Retail eCommerce company, eBay, is expanding its “eBay Authenticate” program into the luxury watch category, “offering consumers thousands of high-end watches, verified by professional authenticators,” the company said in a statement.
The program, which first launched in the luxury handbags category in 2017, provides what the company describes as “expert evaluations” for handbags and now watches to ensure products are genuine. Luxury products approved by the evaluators are marked with an “Authenticity Verified” label. The service was expanded this month into several European markets, including the United Kingdom and Germany, the e-tailer said.
Nearly 7,000 watches from 30 luxury watch brands—including Rolex, Patek Philippe, Omega, Audemars Piguet, Breitling and Panerai—are available on the eBay Authenticate website for the initial launch today. They include pre-owned, vintage and new timepieces sourced through what the company describes as “top-rated eBay sellers.”
The price of watches range from $500 to $50,000 and the program is expected to grow to nearly 10,000 luxury watches in the coming weeks, says James Hendy, eBay senior director who heads eBay Authenticate.
With this program, eBay is entering an increasingly crowded marketplace for secondary watches that have some kind of authentication or verification process—ranging from consignment etailer RealReal to watch specific companies like WatchBox and Crown & Caliber, to watchmakers from Audemars Piguet to MB&F setting up their own authenticated secondary business specifically for their watches.
But the potential rewards are strong as eBay and others try to take advantage of the huge increase of watches produced in the past 20 or so years. The secondary luxury watch market is estimated at $5 billion and watches are one of the top-selling categories on eBay, Hendy says, adding that this program provides an extra level of confidence for consumers to make luxury purchases. “We’re adding third party authentication to this inventory because we know the importance buyers place on trust for high-value purchases.”
Hendy would not reveal how many expert authenticators there are or the criteria used for their selection. “eBay is piloting a partnership program with a select number of our top sellers, whose authentication capabilities have been rigorously vetted by independent experts,” was his response to the question.
If a buyer has doubts about the authenticity of a product that was purchased, he or she needs to contact the seller and return the watch in its original condition with the eBay Authenticate tag attached. The item will then undergo another inspection from an independent third party expert. If the person is unable to verify the product’s authenticity, the buyer will receive a full refund.
eBay hasn’t outlined the costs of eBay Authenticate for watch merchants, but its handbag program carries a 20 percent fee.
Hendy says this is the latest anti-counterfeit program from eBay to help ensure that goods are sold as advertised.
“eBay's best-in-class Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) program has allowed more than 40,000 rights owners to quickly report possible counterfeit goods,” he said. “eBay’s Money Back Guarantee also applies to virtually all transactions. In the rare case a shopper believes that he or she has purchased a counterfeit item, they’ll get their money back.”
