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The Dealmakers: The transactions of these business leaders transformed fashion and beauty.
Watches are having a banner year. The market for new luxury watches has grown to $53 billion a year, while sales of pre-owned watches are nearly half of that.
One could argue that no company is better positioned to ride the waves of both new and pre-owned watches like the 1916 Company. This year, Danny Govberg, who co-founded the online watch marketplace Watchbox in 2015, led the merger of Watchbox with traditional jewelers Govberg Jewelers and Hyde Park Jewelers to form the 1916 Company. 1916 is already one of the few companies chosen by Rolex to be an authorized seller of its new Certified Pre-Owned watches.
Govberg, who is now founder of Watchbox, chairman of Govberg Jewelers and executive chairman of the 1916 Company, has fueled the transformation of the company into the definitive watch supplier.
“I describe this company as a 107-year-old startup,” Govberg said. “Bringing together primary sales and secondary sales in one company has been a years-long project.”
The 1916 Company is projecting to earn about $600 million in revenue next year, based on the new combined assets. Govberg said he sees 1916 as being on an opposite trajectory of its biggest competitor, Watches of Switzerland. Watches of Switzerland is a company with deep authority in the sale of new watches, but it’s only beginning to explore pre-owned watch sales. Meanwhile, through Watchbox, 1916 has much experience in resale and considers new watches its growth category.
“We now have six, soon to be seven, locations selling new Rolex watches,” Govberg said. “And hopefully soon, we can have 10 stores. We have Rolex accounts from coast to coast now, and we will do more with some of the other big brands, like Omega, soon.”
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