How second-hand platform Subdial built a community for watch collectors of all stages

“We have gone from being an online business to building a brand in a much more visual, customer-facing way,” says Subdial co-founder Christy Davis, sitting on a comfy sofa among the muted tones, velvety textures and warm lights of the firm’s new headquarters on London’s Farringdon Road. “That starts with the Clubhouse here.”

Founded with fellow EY alumnus Ross Crane in 2018, Subdial started as a software company that crunched the numbers and resale prices to create a fairer and less opaque platform on which to deal watches. In 2022 the pair teamed up with Bloomberg to build an index of the most-traded timepieces by value and offer more transparency in a market undermined by uncertainty. Something clicked. Today the firm has more than 1,000 watches on its books: from rare Swiss beauties fetching six figures to chunky sports numbers beloved by bankers. There are weird and wonderful one-offs, and, of course, the occasional only-a-collector-could-love-it carbuncle.

There isn’t one type of customer, says Davis, but for every detail-driven obsessive, he thinks that there’s also a more design-led audience that’s keen to learn. “There’s a movement towards a sort of quiet luxury: younger collectors are coming to the market and want a watch that says something about them,” Davis tells Monocle as we tour the office, past the woody salon, a Louis Poulsen pendant and tasteful interiors designed by his wife, Clemency Cartwright, a designer and set decorator for film and TV. “Watches are a tangible thing in an increasingly digital world. They can spark learning and interactions with people, and help you understand history. They draw you in, bringing you back down to earth.”

Since Subdial moved in to its new HQ, regular events, meet-ups and a daily stream of in-person valuations have been a bonus. Staying in touch with the market, though, means building online awareness first. When Monocle visits, a videographer is shooting the weekly “drop” for social media and Tim Green, Subdial’s head of commercial, is poring over a treasure trove of timepieces that will soon hit the website. It’s easy to forget that the watches packed unassumingly in tagged trays and plastic bags include some of the world’s most sought-after specimens. This week’s release features more than a hundred: including some 30 Rolexes, nine Cartiers, six Patek Philippes, an Audemars Piguet, an Urban Jürgensen and much else besides.

In an adjoining room with brick walls and concrete pillars, members of the sales and valuations team check monitors that display graphs and figures charting what’s for sale. They consult software that anticipates turnaround times and histograms that hint at the value of transactions. The valuations team of Ed Wright and Karl Boos share the assessment work, with AI automating 25 per cent of the task and growing. Does it work? Well, the writing’s on the wall – in this case, literally. It’s not yet lunchtime but a blue-hued screen is tallying numbers that suggest the team has already acquired four watches for more than £50,000 (€57,500) that day and sold five for just under £80,000 (€91,900): a worthwhile Wednesday by most measures.

Downstairs there’s a photography studio with flares and a rail of suitable sleeves for styling up the inventory before it lands online. Everything down here runs, as you would hope, like clockwork. Boxing and unboxing are filmed in case deliveries or send-outs are subject to claims (“If someone sends us a plastic bottle and says that it was a watch,” says Davis with a smile). There are rolling library-like shelving units packed with watch boxes and ownership papers, and a microscope for scrutinising scuffs and bumps up close. All of the certification, authentication, fixes, buffs and quality control are completed in-house.

The detailed appreciation – call it geekery, if you must – crescendos in the downstairs workshops. Security fobs, airlocks and concealed clearance systems take us to a room tended by loupe-wielding specialists scrutinising itsy bits and specialist components from deep within the movements of a rare Jaeger-LeCoultre or vintage Vacheron Constantin. In another room there are machines for pressure testing, sonic-cleaning baths and Vibrografs that measure for any imaginable horological imperfection.

“We’re on the lookout for super-fakes, counterfeits and Frankensteins,” says Aimee Cowhig, Subdial’s head watchmaker. She consults figures on a screen before pronouncing the watch under scrutiny as fit to pass to the next stage of testing. “A delightful amplitude,” she confirms breezily, perhaps hoping, more than expecting, Monocle might understand what she means.

What’s easier to comprehend is that Subdial has found a rhythm: a beat between seamless online transactions and leaving some space for human interaction. “The data and platform element are core to who we are,” says Davis, back on the Clubhouse sofa’s plush cushions. “What’s maybe changed is the way that we talk about ourselves and who our customer is. It’s a person who loves watches. They might have two watches or 200; they might be trading a vintage Seiko or a £500,000 [€575,000] Patek Philippe. What connects them is that it’s not just one watch on their wrist for 10 years; it’s about building a collection. They’re interested in who they’re meeting, in the history and the collectibility and the hunt – that’s our customer.”

As the morning ticks on, talk turns to the future. Is there a ceiling to the secondary market? Where next for Subdial? Davis thinks that there’s more value left to unlock by building trust with collectors and making traditionally tricky trades easier. It’s not about windfalls or widening the margin but more metronomic: repeatable, reliable and reputable services that collectors can come back to again and again. “If somebody has a collection worth £100,000 [€115,000], it can be a faff [to get things valued and sold on], so you’ll maybe trade two watches a year,” he says. “But if you can make it genuinely enjoyable to manage your collection, see interesting things and discover stories, there’s a huge opportunity to grow the size of that market in the UK alone. I also think the US is going to be interesting for us.”

For now, our time is short. The first of the 20 or so visitors scheduled for the day pass through the tight but mostly inconspicuous security, peering down at the glass-ceilinged workshop and watchmakers beavering away below the entrance. The coffee machine whirs. Espressos arrive in tactile ceramics. “It can be enjoyable, a fun experience and attract a younger generation and new people into it,” says Davis. It’s true. Customers and collectors trust the software but they don’t come in to talk about it. They’re here for hardware. Talk in the office, Clubhouse or repairs room inevitably winds back to the matter at hand. The chamfering of a lug, the fluting of a dial or the pronouncement of a date-window bevel – these details are made to be discussed in person. Watches can tell the time – but Subdial seems to have captured the moment.
subdial.com