What is a watch worth? The ever-expanding nature of the global marketplace — where a growing number of brands, dealers, auctioneers and resellers trade new and vintage watches across platforms and continents — can make it difficult to know where to buy and how much to pay.
A new platform called EveryWatch aims to offer a centralized database of up-to-date information on prices and dealers, designed to give its users a powerful edge in decision-making.
“EveryWatch is a one-stop online information platform for anyone interested in the watch market,” Giovanni Prigigallo, a founder of EveryWatch and its head of business development and content, said by phone from Cagliari, on the Italian island of Sardinia, where he lives and works.
“Our database of information goes back to 1989 and includes historical, current and upcoming sale information with prices, sale listings and dealer information,” Mr. Prigigallo said. “It is aggregated from over 250 auction houses and more than 120 marketplaces for watches, from big resellers to small dealers vetted by our teams.”
EveryWatch was born out of a perceived need to help consumers.
“We started EveryWatch because we could see how chaotic the watch market is and how difficult it is to access full, accurate and reliable information about watches,” he said. “It is an easy-to-use service for anyone looking to buy, sell, research or compare, and just track the watches they like.”
EveryWatch is financed by Nacre Capital, which is chaired by Howard L. Morgan. Mr. Morgan is a well-known investor and the co-founder of First Round Capital, a U.S.-based venture capital firm that invested in a number of successful start-ups, including Uber.
The EveryWatch platform was introduced to the public last month at Dubai Watch Week by Mr. Prigigallo, during a panel discussion alongside Chabi Nouri, a former chief executive of Piaget who works for Mirabaud Asset Management in Geneva and serves as chairwoman of EveryWatch. The company is registered in Abu Dhabi, but Mr. Prigigallo said he would soon be operating out of Dubai.
The EveryWatch website, which functions similarly to Artprice.com for the art market, uses a data pipeline that scrapes information from auction house and dealer websites, and uses artificial intelligence tools to analyze it. Mr. Prigigallo said that as of late November, the database covered almost one million watches with a minimum value of $300 that had been sold or were available for sale around the globe.
“If the source information is available online, it will be swept up and included on our site,” he said. The platform also lets users set up alerts to track new listings, find dealers and check out an upcoming auction or view new sale results for their favorite watches.
“This platform allows you to understand what is happening on the market, not miss any opportunities and make educated decisions with confidence,” Mr. Prigigallo said.
EveryWatch does not sell watches, but it can direct buyers and sellers to websites that do. “We collect a referral fee if a user we direct to another platform buys a watch through our service,” Mr. Prigigallo said.
“Our initial business model will be a ‘freemium’ model, which means most features are free, but a paid subscription is required for certain premium features,” Mr. Prigigallo added. As of now, paid subscribers can access past auction results and all of the site’s analytics and reports. They also receive tailored notifications about watches of interest.
For auctioneers, EveryWatch can be a “much needed tool to bring clarity and make buyers more comfortable navigating an otherwise fragmented market,” Andrea Parmegiani, chief executive of the auction house Monaco Legend Group, wrote in an email. (He had tested EveryWatch before it went public.)
“EveryWatch allows us to research provenance and serial numbers and to preview upcoming sales almost instantly,” Mr. Parmegiani said. “It provides a clear overview of both the vintage and modern watch markets.”
The platform also offers a “collector management” service which allows collectors to create a list of pieces in their collection to track their value in real time.
In an email, François-Henry Bennahmias, the departing chief executive of Audemars Piguet, wrote, “Brands spend significant resources to understand secondary market prices and trends, something EveryWatch makes possible in seconds.” He also tested the platform before its debut.
“It gives collectors a full understanding of the value of their collection and of any watches they wish to purchase,” Mr. Bennahmias wrote. “It could change collecting forever.”
