A rush of companies are vying to become the eBay of high-end horology — including the storied online marketplace itself.
Demand for high-end watches exploded during the Covid-19 pandemic. But the Big Four watch brands — Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Richard Mille — are holding firm on the limited production runs that make their timepieces so rare. The result is an online boom in the business of buying, selling and flipping pre-owned and vintage watches and a growing number of start-ups competing to become the dominant digital marketplace.
McKinsey estimates that pre-owned watch sales hit $18 billion in 2019, and could top $30 billion by 2025. Pre-owned watch sales will be about half the size of the market for new, retail watches by 2025, up from about a third today, according to the consulting firm.
“The pre-owned watch market is still very much like the Wild West,” said Toby Bateman, CEO of Hodinkee, a popular watch collector site. “There are a lot of watch-selling platforms. And customers don’t necessarily know who they’re buying the watch from. They can’t guarantee that it is authentic. They can’t guarantee that it’s not a Frankenwatch. And they can’t guarantee that the watch is working properly.”
On Tuesday, Hodinkee launched its pre-owned watch shop, here it will buy and sell watches produced after 1990. The company — which raised $40 million in December from the likes of NFL quarterback Tom Brady, singer John Mayer, Apple alum Tony Fadell and investor Peter Chernin — aims to be the “world’s preeminent brand for all things watches.”
Hodinkee’s pre-owned shop will start with an assortment of 250 pre-owned watches and offer authentication and refurbishing from its state-of-the-art watch facility in Atlanta. Bateman said Hodinkee’s advantage over its growing list of competitors is its expertise and history as a trusted name in watches.
Still, rivals are attracting investor attention. Germany-based Chrono24 recently raised 100 million euros ($116 million) from investors including General Atlantic and LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault’s Aglae Ventures. The investment valued Chrono24 at more than $1 billion, making it the first “unicorn” in the segment. The company said it carries about 500,000 watches from more than 3,000 retailers and over 30,000 private sellers.
Meanwhile, Switzerland-based Chronext was planning to raise about $270 million in an initial public offering, which would have valued the company at more than $1 billion. Yet Chronext said last week it was postponing its debut due to “adverse market conditions for high-growth companies.”
Chronext has put together a star-studded board — including former Facebook marketing chief Gary Briggs and former Barneys New York CEO Daniella Vitale — and aims to expand in the U.S. and Asia.
Companies like Watchfinder, WatchBox and Watchmaster are also expanding and pushing for market share. Even eBay is taking aim at the Rolex crowd, launching an authenticity guarantee program and…
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