Questions about starting a watch business that turned into a social experiment

STANDY

Problem with the social media aspect is the several we have seen crash and burn in the last few years.

Anyone heard of the shut down for a week because he was over Social Media, flashy video guy, then feeds homeless people and films for social media to say sorry dude from a while back.
Or
The fake Daytona selling guy (Chris Essery ?!)

Davidt

I feel the problem with asking a watch collectors forum for advise about starting a watch business is that often (especially if the person doesn’t have years of experience) the person in question solicits free advise from collectors with many years of experience to aid their education.
They then use that free education that was often hard fought and paid for the collectors, to a) compete with same collectors to Buy vintage watches and b) then try to sell these watches to the same collectors at a profit.

If an individual has put in the hard yards themselves over many years and earned they’re often welcomed with open arms.

I’m not saying the above describes you but every few months we get someone along saying they’re going to try and be a dealer and many do fall into the bracket above. Also some practices such as offering a warranty but not actually servicing a watch prior to sale, and banking on only 1 in x crapping out before your warranty expires doesn’t endear certain types of dealers to collectors.

Of course there are many exceptions, but generally the dealers who know what they’re doing and do it well for both themselves and their customers don’t need to ask advice on a forum.

Dan S

To make a lot of money on social media, people will need to be interested in your content. I could be wrong, but so far, I'm not getting the sense that the OP has a lot to offer in this regard. At least based on this thread and his previous OF contributions.

stonestone

🍿New favorite thread.

blufinz52

I think you mean 'alluding'. Eluding is what I should be doing with this thread.

pdxleaf

Gotta admit, that was funny.

Foo2rama

"Plus I think the market for omegas has boomed too from the launch of the moonswatch, massive amounts of new watch collectors will be wanting better watches one would think."

HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA no. Yes Omega got a small bump in OB sales, but it remains to be seen if it was just a slight acceleration due to proximity followed by a slight slow down making the yearly numbers flat.

The Moonswatch is barely perceptible move to the market, the Applie Watch had repercusions 1-3 years down the road with a proven crossover into luxury watches and vintage pieces.

I'd argue the GA-2100 has made more of a market impact than the MoonSwatch ever will for watches at the price point of sub 300 on the larger market. GA-2100 has most likely sold way more units as well.

pdxleaf

You had to spoil it 🙁

immmhus

But come on, when was the last time you saw people lining out the door for a watch.

ext1

Moonswatch...? A lot of people, too many even...

Shabbaz

@immmhus I was scrolling to some of your old threads and I saw you're living at the other end of the world: New Zealand. That could be a real challenge when selling watches globally. Customs and shipping problems, custom delay locally, hesitant buyers because of distance, etc, etc. Not the best location.

What do you pay when importing watches to New Zealand? From which part of the world do you buy your watches mainly? Asia, US or Europe? Could be difficult with duties to buy cheap I assume? In New Zealand availability is zero I assume?