Watchbox falls squarely into the mega-clearing house category having attracted and received venture investment from a lot of high-profile individual investors and funds alike setting a company valuation of $1B USD on the basis of (and contributing in no small part to) the hype in luxury watches. This is another reason I have been so skeptical of mega-clearing houses that have gobbled up huge amounts of wristwatch inventory over the last several years.

These inventories are huge financial liabilities, and if just one of those firms decides to exit the market and dump their inventory, it could have a very negative effect on watch prices, overall. a relatively small number of entities around the world hold huge numbers of unsold and pre-owned watches. The other aspect of the current trend I'm also keenly interested in seeing how it plays out: I believe Ariel is talking about the pre-owned dealers with actual brick & mortar and/or digital storefronts who are buying watches from flippers/speculators and wholesale dealers. don't mistake his reference to retailers to mean ADs (for new watches) as you may be inclined to do. Ariel really does the topic justice.Įven though consumers are decreasingly willing to spend extra-high prices or buy into maintained rarity, the prize of getting someone to spend more than retail price (or a fair pre-owned price for a used watch) is just too great for retailers to give up. IMHO it's one of the better articles on the overall topic of watch market pricing and the current downward trend we're reading about for certain 'hype' models and brands.

This article is well worth Crunchers' time to read.

Pre owned cartier calibre