Chronosect editorial staff
At Chronosect, we have been committed since our beginnings to giving our Certified Sellers a face and a name in order to create and strengthen professional-customer relationships. This time we talked to Raffaele di Meola, a passionate watch dealer in Treviso.
As usual, we begin the interview by asking to tell us a little about her.
I'm Raffaele di Meola, owner of RA.DI.ME. Orologi di Prestigio Treviso, company that takes its name from my initials. Before being a dealer, I am a watch enthusiast. My affection for this world began as a child, when at the age of six I cut out photos of watches with scissors - I remember the Casio with calculators of those years - from the pages of the PostalMarket catalogs. I then proceeded to “wear” them, fixing them with a piece of adhesive tape on the wrist and changing them every day.
Then I grew up, I started doing my first summer jobs, at fifteen, and buying real watches. My first watch was a six hundred thousand lire Kienzle. The second, an underwater Sector of one million and two hundred thousand, then many others, always purchased by exchanging them with the previous timepiece. There I started learning the rudiments of the market from the buyer's side. Growing up, I attended trade fairs and have now become a trader.
I've never forgotten what it's like to be a watch buyer, and every time I have a customer in front of me, first of all I have another enthusiast. At the moment, among my favorite watches, there are the Zenith El Primero Striking 10th for the technique, the Rolex Oysterquartz for the style, and the Laureato by Girard Perregaux for the combination of luxury and sportiness. On my wrist I have an Orfina Porsche Design: like when I cut out catalogs as a child, I still love wearing different watches every day ...
The original interior of Raffaele di Meola's shop in Treviso
How does your relationship with the customer stand out?
As mentioned, even as a trader, I am above all a fan of watches. If a person enters the shop and we talk about watches for an hour, without them selling anything, it is not an hour wasted, but an hour dedicated to my passion. Obviously, out of forty hours a week, I'll have to sell a few watches to pay the electricity bill! But the human relationship with those on the other side of the counter is fundamental for me.
I give an example to explain my relationship with clients. An interested in buying a watch worth about two thousand euros called me. I told him right away that I didn't have anything in that price range at the moment, but I invited him to have a chat in-store anyway, in person. Once we understood better together what he was looking for, I directed him to another dealer I know who had the watch that the customer wanted in stock. I think it is a long-term winning business strategy: I have built a relationship with that person who will have a positive memory of me and who will return to the store if he wants to buy another watch, or will refer his friends to you.
Another aspect that I really care about is to "educate" the customer about watchmaking.
The trader as a teacher for the customer, beyond the mere sales relationship. It's an interesting idea, can you tell us more?
In my opinion, the role of the dealer must not be limited to being a mere intermediary in the purchase and resale of the watch. The beauty of this job, and our responsibility as merchants, is precisely the possibility of teaching the customer. I'll give you an example: if a person enters the shop asking for the Rolex GMT in steel with ceramic bezel, which sells at double the price, I compare myself with him proposing him a timepiece that perhaps makes 18 thousand in the price list and sells for half of this amount. In this way, I put in front of him a watch that being of great quality will surely satisfy him and that will pay much less than he expected to spend.
Another anecdote to clarify my relationship with clients. A few years ago, when i Rolex Daytona they sold for twelve thousand euros from a price list of eight or nine thousand, a customer walks into the shop asking for a Daytona. To which I ask the customer the alternative of a Audemars Piguet chronograph, a really nice object, which cost twenty thousand euros in the price list but was six thousand. The customer has chosen theAudemars Piguet. If he had bought the Daytona, he would have spent twelve thousand euros and today he would have a resalable watch on his wrist around eighteen thousand; buying theAudemars Piguet, he spent six thousand euros, and do you know how much that watch is worth today? Twenty-four thousand. Buying a quality object, at the right price, even going against the fashion of the moment, pays off in the end. Obviously, if I have a Rolex on sale for ten thousand euros and an email arrives from a customer who, without a doubt, offers nine thousand nine hundred, you accept. But it is certainly not my favorite way of working: the beauty is precisely the human relationship with customers, talking face to face about watches, teaching something and learning it in turn ...
He talked about learning something from customers. Can you give us an example where this happened?
It happened to me that a customer phoned me asking for a Seiko that costs 1250 euros in the list. Surprised by the existence of such expensive Orientals, I telephone a colleague, who I know is a trader of these brands. My surprise increases even more when he tells me that the model that my client requested of me has been out of stock for six months and that there would be a client of his from whom he expects to collect a used model of that model, around two thousand euros! Who would have said that there are unobtainable Seiko that are sold used above the price list? They are pleasant surprises, because they show the existence of a different market than usual.
How is the watch market situation today and how do you see the near future?
The watches that fared better are the usual sporty Rolexes in steel, Daytona, GMT, Submariner, etc. If the entire market segment under seven thousand euros has suffered, the one under three thousand has simply been devastated.
There is an underlying problem, in my opinion, in the luxury market, resulting from the culture of ostentation. So far, much of the luxury watch market has been driven by the desire to show others one's wealth, rather than by an interest in the watch object itself.
Today, however, the awareness of the general population with regard to the theme of "watches" is different than it once was. A practical example: the politician who affirms that sacrifices and austerity must be made, or the entrepreneur who announces the redundancy in the company, if he shows himself with a Rolex Daytona on his wrist he risks big. Because with the Internet and mobile phones it is a snap to photograph the watch and find out how much it costs. At one time, the luxury watch on the wrist was recognized only by a few enthusiasts. This is why it cannot be ruled out that some bubbles will burst in the future: after all, the luxury watch is not a basic necessity, and with the lockdown many previously wealthy people have suffered from the crisis.
The end of some bubbles would not necessarily be bad, on the contrary: a more balanced watch market, with prices closer to the true value of the product and less influenced by speculation, in the long run would enhance those who really deserve it.
To get in touch with RA.DI.ME. Watches, click here.
