risk assessment of the insurer, while basic requirements are a monitored intruder alarm is installed on the premises where the safe is located and the safe is anchored correctly.

Irish Safes Ratings Group recommended rates

What legally accredited burglary resistance certification looks like

A safe with properly accredited European certification of burglary resistance will display at least one stamped metal certification plate on the inside of the door. This will always be a stamped metal plate, never a sticker and will display the word "SAFE" and the standard EN1143-1 alongside the logo of an accredited European certification body (not the manufacturer). In the case of ECB-S and VdS certification plates, ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation will be annotated. The same information is also available on an accredited certification document which should always be asked for.

What legally accredited fire resistance certification looks like

A unit with accredited European certification of fire resistance will display a stamped metal plate with the words "Light Fire Storage Unit" and the standard EN15659 for paper documents, or the words "Data Cabinet" and the standard EN1047-1. Whereas the EN15659 standard is only revelevant to paper documents, under the EN1047-1 standard a unit may be certified for paper documents or data, and this will be clearly marked. This plate will often appear alongside a separate certification of burglary resistance. In the case of ECB-S VdS certification plates, ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation will be annotated.

Certification documents

An accredited European certification document certifying the burglary or fire resistance of a safe or cabinet should always be asked for when purchasing either product. This document should match the product details displayed on the products metal certification plate and most importantly, confirm that the body issuing the certificate of compliance is accredited to ISO/IEC 17065, your legal assurance that the certifier is properly accredited under European law, providing a legal proof of standard. Of course, when it comes to product certification plates and certificates of conformity there will always be suppliers who will try and pass off a variety of plates, documents, approvals and guarantees as the genuine article, so it is important to always look for the logo of an accredited European certification body and the ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation for long term peace of mind.

WARNING

UK Marks not to be confused with a legal proof of standard of burglary resistance for safes in Europe.

With the proximity of the UK to Ireland, consumers and insurers regularly encounter baseless claims and misinformation regarding the burglary resistance testing, certification and the insurance rating of safes coming from the other side of the Irish Sea.

Below are some logos to watch out for on "certification" plates, stickers and documentation and a brief explanation of what each one means:

The BRE's Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB) (UK)

(Top left)

Secure by Design (UK)

(Top right)

Sold Secure (UK)

(Bottom left)

Association of Insurance Surveyors Ltd (UK)

(Bottom right)

Anchoring, Monitoring & Locking

 A safe must be anchored in compliance with the EN1143-1 standard

EN1143-1 certification is void for a safe that has not been anchored but some safe installers' idea of what constitutes “anchoring” can differ wildly from others. The benchmark for the correct anchoring of a certified safe is a replication of the laboratory test anchoring force. This means an anchor designed to achieve a holding force of 50kN (5.089 tons) for a safe up to grade III and 100kN (11.24 tons) over that grade, holding forces that rule out removing a safe under most circumstances. 

All certified safes come with a bolt suitable for achieving these anchoring forces, so it is really down to the installer of the safe being familiar with the correct anchoring method. As with certification, always ask for a certificate of anchorage with the anchoring force the installation was designed to achieve indicated on the document. If an installer can not tell you how such anchoring forces are to be achieved this should be a red flag.

 Monitoring a safe via local alarm

An increasing number of people now choose to link their home safe directly with an intruder alarm system with the use of seismic sensors and to a lesser extent duress being the most popular options. Even if you do not intend to do this straight away, or your insurance company has not requested this integration, it is always a good idea to make sure the home safe and locking device you choose is prepared for intruder alarm, seismic sensor, and duress to future proof your investment. Many rudimentary safes on the market have no such preparation. With the exception of some of our smallest safes, most of our home and business safes come with certified alarm cable tracks and seismic sensor mounting preparation as standard. An alarm cable track can also be quite useful for running watch winder and interior lighting cables.

Digital v mechanical locks

It has always been possible to open a mechanically locked safe by manipulation leaving no trace of entry. Both the knowledge and tools to defeat most mechanical safes locks are now very easily obtained and of course keys for safes are also easily copied, even from a photograph. In comparison, the penalty lockout feature of a certified digital safe lock shuts a safe lock down for ten minutes if four incorrect codes are entered in a row. With the ability to interface with duress and alarm modules, unavailable for a mechanical lock, mechanical access control for a safe has been phased out in most of Europe. The Irish Safes Ratings Group (ISRG) and An Garda Síochána recommend certified digital safe locking over mechanical for security reasons.



Always insist on a digital lock certified to European standard EN1300. If alarm integration is to be used in conjunction with the safe lock, all alarm integration components need to be certified to the European alarm standard EN50131 as alarm signalling devices, in order to elicit a police response.

Protecting your confidentiality

As Government and NATO contractors Certified Safes Ireland™ understand the need for confidentiality and will always respect yours. We guarantee the confidentiality of all of our private clients. Any photos taken for survey purposes have location data removed and are erased directly after use unless directed otherwise by the client. All booking records and client information pertaining to completed work is anonymised across all of our systems at the end of each month in compliance with the G.D.P.R

 For Free, Confidential Expert Advice Call: +353 1 7076011

Certified Safes Ireland™ in-house advisor on keeping jewellery, watch collections, goods, cash, documents and data, safe, secure, yet readily accessible, is Alan Donohoe Redd.

Alan Donohoe Redd is an expert member of the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) Working Group responsible for writing European Standards for safes, strongrooms (vaults), secure cabinets and physical data protection for the European Union and an expert for U.S. Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Standards Technical Panel TC72 covering standards for fire resistance of record protection devices. Alan is also a registered NATO supplier and the longest standing member of the Frankfurt based European Security Systems Association (ESSA) in Ireland. 

Alan has a vast range of experience spanning over 40 years encompassing installation of safes, strongrooms, physical data protection, firearms security, secure storage of pharmaceuticals, security doors and equipment used for Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIFs) in government, military and I.T. sectors. He has provided advice to the U.S. Air Force (Europe), An Garda Síochána (Irish Police Service), the Danish Police, and for government projects concerned with high level cyber, physical data and counter electronic eavesdropping security.

An expert on standards and fraud issues related to secure storage in Europe, the UK, and the historical use of asbestos in UK and European safe and cabinet manufacturing, Alan has advised top UK and US law firms and has had articles on standards, fraud and safety issues published by The Law Society Gazette and Irish Broker Magazine as well as being pivotal in having misleading standards and practices recognised and withdrawn in Ireland, the UK and at a European legislative level. Alan has forced retractions of dozens of false claims related to secure storage offerings to the public including some published by the Irish Times in relation to Merrion Vaults and Lloyds of London.

Alan's seminars on safes, strongrooms and high net worth secure storage have been part of Continuing Professional Development for underwriters and insurers having been awarded CPD points by the Insurance Institute of Ireland and the Chartered Insurance Institute (UK).

 Alan's expertise has been relied on by:

N.A.T.O. Europe, The U.S. Air Force (Europe), An Garda Síochána (Irish police service), The National Treasury Management Agency (Ireland), The Department of Communications (National Cyber Security Centre) (Ireland), The Department of Foreign Affairs (Ireland) The Revenue Commissioners (Ireland), Electricity Supply Board (Cyber Security) (Ireland), The Danish Defence Forces (Afghanistan), PayPal (Worldwide), Grant Thornton, The Insurance Institute of Ireland, The Chartered Insurance Institute (UK), The Royal College of Surgeons, BFC Bank, Interxion Data Centres, Isle of Man Gold Bullion, Brown Thomas, Bvlgari, Boodles, Druids Glen, The Shelbourne Hotel, and many others ....