As a tender, avid collector of luxurious watches, Austen Chu stated he used to be scammed “time and again” when he purchased timepieces from the secondary watch marketplace.
“As soon as, I purchased an eye which had a dented dial and the vendor instructed me that the dial were given dented throughout delivery,” Chu recalled. And he believed it.
However now, the 26-year-old says he is aware of higher.
“I do know that is for sure bullsh*t … it used to be dented previously,” he instructed CNBC Make It.
“If I wasn’t so loopy about watches, I more than likely would have left the distance once you have scammed the primary time.”
Now not most effective did his obsession with watches assist him conquer the ones dangerous purchases, the studies additionally propelled him to start out his personal consignment-based platform for luxurious watches, Wristcheck.
The web page boasts a listing of timepieces value $80 million, all of which were authenticated via in-house watchmakers, stated Chu.
Began in 2020, the startup lately bagged $8 million in a investment spherical led via Gobi Companions, a Chinese language project capital company that manages Alibaba’s Hong Kong Marketers Fund and the AEF Larger Bay Space fund.
Chu shared with CNBC Make It about how he grew to become a passion right into a money-making industry.
Rejecting ‘purchase low, promote top’
With regards to beginning a a hit industry, Chu’s philosophy is modest: Get started a industry to resolve an issue, he stated.
The space that Wristcheck fills has at all times been “very transparent,” Chu stated.
“The industry fashion of the normal secondhand watch marketplace could be very … typically it is ‘purchase low, promote top,’” Chu defined, including that dealers have been generally getting the fast finish of the stick.
“How is that proper? You are hoping to get excellent recommendation from somebody who’s a qualified, but when you understand not anything, they finally end up low balling you much more.”
The luxurious watch marketplace is what calls a “dinosaur trade” that may be “intimidating” for the more youthful technology to get into, Chu stated.
In 2021, Wristcheck opened its first flagship retailer in Hong Kong — the place customers could have get admission to to a curated vary of pre-owned watches.
Wristcheck
By means of beginning Wristcheck, Chu was hoping to supply extra transparency and accessibility to his friends.
“It is one thing that I want I had. We’re seeking to get a hold of a tech resolution … that permits the following technology to grow to be extra within the [watch] house in a secure manner,” he added.
For one, transaction charges are decrease. Public sale properties normally price 26% from a purchaser as much as 12% from the vendor, he stated.
By contrast, Wristcheck makes a set charge of 8% from the vendor and four% from the consumer — however nonetheless permits customers to bid for watches they want to possess.
A brand new technology of watch-lovers
“You already know whilst you love one thing such a lot, you might be additionally fascinated with it subconsciously if you find yourself asleep?”
That is how Chu describes his infatuation for watches, which began when he used to be a kid — and most effective were given deeper in his teenagers.
“I used to be 15, I fell into the rabbit hollow of researching, spending each and every waking 2nd mainly studying on-line and finding out about watches,” he shared.
“Clearly there is no lessons in college or in highschool that teaches you anything else about these items, so it needed to be self-taught.”
Chu disagrees with the preferred trust that accumulating high quality watches is a passion for older other people. If truth be told, he insists the more youthful technology has extra “wrist consciousness” now — due to the advent of Apple Watch.
In our day and age, the whole thing is more or less transient. However with an eye it is one thing that may more or less ultimate eternally, it is one thing you’ll be able to in reality cross on for your children.
Austin Chu
Co-founder and CEO, Wristcheck
“That used to be a large turning level … It went from the lecture corridor having possibly 10% of the category dressed in one thing on their wrist to love over 50% rapidly,” he stated.
“That used to be a second that instructed me: ‘OK, watches are going to be cool for my technology.’”
Chu’s stoop used to be proper. In the end, Gen Z is projected to make up a 3rd of the posh marketplace via 2030, because of a surge in wealth introduction and the affect of social media.
Wristcheck is attracting a tech-savvy, younger crowd, stated Chu, and 43% of its paying shoppers are below the age of 30.
“In our day and age, the whole thing is more or less transient. However with an eye it is one thing that may more or less ultimate eternally. It is one thing you’ll be able to in reality cross on for your children,” Chu added.
“I feel that is one thing that still resonates with our technology.”
Let pastime force you
Chu co-founded Wristcheck throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, which used to be a bounce of religion that looks to have paid off to this point.
The startup stated it is skilled “75% year-on-year expansion” in its general worth of consigned watches, and claims to had been successful in its first yr. Chu didn’t proportion the figures when pressed.
Austen Chu (left) along with his co-founder Sean Wong.
Wristcheck