The internet & the Secondary Watch Market

[koimaster]

Part 1


In hindsight, it’s almost impossible to say for certain when the internet actually began to exist, but for Leonard Kleinrock, an American computer scientist and professor at UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, it was Oct. 29, 1969 (in other words, shortly after the first watches with automatic chronograph movements had made it to the market). On this day, Kleinrock oversaw how “the infant internet uttered its first words,” when a computer at UCLA made contact with a second computer, several hundred miles away at the Stanford Research Institute, and then UCLA undergraduate Charles S. Kline started to tap out the message “Login” (the system crashed after the first two letters, but eventually, the online equivalent of the moon landing was accomplished in its second attempt). By the end of 1969, two more computers were connected to form the initial ARPANET, which then evolved into the internet. Fast forward to June 1995, shortly before eBay’s predecessor AuctionWeb was launched (and Bond started wearing the Seamaster), there were already 23,500 websites and over 44 million users online. Today there are more than 1.3 billion websites and close to 4 billion people with online access, according to internetworldstats.com – and half of them can be found on Facebook, according to Statista.com.


https://www.watchtime.com/featured/how- ... ry-part-1/



Part 2



Watch marketplace Chrono24 is one of the most visited timepiece-related sites on the web. One of the reasons for its ubiquity is its promise to review all of its more than 2,000 dealers “based on a strict criteria before being allowed to list watches” on the site. Holger Felgner, the company’s co-CEO, explained the process like this: “Before their account is activated, all dealers must provide us with several official documents, including, for example, a copy of their ID and a trade license or excerpt from the commercial register. In some cases, we also ask that they have their identity confirmed by dealers who are already registered on Chrono24. Recommendations from other dealers are also an important aspect of our security policy. In addition, we offer various services to make buying and selling watches as easy and safe as possible, such as Trusted Checkout, Chrono24 Buyer Protection, and the Chrono24 Authenticity Guarantee.”

https://www.watchtime.com/featured/how- ... ry-part-2/

[TemerityB]

My meaningless two cents: Chrono24 is the standard for web watch commerce (and has already attracted a bunch of good brands as a virtual AD); Govberg and its site Watchbox is one of the biggest ripoffs I've ever seen; and as someone who has tried to order a pre-owned piece at Tourneau (and had to make a phone call about it), I walked away throwing my hands in the air after the downright unfathomable lack of cogent customer service - every aspect of the transaction was so FUBAR that I called the whole thing off.

[conjurer]

My meaningless two cents: Chrono24 is the standard for web watch commerce (and has already attracted a bunch of good brands as a virtual AD); Govberg and its site Watchbox is one of the biggest ripoffs I've ever seen; and as someone who has tried to order a pre-owned piece at Tourneau (and had to make a phone call about it), I walked away throwing my hands in the air after the downright unfathomable lack of cogent customer service - every aspect of the transaction was so FUBAR that I called the whole thing off.

Yup. While the internet is fine for ordering, say, one hundred punches that screw into a bracelet link pusher tool (which I did, once, for about $5.00. I now have enough punches to last until a generation after my death), it's not necessarily very good for ordering an expensive watch.

In my old days of bookselling, before the interwebz, we used microfiche (younger members, Google it.) We got microfiche delivered, by US mail, to use from three different sources--Books in Print, Ingram (which was the largest jobber in the book business, and still is) and Pacific Pipeline, a local jobber who could deliver stuff to us in as little as two days. A customer would come in, looking for something we didn't carry, and we'd go on the microfiche reader, find the book, and see if it was available. Once I had a guy come in, an English professor or something, and he wanted a particular Shakespeare play, with notes by a particular editor. Naturally, microfiche didn't tell me shit, just the title, author, ISBN (the old ten-digit one), and a maybe-publishing date. I called Ingram on their 800 number available to only those in the trade, got a rep, who sent a picker out into their warehouse, who found the book, and checked who the editor was, and I relayed this to the customer, who was pleased, and ordered the book. The book arrived at my store about five days later, the customer bought it (for about $15), and was very happy.

Today, we have computers instead of microfiche (thank God), but it's only as good as the jamoke who entered the data. I always have people coming in, who, one way or another, either fucked up their order online (or got fucked up), and wanting me to fix it. We do so, but if they had come into the store in the first place (or called), we could have made sure about the order, we order it, and they come in to pick it up. Nowadays, of course, nobody wants to talk to somebody on the phone, let alone come into a store.

Long story short--if you want the newest Tom Clancy or an SKX007, order it from Amazon or Long Island Watches. You want something a little more hard to find, consult a professional. You'll be happier at the end of the day.

[smellody]

Well, it's almost June 12th. Maybe I'll drive north to.my favorite PNW bookstore.

[biglove]

Every single watch I own or have purchased in the last four years has been via the internet. Research, diligence and knowledge of how to actually use the internet goes a long way in having a good experience.