Fashion Briefing: How Bob’s Watches is leveraging partnerships to grow

Watch enthusiasts know the name Bob’s Watches. The company, founded 25 years ago, is one of the biggest pre-owned watch exchanges in the world, selling primarily online but also in an increasing number of offline locations. That includes stores in California and Florida, a new duty-free location at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas and, this month, several new pop-ups.

The company sells watches from some of the biggest names in the business. But Carol Altieri, chief operating officer of Bob’s Watches, said it’s about time that Bob’s Watches itself became a household name.

“People who know watches know us,” Altieri said. “But the average consumer maybe doesn’t recognize our name. So right now, it’s about expanding the brand and awareness among consumers.”

The primary method for making that happen? A flurry of partnerships and collaborations. In the last month, the aforementioned store in Las Vegas opened as a collaboration with Dufry, a duty-free travel retailer. Also launching this month are a temporary pop-up in Aspen, in partnership with fashion retailers Revolve and FWRD, and a permanent partnership with Fred Segal that will see Bob’s Watches products sold on Fred Segal’s online store and in four Fred Segal locations.

The Revolve pop-up follows Bob’s Watches’ first collaboration with Revolve: a curated collection of watches sold on Revolve’s website late last year. Altieri said Revolve’s consumer demographic of people ages 25-55 is the same as Bob’s Watches’ target audience. And Aspen, a hub for wealthy travelers hitting the slopes, allows Bob’s Watches to increase its visibility among affluent shoppers. Bob’s Watches brings in over $100 million in revenue each year.

While the majority of Bob’s Watches purchases are still made online, making up around 92% of all sales, physical activations offer a chance for a deeper level of brand awareness. In the Harry Reid Airport, for example, the store opened right after the Super Bowl. The increased foot traffic of wealthy clients leaving Las Vegas after the game directly translated to increased sales. Because the average price is so high, Bob’s Watches only keeps 20 watches in the store at any given moment. It sold one for $25,000 on the first day after the Super Bowl. And all that foot traffic passed by Bob’s Watches’ branded signage and screens with looping videos showing off the retailer’s inventory.

The new strategy comes at a unique time for the watch industry. The high-end brands are still making a small number of new watches each year, due to both strategy and a dearth of new watchmakers, while demand has skyrocketed. Online pre-owned watch sales are expected to grow by an average of 16% per year between 2023 and 2025. That means companies like Bob’s Watches are becoming bigger players in the space. They’ve even started to work directly with brands, as Bob’s Watches did when it hosted an invite-only watch event with Orris last April.

Douglas Kaplan, chief commercial officer for Bob’s Watches, said this in-person approach will continue to be the company’s growth strategy. His advice for brand building through collaborations and in-person activations is to find opportunities to get in front of consumer segments adjacent to your own.

“We have more in the works,” Kaplan said. “We recently did an event with Hagerty Garage [a social club for car enthusiasts], where attendees got to see the Ferrari used in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.’ We also did an event with [the LVMH-owned Scotch brand] Glenmorangie and brought in a cask of Scotch that’s not available to the public for tasting. These events bring in 200 people who are car enthusiasts, Scotch enthusiasts and watch enthusiasts, and they help us build our audience.”

Executive moves this week

In executive moves this week, the biggest of course was the announcement of Alessandro Michele as the new creative director of Valentino. Michele is taking over just a week after Pierpaolo Piccioli, who had been at the brand for 25 years, announced his own stepping down.

Elsewhere, L Catterton, with the backing of LVMH, announced the launch of a new investment unit focused on consumer goods in India, led by former Unilever executive Sanjiv Mehta.

British supermodel and businesswoman Rosie Huntington-Whitely was announced this week to be joining The Equity Studio, a new investment vehicle that will put money into fashion brands in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe.

And finally, men’s activewear brand Rhone announced two new board members this week: Tess Roering, a veteran of activewear brands including Athleta, and Jimmy Pitaro, the current ESPN chairman. Ahead of its full launch into women’s wear in May this year, Rhone co-founder and CEO Nate Checketts told Glossy the women’s activewear market “is undeniably crowded, however, it has also expanded rapidly.”

Stats of the week

Resale company ThredUp released its annual resale report earlier this week. Here are a few of the included noteworthy stats:

• $350 billion – The value of the global resale market by 2028
• 18% – How much the resale market grew in 2023
• 50% – The split of online and offline secondhand fashion sales across the industry
• 31% – The growth rate of brand-owned resale programs in 2023
• 90% – The portion of surveyed retail executives who said their customers are engaging with resale

Inside Glossy’s coverage

• Nike took over sponsorship of the German national soccer team from Adidas, a major victory for the former.
• The fashion industry is testing the waters of Apple’s new Vision Pro device.
• We took a look at the strategy behind Ssense’s viral Spelling Bee campaign to promote its children’s line.

Other news to know

• Canada Goose laid off 17% of its corporate workforce.
• H&M is going even deeper into fast fashion.
• After Pierpaolo Piccioli stepped down from Valentino, rumors are swirling over who might take his place.