Bob’s Watches, a specialist online retailer of vintage and pre-owned Rolex watches, has moved its corporate headquarters to a state-of-the-art facility in Newport Beach, California.
The new 10,000 square feet HQ has modern office space for up to 75 employees, allowing the company to continue on its rapid growth path.
“This is a very exciting time for Bob’s Watches,” said Paul Altieri, CEO of Bob’s Watches. “We have seen tremendous growth over the past few years and it was time to make our biggest organizational move we’ve ever had. The new Bob’s Watches headquarters demonstrates our commitment to grow our operations in Newport Beach, have a more intimate relationship with our audience and deliver a world-class experience for our employees, partners and customers who help accelerate our global growth.”
The company hopes that the move south to Newport Beach will make it easier to attract the talent it needs to keep developing its technology and services. The town is home of Chipotle, Kobe Bryant’s venture capital firm Bryant Stibel, and head offices of Taco Bell and In-N-Out Burger.
“We are a company that stays on the cutting edge of horology and digital technology so that we can continue evolving our offerings to the consumer. We are at a critical growth point and Newport Beach offers a professional, well-educated workforce that will allow us to recruit top talent in technology, marketing, IT and relevant industry experience,” Mr Altieri explains.
The new Bob’s Watch premises is taking lessons from the tech giants of Silicon Valley in the layout of the space and the contemporary styling.
“This new space will promote employee engagement and brainstorming throughout its open floor plans, within its shared spaces, interaction between divisions who wouldn’t typically interact and an overall new company culture which will help spawn continued growth. These types of interactions would typically happen within scheduled meetings – now they will occur organically in the hallways. The industry has become very competitive and this move will solidify our commitment to our being the most progressive company within the industry. Additionally, the location is just a few blocks away from John Wayne airport which provides easy access to customers flying in for a meeting,” Mr Altieri describes.
Bob’s Watches buys and sells Rolex watches worth around $40 million per year, Mr Altieri told WatchPro in an interview in July this year.
It buys all trade-in watches that are sold on the site. They are authenticated, serviced and polished by third party authorized service centers before they are put up for sale.
The company has been growing rapidly in recent years, thanks to it reputation as a trusted broker of Rolex watches. “The Company grew by 40% last year and over 35% the year before,” Mr Altieri says.
The next target is $100 million in sales. Mr Altieri’s goal is to: “Stay the course and continue to grow at 30-35% per year so that in five years we can hit our goal of $100 million in turnover (Sales). We don’t have any debt and we don’t have shareholders or a board to answer to; and we have not taken any venture capital money so we do not have anybody breathing down our necks demanding targets are hit. We can patiently grow at a sustainable level,” he explains.
THE BIG INTERVIEW: Bob’s Watches CEO Paul Altieri outlines the future of the pre-owned Rolex market
