Williammay

Mays launches specialist pre-owned watch website

Manchester jeweller and pawnbroker Mays has launched a brand new website business to focus on the pre-owned vintage luxury watches and jewellery it offers.

The William May website was commissioned to support the growth in demand for pre-owned luxury pieces and represents a £100,000 investment on the part of the company. Turnover in the first year is expected to reach £300,000.

Nick Withington, managing director at William May, said: “We’re excited to finally be able to launch our new website which gives customers the chance to pick up one-off items. We spotted a gap in the market for high quality investment pieces which are a fraction of the normal price and decided to launch William May to capitalise on the huge market potential. As the business grows, we aim to continue to add more items to our range and expand our core customer base.”

William May selects the jewellery and watches listed on the new site with added emphasis on one-offs, for weekly updates. These include vintage diamond rings, gold charm bracelets, classic earrings and branded luxury watches from Rolex, Tag Heuer and Cartier. The company claims an average 50% saving on the original retail price of pieces.

To celebrate the launch of the website, William May conducted a survey asking consumers whether they were tempted to invest in the new raft of smartwatches being released.

Using Google Consumer Surveys the retailer asked whether shoppers would prefer to find a classic watch or modern smartwatch under the Christmas Tree this year.

The results came down overwhelmingly in favour of ‘classic’ watches with 63.1% of the vote. The research showed that men (45.5%) were more likely to want to purchase a smartwatch, compared to 33.9% of woman.

All age groups surveyed voted in favour of classic watches, with 73% of shoppers aged +65 producing the largest landslide in favour of tradition.

William May also offers new design-led watches on the website including those from brands such as Daniel Wellington and Triwa.

James Buttery

Editor of WatchPro, the WatchPro Hot 100 and The Luxury Report.

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