“First, I am not Bob,” said Bob’s Watches owner Paul Altieri.
He laughed good-naturedly, admitting the name is perhaps not as sophisticated as something like Paul’s Swiss Watches.
“But it’s a good name. It’s memorable, it’s personable. If I had to go back, I wouldn’t have changed anything.”
Huntington Beach-based Bob’s Watches generated $32 million in revenue last year and is projected to take in $40 million to $50 million this year.
Altieri paid $8,000 for the business in 2010, buying it from retiring North Carolina dealer Bob Thompson and transforming it from a small local dealer to the world’s largest online specialty retailer of preowned and vintage Rolexes.
E-Commerce
“The watch industry is still an old industry when it comes to the internet,” said Altieri, pointing out that the majority of luxury watch brands, particularly Swiss watchmakers, don’t sell directly to consumers online.
He embraced a different approach from the onset. “We don’t define ourselves as selling watches. We like to say we are a marketing company. Once you think you are a watch and widget company, you are dead,” he said.
Companies can throw out buzzwords like social media, online presence and ROI, but there’s nothing like a quick Google search.
Altieri typed keywords into his web browser, including “Rolex watches”—which generated approximately 109 million results—and “Where to buy Rolex watches”—over 3 million results. Each time, Bob’s Watches showed up as one of the top results.
“You have ads and official Rolex pages before us, but after that we are up there. We work hard to make sure we come up high on a search result,” he said, adding that to show up among the top 10 results “is expensive real estate, more valuable than Park Avenue.”
Different studies have pinpointed that at a minimum, 75% of clicks go to the first page of search results. Google processes an average of over 40,000 queries a second, or more than 3.5 billion searches per day, according to Internet Live Stats, part of the Real Time Statistics Project.
The company’s social media efforts include Instagram, Facebook and a tick of Twitter and a tock of Pinterest.
“We spend about 80% of our effort on Instagram,” said Altieri, who said the majority of its customers are men. It has over 98,500 Instagram followers, approximately 60% U.S.-based, 40% international.
New Office
As an online marketplace for people to buy, sell and trade vintage and used Rolex watches, Bob’s Watches emphasized price transparency from the outset, Altieri said.
“We list both the buy price and sell price,” Altieri said. Take an 18-karat yellow gold Rolex Day-Date—Bob’s prices the timepiece at $16,595, below the $17,109 regular price and the $31,350 retail price. It would pay the seller $14,000 for the model. That’s no secret; the numbers are on the website.
The Day-Date debuted in 1956 as the first wristwatch to display the date and day of the week spelled out in a window on the dial.
“There are a lot of unscrupulous players out there,” Altieri said. “We have to be transparent about what we bring to the table … it had to be done right from the get-go.”
Altieri runs the company with his wife, Chief Operating Officer Carol Altieri, and Chief Financial Officer Joe Alessandrini from a 5,000-square-foot space in a Goldenwest Street shopping center.
Neighbors include the Mattress Place, a Cash 4 Gold store, 405 Tropical Fish and used-clothier Plato’s Closet—hardly the type of next-door neighbors one associates with a luxury watch retailer.
Carol said the company wants to buy a building on Bristol Street near South Coast Plaza in Newport Beach or Costa Mesa. She’s responsible for staffing and all aspects—buying, selling and customer support—of nonvintage watches, which is “95% of our business,” she said.
Altieri is responsible for vintage watches—rare, collectible, “watches that would show up in auctions,” said Carol—and marketing.
“We started really small, with just the three of us, and it was all online,” Carol said. The company bought the space next door about 2 ½ years ago. It employs 22 and is outgrowing its headquarters. “The space can be eclectic, funky and fun, but I’d like a cool space that provides a unique watch shopping experience,” she said, “have a glass of wine, a cup of coffee—a space where people can come in and feel relaxed, intimate, more interaction with the staff when they first walk in and not the bullet-proof glass window.”
She envisions the new space will be 8,000 to 12,000 square feet. “Definitely more private show rooms.” She noted that customers “on the selling side, vintage side and celebrity side” have asked for more privacy.
Bob’s Watches has a small showroom, by appointment only, and watches are brought out upon request instead of displayed.
At First Sight
Altieri isn’t coming to Rolexes later in life.
“My fascination with Rolex watches started when I was working as a caddy at a private country club in New England” when he was 14, he said. “Playing golf, all the cool guys who were successful in business almost all wore a Rolex, so it became an aspirational goal of mine.”
He started in the jewelry business immediately after graduating college, “Stuff like gold chains, no Rolex.” He moved to ventures in the financial services industry that he later sold. Bob’s Watches is the self-described serial entrepreneur’s fourth business, and he said he has no intention to quit.
Carol previously worked in film and television production, including at Warner Bros., Viacom and ABC. She took a hiatus after having children and returned to work as chief operating officer of Bob’s.
Invested
Carol said she feels lucky that she gets a second career doing what she loves and working with her husband. And a new office means more employees, whom she’s responsible for hiring.
“We are constantly hiring,” she said, noting that she recently hired additional sales personnel and brought on a videographer and stylist to help up its social media content game.
The COO said she wants to create a family environment for employees, because nowadays “they need more than a paycheck.” Perks include free lunch three times a week, and group bonding outings, including spin classes and bowling.
“The employees are kind of our kids, now that our children have grown up,” she said. The couple has a daughter and son.
The site offers other luxury watch brands, including Patek Philippe and Omega, but it’s known for Rolexes. Altieri said popular models are the Daytona and Submariner. The former went from barely selling to becoming one of the most highly sought-after watches in the world after actor Paul Newman was captured on the cover of an Italian magazine wearing one. Submariner captured fans’ imagination when it appeared in the first few minutes of the 1964 James Bond movie “Goldfinger,” when Sean Connery, fresh out of his wetsuit, checked the time on his wristwatch using his cigarette lighter. He’d earlier set a bomb to blow up a hidden heroin lab.
“We are here to stay,” said Carol of the business’ location in Orange County, which on top of being conveniently close to three airports: Los Angeles, Long Beach and John Wayne, is home.
Power Duo
Carol said online focus and marketing will continue to be central to the business. “Even though most of our business now is through word of mouth, we don’t mess around. Everything is online, and there are several review sites where customers can write about their experience.”
The company lists its address and contact information, including a phone number, on its website. “We try to take an old-school approach,” said Altieri. “Yes, we know the world is changing and people want to buy online, but if a customer wants to call us and talk to us, he can.”
Altieri said the company is focused on growing its business as is, growing its brand, and staying true to its belief of being consumer-centric. He said he hopes to eventually be able to offer brand-new luxury watches. For now, Swiss luxury watch brands don’t sell their products online.
His personal collection numbers over 300 watches, all Rolex, of course.
