So simple, yet so effective. When Tay Liam Wee, Danny Govberg and Justin Reis got together to launch WatchBox in 2017, to them, the gap in the market they intended to fill was clear. “We saw a tremendous opportunity to elevate the pre-owned luxury watch space across the world’s major watch markets, and seeing this vision come to life in a significant way has been an outstanding experience,” says Reis, speaking in Dubai while showing WatchBox’s latest community adventure, an exhibition of fine watchmaking by J.P. Journe and De Bethune. “I was introduced into the watch industry through my friend and fellow WatchBox co-founder Tay Liam Wee, who was a close friend from Singapore and a great mentor to me over the years. He introduced me to Danny Govberg, who he had more than a 25 year relationship with, and together the three of us launched WatchBox.”
It was this coming together of like-minded friends that allowed WatchBox to expand into a truly international operation. With five physical boutiques in North America, three in Asia, two in Switzerland and two in the Middle East – Dubai and Riyadh – there’s no shortage of places for globe-trotting watch lovers to have an in-person pow-wow. Their online concept joins the dots by bringing their global inventory to one place, which is also the company’s real USP – they own every watch they sell and, as one of the biggest buyers of pre-owned luxury timepieces in the world, their expertise and passion for quality and authenticity is unmatched. A team of Swiss-trained watchmakers, technicians and refinishers put each and every timepiece thorough a rigorous process of assessment and manufacture-standard servicing before it’s presented for sale, and every watch carries a two-year WatchBox guarantee.
But it’s not just the online model that’s responsible for the company’s success – the personal touch is still of great importance both to WatchBox’s founders and their clients alike.
“While our website represents an important segment of our business, the majority of our sales today actually take place over the phone,” elaborates Justin. “We use our website and digital marketing strategies to help drive leads, and then build relationships with our clients and support their collecting behaviours over the phone and in-person – plus through educational initiatives such as our library of thousands of hands-on video reviews. Consumer behaviour may be shifting, but our business model is focusing that much more on how we can forge stronger, more personal, relationships with our collectors.”
With community being such an important part of WatchBox’s strategy, GMT GCC sat down with Justin to get a fuller understanding of just what they are planning to do next:
GMT: Your business is truly a worldwide phenomenon – how does the Middle East fit into WatchBox’s global community?
JUSTIN REIS: Our expansion strategy for WatchBox targets regions with both a strong growth forecast for the luxury watch segment and a passionate community of collectors. The Middle East has consistently been within the top markets for our category, and long-established retailers like Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons have done a remarkable job in building demand and consumer interest in collectible watches. Through our joint venture with the Seddiqi family, WatchBox Middle East has developed into an important pillar of our business. We’ve established relationships with collectors across the region, curated a dynamic inventory to meet the tastes of the local market, and expanded our presence to now include our storefront and private buying office in Dubai, as well as a location in Riyadh. We look forward to continuing to build the WatchBox community across the region, appealing to a wider audience of collectors and enthusiasts new to the space.
Why have you chosen Dubai to present your F.P. Journe and DeBethune exhibition?
Our retrospective exhibition is truly a global – and shared – experience for the WatchBox community, which we’re thrilled to bring to collectors in the region. We launched the travelling exhibition in Zurich and Geneva in the autumn, hosted a series of events in Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong in January, and will present the exhibition in New York and Los Angeles next month. Much of what connects our global ecosystem takes place remotely or digitally, and hosting this as a tangible experience is really quite special.
The exhibition celebrates collections from the last 20 years, presenting watches alongside that which came before and that which follows in the collection lineage. The context afforded is an invaluable opportunity for education, scholarship, and shared enjoyment.
How does the Middle Eastern buyer differ from the rest of the world?
There’s a phenomenal interest in high-end, collectible watches amongst our Middle Eastern collector community, with a strong baseline watch knowledge and appreciation for brands steeped in tradition and heritage. Exclusivity, quality, and craftsmanship are important considerations – and collectors veer towards uniquely complicated yet classical aesthetics.
We recognize a growing appetite in the region for elite independent watchmaking, a category that is appreciated and shared by a robust community of collectors. There’s a special sentiment across the watch community built around knowledge exchange, making experiences like our retrospective exhibition particularly in tune with the region.
The Middle East has traditionally tended to be ‘personal’ or ‘in-person’ when it comes to both business and retail. Have times changed? Are Middle Eastern collectors ready to buy online?
