Bob's_Watches
Bob's Watches
Online marketplace
Bob's Watches is an online marketplace for the resale and trade of watches, with a focus on Rolexes. As of 2016 it was one of the largest watch reselling websites in the United States.[3]
The company was founded in the mid-1990s by Bob Thompson in North Carolina as a local seller of various watch brands and models.[4][5] Thompson retired in 2010 and sold the business to Paul Altieri for $8,000.[6] Altieri relaunched the website, with a focus on reselling Rolex watches.[4][6] From the beginning, its website listed the price that the company would be willing to pay for each watch alongside the price the company would sell the watch for.[4] In 2014 it began offering buyers and sellers of Rolex watches the ability to post selling and buying prices, creating an exchange.[7]
From 2010 the Company had a retail storefront and main offices in a small shopping center in Huntington Beach, California.[4][8] In November 2018, the company moved to a retail storefront and headquarters in a 10,000 square foot, free standing office building in Newport Beach, California.[9] Carol Altieri is Chief Operating Officer.[4]
By 2017 grey market sales of luxury watches were "upending the global watch industry," according to Barron's; exports of new watches from Switzerland fell 10% in 2016 and there was a glut of inventory of new watches, driving prices down.[10]