How Bezel is Revolutionizing Watch Commerce (And Why We Partnered With Them)

For the past few months, we’ve been hand-selecting our favorite picks from the preowned Rolex market, sharing them with you via our bimonthly series, Hidden Gems. We recommend watches based not only on market conditions, but the history, quirks, and significance behind each piece.

I’m very proud to announce that we’ve partnered with the top marketplace for authenticated luxury watches – Bezel – to further improve these recommendations. With Bezel’s team of experts and in-house market analysis tools, we’ll bring you nothing short of the best Rolex picks, twice a month, every month. You can expect the next Hidden Gems on February 7th, but before that, I’d like to talk about Bezel: what it is, what separates it from other watch marketplaces, and what I personally love about the platform.

What is Bezel?

Simply put, Bezel is an online marketplace for authenticated luxury watches. They sell modern and vintage timepieces from over 90 brands like Rolex, Patek, Cartier, Audemars Piguet, etc. Every watch is authenticated in-house: a process that I’ll detail in the next section. Beyond authenticity, Bezel ensures buyer confidence through communication: you have access to a private client advisor – a true watch expert – at all times. Features like this are all part of Bezel’s tech-first approach to creating a watch marketplace. Every aspect of the platform was built from the ground up to create the ultimate modern watch buying experience.

What Separates Bezel from Other Marketplaces?

First and foremost, Bezel authenticates each and every watch sold on their platform, entirely in-house. Before a watch is even accepted onto Bezel, it goes through a preliminary digital inspection, ensuring period correctness, described condition, etc. Once sold, the watch is overnighted to Bezel to be reviewed and tested by a team of true experts led by Ryan Chong: formerly of Christie's and Sotheby's Watches. Bezel then runs the watch’s serial number through the world’s largest database of lost and stolen watches, preventing the transaction of stolen goods. When you receive your watch, you’ll also receive a statement of authenticity (pictured above) signed by whoever reviewed the timepiece. This level of authentication is simply unparalleled in other consumer marketplaces.

Bezel’s customer service is another stand-out characteristic. If you have any questions whatsoever, you can call or text your private client advisor on the Bezel concierge team: a real person with real expertise. Whether you have questions about a specific reference or don’t know what brand to shop for in the first place, Bezel provides you with an expert to speak to. This perfectly aligns with our priorities here at Everest: if you call our customer service line, you’ll get through to a real person immediately – her name is Theresa and she’s wonderful. Whether it’s your first time buying or fourth time this week, you should have a knowledgeable person at your disposal. Bezel’s approach is no different.

In the same way that Bezel simplifies buying luxury watches, they simplify selling them. Once your watch is accepted onto the platform, they do the work for you. You don’t have to communicate with buyers, answer questions, deal with hagglers, etc. With low commission fees that further decrease the more you sell, listing your inventory on Bezel is kind of a no-brainer. Selling a luxury watch can be a serious pain and Bezel takes on most of that responsibility; you just have to ship it off.

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It 

What I appreciate most about Bezel is their utilization of technology where it’s needed (e.g. building out a seamless mobile experience) and recognition of when legacy methods are best (e.g. in-person authentication, communication with humans). Building an online watch marketplace from first principles will require some new tech to be built out. That said, Bezel is in no hurry to implement new technology just for the sake of it: don’t worry, you don’t have to tokenize your new Datejust. The folks at Bezel know that technology should never complicate the process: only improve it. Their goal is to create an honest, transparent marketplace that’s attractive to buyers and sellers alike. This goal – demonstrated not just by words but by actions – shows me that Bezel is in it for the long haul. They share the interests and concerns of watch enthusiasts because they themselves are watch enthusiasts. 

Why Bezel for Hidden Gems?

If you’re familiar with our preowned Rolex series Hidden Gems, you know that I always provide a price range for a given watch. This price range is usually followed by “depending on condition, box and papers, etc.”. Going forward, I can recommend specific examples, providing their ownership history, condition, and exact price, not to mention actual pictures of the watch and a guarantee of authenticity. Frankly, I’ve been using Bezel to find the hidden gems of Hidden Gems for the past two months. I just like using the app. I hope you all appreciate this partnership as much as we do; I’m confident that Hidden Gems will see an improvement as a result of it.

Images Courtesy of Bezel