Since we founded WatchBox, establishing trust across our community has been of paramount importance. As we expand the WatchBox footprint, being closer to our community in order to deliver the highest quality service and further relationships – through collector and community events, educational opportunities, special experiences – is greatly important. Once a baseline of trust is established, we are able to support our community through whatever means of communication is most convenient to them.
How important is community to what WatchBox does? What are you doing to foster this?
Our community is at the heart of everything we do; sharing in our clients’ collecting journeys, offering streamlined services, educational tools, an incredible inventory, and bringing to life personal, high-touch experiences. For the last three years, we have been dedicated to delivering access to both product and educational information as we built and strengthened relationships across the global WatchBox community. Now that the world has reopened, our focus shifts to experience – across each of our 12 locations worldwide. For a watch collector, there is no better experience to further the love of horology than uniting with other collectors; engaging with people who can both further your knowledge and share in your love of timepieces.
Through events such as our F.P. Journe and De Bethune retrospective exhibition, as well as informal gatherings across our global locations, WatchBox is fostering environments to broaden one’s interests, dig deeper into the brands we’re most passionate about, and cultivate lasting connections across our community.
Let’s get personal – can you tell me a little bit around your own journey in watches? When did you first fall in love with timekeeping?
I’ve always admired and appreciated luxury watches, but this level of passion – for the business of watches, the people who collect them, and the mechanical instruments themselves – came from completely immersing myself in the sector. Watch collecting isn’t just looking for your next watch. Watch collecting is reading about watches, learning about watches, understanding the dynamics in the market. It is meeting people who only want to talk about watches and people who ‘just’ buy them. Watch collecting is obsessing over details, identifying what your niche is; and ultimately, the joy, satisfaction, and even frustration, experienced along the way.
Throughout the last six years, my understanding, appreciation of and love for watches has changed, and I truly grasp what other hobbyists are drawn to. And as a co-founder of WatchBox and the driver of our global strategy, this is invaluable as we grow and scale.
What’s your ‘grail watch’? Have you achieved it or are you still looking for it?
I believe a ‘grail watch’ is an emotional and ever-changing concept. The pursuit of a grail timepiece is not about acquiring a static object, but the journey of collecting, the circumstances surrounding each tangible or wish-list acquisition, and the learning that accompanies it. It’s about the history, the design, the craftsmanship, and the story behind the watch. It’s the feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment that comes from acquiring whatever watch represents my current grail, and the knowledge that a grail is a moving target. As long as my interest in collecting and learning about horology continues to grow, so will my definition of what constitutes a grail timepiece.
I do have a funny story about one of my first grail watches. My twin brother and I both achieved some sort of milestone early in our respective careers, and I bought him a watch that I absolutely loved – the Rolex Submariner ‘Kermit’ – to mark the occasion. Unbeknownst to me, he had bought the exact same watch to give to me as a gift!
What do you see in the future for WatchBox? Can we expect more of these types of events in Dubai and the wider Middle East?
Recurring themes for WatchBox in 2023 will be community and curation – bringing exceptionally unique, complicated, rare and interesting watches to our collectors around the world. We recognize that there’s an insatiable appetite across the WatchBox community to learn, to forge relationships with fellow collectors as well as emotional connections with these mechanical pieces of art. This is still just the beginning, and we look forward to bringing more events like this to the Middle East.
On my watch
Justin Reis, co-founder of WatchBox, walks us through his personal collection of horological favourites.
Rolex GMT-Master II ‘Pepsi’
This watch was a gift from my better half, and it represents the bridge between the business and personal realms of my life. Rolex permeates culture around the world, and I’ve travelled extensively with it on my wrist. As a tool watch, it is practical, legible, comfortable; and even as the ‘new’ Pepsi dominated the horological world, the 16710 has a steadfast charm.
Patek Philippe Annual Calendar with Regulator Display; Ref. 5235G
I added this piece to my collection shortly after we launched WatchBox. It is an annual calendar with a regulator-style dial and is unlike anything in the Patek Philippe catalogue. This piece is contemporary while maintaining the classic design codes from Patek Philippe – it is a stunning reminder of what we’re building with WatchBox.
Moser & Cie Venturer Vantablack Concept watch
To me, H. Moser represents the forward motion in the watch industry, a respect for tradition and a commitment to innovation. The product is utterly unique, especially the Vantablack Concept watches, which are incredibly cool and stark in design. There is zero complication other than the time; and with the black-on-black dial, I have to purposefully look to see the time.
