Building the Infrastructure for Trust in the Watch Market
“Watches aren’t just tools—they’re stories and attachments to milestones.”
They mark milestones, celebrations, and moments worth remembering. When my son was born, I bought a Tudor Black Bay GMT to mark the day. When my brother graduated business school, I gifted him a Longines Legend Diver. When I made my first 100k+ bonus in corporate America, I celebrated with a Rolex GMT.
The common factor? Each of those watches came from Bezel.
And each transaction felt like it was handled with care, precision, and confidence—the way luxury purchases should. No sketchy listings. No hidden parts. No hoping the bracelet matched the listing photos. Just clarity and professionalism.
That’s not how most online watch buying works. But it’s how Bezel works.
From Friction to Confidence: Bezel’s Origin Story
Bezel was founded in 2021 by Quaid Walker, a former product designer at Google who spent six months trying to buy his first Rolex. The experience, by his own account, was unnecessarily difficult: dozens of sketchy listings, sellers who didn’t respond, and no certainty about whether the watch would be real or arrive as described. That pain point became Bezel’s reason to exist.
Walker partnered with his childhood friend Chase Pion and engineering colleague Darryl Johnson. They weren’t from the traditional watch world—but that was the point. They approached the luxury timepiece market the way any tech founder would: as a broken system full of inefficiencies and gaps in trust.
They built Bezel with a simple promise: every watch would be authenticated before it reaches the buyer. No exceptions. And from day one, they staffed up not with flashy marketers, but with watchmakers. Ryan Chong, a former specialist at Sotheby’s, joined early to lead authentication. They built a process, a backend, and eventually, a marketplace.
Logistics Is the Product
Bezel doesn’t just list watches. It inspects them, routes them, secures them, and stands behind them. The authentication process isn’t optional—it’s core.
Every listing goes through a front-end review. Every sale gets rerouted to Bezel’s authentication center. And only after a full physical inspection is the watch sent to the buyer. I remember boarding a flight to London at JFK in January, when I got a call from a Bezel rep saying that the Rolex I ordered showed signs of wear that were not “obvious” in the photos. It’s crazy to me that after getting the watch, he also checked the listing photos and compared. What’s crazier is that with every watch I order, I get a fancy inspection list saying what was checked and how the watch rates. That’s just dedication and passion.
Around 24% of all watches sent in don’t pass. That’s one in four listings that would’ve been sold on other platforms—if not for Bezel.
By controlling this middle mile, Bezel eliminates fraud, standardizes the buying experience, and builds an internal database of watch traits that improves with every transaction. Over time, it’s building what its founders call a “Carfax for watches.”
The Buyer Experience: From Milestone to Memory
I’ll say it again: I’ve bought three watches from Bezel for some of the most important moments of my life.
The Tudor Black Bay GMT for my son’s birth wasn’t just a great watch—it was a legacy piece. I wanted to be sure it was flawless. The Longines Legend Diver for my brother’s graduation needed to show up on time and ready to wear. And the Rolex GMT was the most I had ever spent on a personal item—I wasn’t going to risk that on a bad listing or a seller I couldn’t reach.
Bezel handled every step—from verifying the photos, routing the package to L.A., inspecting the watch, and overnighting it to me. Each time, I got a certificate of authenticity, a condition report, and a concierge contact to walk me through questions. The app showed real-time status updates, and every package arrived with a tamper-proof tag.
This isn’t just commerce. It’s relationship building.
Competing With Giants by Being Specific
Bezel sits between three giants:
eBay, which has mass inventory but minimal service
Chrono24, which offers global listings but no in-house verification
WatchBox, which owns inventory but operates like a traditional dealer
Bezel doesn’t try to out-scale them. It out-trusts them.
Every part of the business model is built around creating confidence:
Listings are pre-vetted and curated
Authentication is mandatory
Packaging is standardized
Returns are processed directly by Bezel
It also focuses deeply on the first-time buyer. The UX is clean, the photos are high-res, and support is available via chat, text, or phone. First-time buyers are paired with a concierge who can answer any question—“How does this compare to a Submariner?” or “What year is this model from?”
And once you’ve bought once, the flywheel kicks in. Over 30% of Bezel’s sales come from repeat customers. That’s huge for a company that’s barely a few years old.
Scaling With Precision
Bezel raised $8M in seed funding from investors like John Legend, Kevin Hart, Michael Ovitz, and Michael Rubin. But it’s not chasing hyper-growth. Instead, it’s methodically building:
A centralized authentication and logistics hub
A database of verified movements and serials
Partnerships with vetted sellers
Concierge relationships with collectors
Its inventory now exceeds $700M in listed value—and it’s still U.S.-only. International expansion is likely, but Bezel is focused on nailing quality before scale.
Final Thoughts: The Platform for Milestone Watches
A watch doesn’t just tell time—it tells a story. And if you’re buying a watch to mark a life moment, the last thing you want is to wonder whether it’s real.
That’s what Bezel gets.
It isn’t trying to be the biggest. It’s trying to be the most trusted. And for me, and a growing number of collectors, that’s what matters most.
Whether it’s a Black Bay for a birth, a Longines for a graduation, or a GMT for a professional milestone, Bezel turned those moments into memories I can wear.
And I wouldn’t have bought them anywhere else.
