If you are a watch aficionado, and you just like to admire the quality of a timepiece’s craftsmanship, there’s no better business to open than one that brings you close to new ones every day.
Not to mention, you can make quite a bit of money by getting involved in the watch business.
However, you might think that the industry solely revolves around selling. It’s true that that is a major focus for obvious reasons, but there are other things you can do that aren’t too difficult to get started in record time.
Today, we will go over a few of the industry’s best starter businesses. So, you can get started right after you get done reading this guide.
1. Refurbishes
This is similar to being a normal retailer, but you don’t need to have tons of capital to get started. As long as you have a decent amount to get started, you can start hunting your first flip in a matter of minutes.
To refurbish and flip watches, your main goal will be to purchase watches that might have some wear and tear or need minor fixes, perform any maintenance that needs to be done, and then sell the watches for more than you bought them for.
This sounds like the perfect entry-level job if you’re low on cash. You only need a couple of grand to make sure you can afford to purchase a watch or two that are in disrepair, and you can use a variety of storefronts to make the flip.
You can start with eBay, make your own site, or even take your business to larger storefronts if you can build up the stock to warrant it.
However, this is also one of the most technical jobs on this list.
Anyone who deals in flips, whether they’re refurbishing vintage knives and tools or fixing busted game systems for a profit, must have a deep understanding of how the item they’re working with functions and how to perform complex repairs.
If you can tear down a watch and rebuild it, or fix your own watches after they become damaged, this is likely a good choice for you. Otherwise, you might want to choose something else.
There’s also the risk of purchasing watches that you think you can fix, and then ending up with a broken watch that is beyond repair. All flippers deal with this. So, it’s just part of the business.
Learn to identify problems from pictures and descriptions, and the risk greatly diminishes.
2. Appraiser
Being an appraiser is something you can start today, but you will want to invest time into building your portfolio of accomplishments and proof of expertise fairly quickly.
An appraiser, in the general sense, looks at watches to appraise their authenticity and market value. This requires an appraiser to be extremely knowledgeable about the watch industry as a whole, and they have to be able to understand the market and where prices are at any given time.
This is usually only used for luxury watches that cost in excess of $1000.
As an appraiser, you will essentially take a look at someone’s watch and tell them if it’s real or not. Usually, you will let them know the market value of the watch and what they can realistically expect to get for it.
The main challenge with starting this job “today” is that you probably do not have any certifications or diplomas to back up your claim of being an expert. That greatly devalues you as a service provider because when dealing with luxury watch owners, they are usually willing to pay more for someone who is certified and can prove their expertise.
Without that, you will be picking up the scraps and helping people who have inherited watches with little understanding of the watch industry and others who might just want a quick appraisal and authenticity check for cheap.
Luckily, getting an appraisal certification is fairly cheap and fast. You just need to pass the program at the National Association of Gem Appraisers, or you can get a GIA diploma. This only takes a few weeks, and it’s far less expensive than going to college or trying to get a CDL.
As long as you study and know what you’re doing, you shouldn’t have any problem getting certified and increasing the quality of your business.
Appraisers can run online businesses, or they do in-person appraisals locally.
3. Watch Repairs
This works well if you do not like blindly buying watches online as you would with our first suggestion. However, you are still technologically gifted when it comes to watches.
A watch seems like antiquated technology and you would think that it would be easy for people to do at-home repairs. It is actually extremely precise and complicated. Hardly anyone is capable of properly repairing their watches. Even removing links in wristbands is beyond the capabilities of most.
You can offer a simple repair service, charge a flat rate per repair type, and fix people’s watches for them. By doing this, you get a big target audience from which you can make a good living doing something you are good at and get an up-close-and-personal look at all kinds of watches on a daily basis.
You might repair a thousand different cheap every-man watches, or you might occasionally get the closest you will ever be to some of the most luxurious watches on the market. It all depends on what your customers trust you with.
Again, the main challenge with this is having the skills to do it. You might also have trouble getting customers to trust you at first. You can help ease this problem by taking courses and getting certified, or you can simply set up an online review system so every happy customer increases your overall reputation with new clientele.
4. Start a Watch Price Directory
This is a super-low-cost option that you can start the second you get done with this, and you do not need any sort of qualification.
With this job, you will more or less translate the knowledge you have of the watch industry, and its attached investment market, into a directory that owners can use to find the approximate value of their watches.
Before most watch owners go to an appraiser, they check online.
Your main source of income with this would be ad revenue. So, a strong understanding of website building is recommended, but you can use a site building tool to do it in less than an hour, and most of your time will be spent generating web traffic and updating your information.
5. Watch Blog
If you have absolutely no money to spare and you just want to get a project started, consider putting your writing skills to the test.
People who are deeply interested in watches are always searching for information on what to buy, how to maintain their watches, and other little guides and informational pieces pertaining to their hobby.
You can provide that information and use it to generate ad revenue. You can also take advantage of affiliate programs. That’s when you get paid for hyping up a company’s product and presenting a link in your writing.
You get paid for each person who clicks on that link, and sometimes, you get even more if a sale is finalized because of your link. It all depends on the contract.
The main challenge with a blog is building a fanbase and maintaining your reputation. If you push every random product you have affiliate links for as the next best thing, or if you give out bad information, your blog will suffer.
This makes a great source of side income, and since you love watches already, it’s more of a hobby that can potentially make money. However, it can quickly blow up into a full-time job.
You can also pair a blog with any of the other business options we mentioned to bring in customers.
Take Your Love for Watches to the Next Level with a Whole New Business
All of these jobs have varying pay rates, and they come with their own challenges. You will almost certainly have to spend a bit of time early on building a reputation before the business becomes fruitful.
However, they will also be extremely rewarding, and we recommend pushing past the hurdles of launching a business to take your love for watches to a whole new level.
Good luck!
