Watchfinder & Co's flagship London boutique

by business editor Trevor Sturgess

A retailer of luxury pre-owned watches has opened a £750,000 flagship store in London.

Maidstone-based Watchfinder & Co, unveiled the boutique in the Royal Exchange. It will stock more than 500 contemporary and vintage watches.

The company, founded in 2002 and now offering the UK’s largest collection of pre-owned watches, stocks leading brands such as Rolex, Omega, Breitling, TAG Heuer, Longines and Cartier. It started as an internet-based company and now employs more than 40 people with a turnover of some £18 million. The website is visited by around four million people a year.

Co-founder Lloyd Amsdon said: "The WF&Co. boutique is a reflection of the expansion and direction that Watchfinder is moving in. The company is no longer just an online retailer, but a multi channel retailer, service centre and publisher."

Co-founder and director Matthew Bowling puts the firm's success down to a new type of consumer.

"People are thinking hard about their purchases now," he said. "They're looking to get great value and when they buy luxury they're also thinking about future values.

"You get an amazing watch that on the wrist looks like new. You can then wear it every day for two years and if you decide to sell it in many cases you’ll get more than you paid for it. There’s obvious appeal in that, we call it smart luxury."

Watchfinder.co.uk, a finalist in the 2012 Kent Excellence in Business Awards (KEiBA) for Customer Service and Commitment, is home to the UK's largest collection of pre-owned watches and is visited by over four million people every year.

Founded by a group of watch enthusiasts and friends in 2002 as an answer to the lack of online resource for fine timepieces, Watchfinder has been built around the ethos of trust, establishing the confidence needed to buy and sell high value watches via the internet.