WatchBox's showroom in Dubai.

WatchBox says sales will hit $300 million this year

WatchBox says it is on track to generate net sales of $300 million this year, up 40% over 2020, and will have accumulated total net revenue of $1 billion since launching in 2017.

WatchBox says it is on track to generate net sales of $300 million this year, up 40% over 2020, and will have accumulated total net revenue of $1 billion since launching in 2017.

Born online, the business is now moving towards a hybrid model of clienteling from Wall Street style trading offices, physical retail points of sale and ecommerce.

It has revealed today that it plans to open eight new locations around the world, with five set to open in the next six months, including its first US satellite operations.

By the end of next year, WatchBox plans to open in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, and Dallas plus three additional international locations in Zurich, Riyadh, and Tokyo.

The new WatchBox destinations will join existing operations in Dubai, Hong Kong, Neuchâtel, Singapore, and its headquarters in Philadelphia.

Miami, New York City and Los Angeles will be the first locations to open in the first quarter of 2022, with retail showrooms designed by Studio Mellone.

“This is an incredibly exciting time for WatchBox,” says Justin Reis, Global CEO of WatchBox.

“We have seen profitable growth year-over-year and expect to achieve 40% revenue growth in 2021 and are on track to record $300 million in revenue with double-digit EBITDA margins. As a managed inventory marketplace, we continue to acquire incredible collectors every day, building relationships that last a lifetime. Further, our media-first platform creates programming that engages and educates our collector communities around a shared passion for horology,” he adds.

WatchBox is the second major pre-owned watch operation to disclose financial information in recent weeks.

European rival CHRONEXT has published data in a prospectus for investors ahead of a planned IPO in Switzerland at which it hoped to be valued at more than CHF 700 million with a successful stock market debut.

The IPO was postponed today with CHRONEXT saying the market conditions for high growth companies is not sufficiently favourable right now.

In that prospectus it shows total net sales more than doubling from CHF 47 million in 2018 to CHF 101 million in 2020, but growth appears to be flattening this year with sales for the first six months of 2021 reported at CHF 53 million.

Key European markets were hit by the delta variant of covid in the first six months of the year, which could have held back demand.

CHRONEXT is not yet profitable, averaging operating losses of around CHF 10 million per year since 2018.

WatchBox says it carries stock of pre-owned watches worth around $150 million, which means it should always have something available to stimulate its customer base.

“At WatchBox, we are powered by our global community of watch enthusiasts, the core pillar of our business. Each time we open a new location, we successfully activate new communities in new markets. By being closer to our customers, we are able to deliver incredible access to product, our client advisors, and our collector community, creating an arena for watch enthusiasts to gather, learn, and discover,” Mr Reis suggests.

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