Background

WatchCharts is an aggregator of watches listed for sale on external online watch marketplaces such as Reddit and WatchUSeek. This concept of watch listing aggregators was not new to watch enthusiasts, who are used to browsing listings on other aggregator sites like WatchRecon. However, in addition to simply aggregating watch listings, WatchCharts analyzes the prices of these watch listings and presents it as a price guide to better inform watch collectors of their purchasing decisions and of the state of the overall secondhand watch market. The price guide provides watch collectors transparency, convenience, and comprehensive insight on the watch market that has never been offered before.

WatchCharts’ primary competitive differentiation is its price guide, a database of the market prices of watch brands, collections, and models based on sales data from the secondary market. However, the viability of the price guide depends on the assumption that price factors heavily into a watch buyer’s decision to purchase a watch. As the watch industry is relatively traditional and slow-moving, we assumed that the stereotypical watch collector is a rich, old person who has the extra disposable income to splurge. This means that brand or aesthetics of a watch may be paramount to its price when this type of watch collector purchases a watch. In this case, the price guide would be irrelevant and unhelpful.

research purpose

For a start up, one of the biggest risks is creating a product that no one wants. As such, we conducted user research through interviews and surveys in order to deepen our understanding of who the users or potential users of WatchCharts are. With a better understanding of our user, we were able to identify their behaviors, goals / tasks, and painpoints. This knowledge helped us determine where WatchCharts can fit into their watch acquisition journey.

Our research aimed to answer three main questions:

• Are people price sensitive?
• What does the user journey look like from watch discovery to acquisition?
• How analytical are users? Do users understand the graphs / charts presented on WatchCharts?

The Process

• 5 user interviews
• Two online surveys:
  • 649 Survey Responses – March 2020 Survey
  • 1,214 Survey Responses – July 2020 Survey

Data Synthesis

We organized survey results and observations from our user interviews into sticky notes on Miro. Then we grouped all observations into themes and insights.

Journey Map – A watch Collector’s Acquisition Journey

We identified three major stages when a user purchases a pre-owned watch online:

• Discovery: When the user discovers a particular watch that they would like to purchase
• Research: When the user researches about that watch, from its specifications and average selling price range to watch listings currently for sale and the credibility of their respective sellers
• Acquisition: When the user identifies a specific listing and seller they want to purchase from, contacts the seller, and makes the transaction