A fresh London-based entrant into the market for pre-owned luxury watches is promising to take all the risk of fakes and other mislabelling from the buying process.
Verado is the brainchild of CEO Claudio de Giovanni, and is backed by investors including Chris Fung, former CEO of Crussh Foods and Vishal Mehta, director of White Hope Holdings and Dimexon, a major player in the global diamond industry.
While some platforms like Chrono24 connect watch buyers and sellers without ever touching the watches that are bought and sold, Verado provides an additional verification service.
Before watches are listed on the site, Verado runs a check on each seller. Once an item is sold, the watch is sent to certified inspectors to check its condition, documentation and working parts before it is released.
Prices are generated using a proprietary algorithm that draws data from thousands of sources across the internet.
“This is the first time ever that a company has blended technology and human expertise to provide safeguards in this way,” Mr de Giovanni claims.
The platform is starting with luxury watches, but intends to add fine jewellery and gemstones.
Verado is playing in a market that some experts say is already worth over £5 billion, and has attracted significant interest from investors since Watchfinder was bought by Richemont group.
The Watchfinder/Richemont deal also lends legitimacy to a market that has long been held back by a lack of trust. “Fraud, counterfeits and skewed pricing models are rife in the space. This, and the fact that both buyers and sellers are forced to shop around dealer-to-dealer to get the best price, means their experience lacks the comfort and ease normally equated with high-value transactions. Verado sets out to combat these issues, pledging to protect everyone throughout their transaction,” says Mr de Giovanni.
“People want meaningful experiences and guaranteed authenticity when they buy second-hand luxury products, but this need has been vastly overlooked until now. Technology can improve user experience, whilst also eradicating fraud and unfair valuations. We’re deeply dedicated to this cause, and will continue to develop tools and processes that make it a reality,” he adds.
Thanks for the article, Rob! Looks great.
Looks interesting, do you have an e-magazine ?
I originally read this article and i really liked the idea of a “streamlined verification service to pre-owned watch buyers” this website seemed to offer. I attempted add another watch to my collection with Verado and i wanted some clarification what had been checked and verified and by whom. As i wasn’t getting a straight answer i got a little suspicious so i contacted one of the companies listed on the website as “Inspectors”. It turned out they have never heard of Verado and was quite rightly shocked Verdado was using their good name in the industry as being connected together. subsequently over a couple of phones calls they informed me that all the companies listed which “they” had spoken too had never heard of Verado and certainly not agreed to be listed on the site.
I am some what disappointed that Watch Pro has ran this article without doing any checks on this company as its clear to me that there isn’t any verification going on which is fundamentally Verado business model. To coin the latest phrase, this is certainly fake news!
I put this point to the CEO of Verado, who said that the partners he works with may have been unaware of a change of name for the company. It was previously trading as Watchr.
As a watch collector sites like Verado really concern me. The site is full of Rolex watches with fake aftermarket bezels and nothing is written in the descriptions highlighting this fact. As we know Rolex will not touch a watch with a fake aftermarket bezel without putting it back into its original condition at a great cost to the unwitting customer who would have been mis sold. I could be wrong that these said watches shouldn’t make it to the customer as AMJ Watch Services should reject the watch But from reading on the forums they are not checking many watches. I would put it to Rob Corder to do some journalism and contact AMJ and see how many watches they have invoiced Verado for checking. I would probably guess very little, if any judging by the dodgy act of other companies being placed on the site as inspectors without their knowledge. Rob, I wouldn’t fall for the line it “may have been unaware of a change of name for the company. It was previously trading as Watchr”. Business owners are not stupid and will be fully aware of who they work with. Plus they would will be listed still now if the CEO statement was true. I’m too surprised that Watch Pro is endorsing such a site.
Spot on there Simon. I have seen these sites come and go after making a quick buck. I think their downfall will be 5 days return policy when you should be offering a lot more when sending out new and pre-owned watches. Customers will not be happy. Trust a dealer who stocks the watches not a third party site i say.
This type of site is NOT what the industry needs more of. There is nothing more secure than a watch dealer stocking their own watches, checking them against lost/stolen registers and taking ID from who ever they purchase the watch from. To suggest the whole of the industry is dodgy is not a good line of attack. Also any repair/fixes are carried out before the watch is advertised for sale not after which avoids any delay for the customer. I have nothing against the owners of the site but i think this ship has sailed and customers demand more nowadays.
Richard,
Strange now the site has taken all of it’s watches down and is going for another relaunch. I just can’t trust these type of sites…