Dive Brief:

• As a shortage in luxury watches drives a used timepiece boom, Hodinkee has created Hodinkee Pre-Owned, a used watch platform where people can buy, sell and trade secondhand watches, the company announced on Tuesday.  
• Redesigned using the Hodinkee Shop, Hodinkee Pre-Owned provides authentication services with the help of Swiss-certified watchmakers and specialty technicians. Product description pages have received an upgrade as well, offering in-depth condition details and more high-resolution photos for every detail of the watch, per the announcement. 
• The site provides instant quotes and sends pre-insured shipping labels to buyers. It also has an improved search function to help shoppers find their desired watches easily, according to the announcement.

Dive Insight:

With its redesigned platform for secondhand watch selling and trading, Hodinkee now stands alongside other companies like Poshmark and eBay that are providing authentication services to reassure online consumers of their secondhand purchases. 

EBay has focused particularly on guaranteeing the authenticity of high-end accessories for the past couple of years. In 2018, the veteran e-commerce platform added authentication services for jewelry and watches. Last year, the site introduced its authenticity guarantee for high-end watches and reduced seller fees for watches valued at $1,000 or more.

In the next couple of weeks, the site will feature more than 500 used watches from various brands including Rolex, Cartier, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet. 

"Hodinkee aims to be the go-to resource for every consumer's journey with watches, and pre-owned is our next step in doing that," Hodinkee CEO Toby Bateman said in a statement. "Our Pre-Owned experience is designed to be thoughtful, functional, and transparent. We want our customers to know exactly what they are getting in a Hodinkee Pre-Owned timepiece; that it is authentic, performance-tested, and cleaned and polished without removing the watch's natural characteristics."

As online platforms focus on the luxury watch resale market, the sector has been on the rise during the coronavirus pandemic. According to a recent CNBC report, the shortage of high-end watches has catalyzed $20 billion of growth in the used watch market. In addition to Hodinkee, Tiny Jewel Box, a veteran in the luxury watch sector, added more in-store space to showcase Swiss luxury timepiece brand Patek Philippe and plans to expand its dedicated area for Rolex next year.