The Online Stores Powering A Huge Pre-Owned Watch Resurgence

Do people buy watches online? For watch brands and traditional retailers, heavily invested in prime real-estate around the world from London’s Mayfair to Tokyo’s Ginza, the answer has traditionally been that a watch is something you need to handle, try on and experience, and that no-one can sell you a watch like a well-trained member of staff in a pristine boutique. It’s an old-school mentality, but this is largely an old-school industry; even though many major brands have had functional e-stores for a decade or more, the received wisdom is that their overall contribution is small. Analysts agree. Rene Weber, a watch industry specialist from Zurich bank Vontobel, put the total market for online watch sales at no more than 5 percent of the global total. Read more at Wired.