Reply With QuoteHmmm. Any connections to Hadleighs of Reigate? Whatever happened to them [rubs chin] ?
That’s Jamie Thorpe territory, isn’t it ?
Hi All - anyone had any experience of this place?
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Hmmm. Any connections to Hadleighs of Reigate? Whatever happened to them [rubs chin] ?
That’s Jamie Thorpe territory, isn’t it ?
Eek! There’s no immediate connection that I can see. Different address from the old Hadleigh store. Company seems to be owned by a Thomas Bennett.
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Just a few doors down from the now defunct Hadleighs premises…..326 pieces listed on Chrono 24.Originally Posted by Haywood_Milton
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A 23 year old is director and shareholder. With over 300 watches for sale I’m guessing he’s a front for someone
I've no idea if this particular company is linked to the criminal Thorpe, but the comments above are interesting.
There have been a number of watch businesses in that part of the world that seemed to spring from nowhere to having massive stock on eBay / Chrono24, with peculiarly young and previously trade-unknown proprietors (hmmm, whose sister's boyfriend was the front man for that one?....ahem). Some very distinctive stationery has been shared by a few of them.
Incredibly, they often score a massive number of positive Google reviews in double-quick time, then trade for a wee while before disappearing and the next one comes along.
Wearing coloured rubber gloves while holding watches for photographs is often a thing down there, as is a great number of after-market / custom diamond parts.
Last edited by Haywood_Milton; 11th October 2023 at 23:35.
This look like the next episode in a series...
https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...ate-experience
I was the first to respond to that thread.......... I count myself very lucky now!
Hi how are you?
My name is Tom and I’m the owner of TB Timepieces, We have been established for 3 and a half years now and whilst I’m 23 years old it’s a shame your first thoughts are that im a front for someone else when we have worked so hard to get where we are now.
It’s my company and I have 2 members of staff who work in store for me, should anyone have any questions feel free to pop in any time and have a chat with us
We have no affiliation with anyone else, just the 3 of us.
Tom
TB
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Hey how are you?
We moved into Reigate at the start of the year, we have no connection to any other jewellers or dealers.
Chrono24 is our biggest platform and we list all of our watches on there
If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to pop in store :)
Regards
Tom
TB
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Impressive stock, must be quite something to manage in a descending market?
At 23 years old and starting out when you were 20, you must be aware that the first thing that will come to peoples minds, especially those older than yourself, will be how did a 20 year old get involved selling luxury watches and at 23 years old have a stock - as has been mentioned - of 300 or more after only 3 years of operating. Older people inevitably look at younger business people and ask how they got to where they are. Those younger business people, assuming that they are in it for the long haul will happily explain how they got to where they are and often include an 'about me' on their website. Do you have an introduction/back story on your website - or social media pages for that matter? It would certainly help those who are unsure about your business to have a bit more confidence in who they are dealing with.
I've been there so have some idea of what it takes to be a young businessperson in an older persons world.
If not affiliated to anyone else, it is remarkable that you gained sufficient experience to trade in high value watches at the age of 20 and perhaps even more amazing to obtain and retain funding for massive stock in what is now an 18-month period of devaluation.
This is a story worth sharing !
Christ… the owner joined and replied. This is going to be a bloodbath…..
Um
Net assets for 2022 £30045 compared to 2021 £8279
So there is growth
Liabilities 2022 £186447 compared to 2021 £50646
Very heavy borrowed company from ?
Figures from companies house
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Thank you for your positive comment
I will take this into consideration of course, of course I understand people jump to conclusions when it comes to age but there is nothing else to say, we started our very small buying and selling watches on a small level and worked our way up from there to where we are today.
As I said anyone is welcome in store for a chat on this if they want to.
Regards
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Thank you!
Yes and no.. not everything has gone down and we sell a lot of investment watches
Have a lovely evening.
TB
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Could you name some of the “investment watches” that you sell, please ?
How do you define an investment watch ?
Hi there
We predominantly sell Slightly older model Rolex’s as they tend to hold their money a little better and fluctuate less, the newer stuff can be a bit all over the place, especially in a market like this!
For example older model day-dates with rare factory dials will always be good investment models as they don’t make them anymore and are definitely a lot less of them in circulation than the newer models.
Regards
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Hi. Welcome aboard to this happy band of watch enthusiasts. It’s great to have an enthusiastic seller join.
Can you share how you became interested in watches and is it now purely a professional interest? Do you have a few private pieces you own that you value most (maybe not for profit reasons)?
Martyn.
“ Ford... you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.” HHGTTG
“Investment Watches”
Do you have certification which allows to give investment advice I wonder?
Hi Martyn how are you?
There is no real story behind it - I always knew I wanted to do something to do with watches and then I took the leap and started with research until I could buy and sell them and built up from there!
And no it’s not just a professional interest, I see it more as a hobby but I guess that’s natural when you love what you do, I do like to collect watches myself too but tend to stick to the bits with slightly rarer and older dials
Feel free to pop in for a chat if you are local
Have a lovely evening
Regards
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I wouldn’t ever sell someone a watch on the basis of future value or persuade someone to buy a watch due to this factor.
Most of the watches I sell we provide a buy back guarantee on, that way no one is taking any risk.
Regards
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Scrolling down through your Facebook page there are a lot of watches llke steel and bicolour Datejusts with lots of diamonds on the bezel and shoulders. if it doesn't say otherwise, are they all original Rolex ?
Hi there
Everything we list is on eBay / chrono24 as we cannot always put a complete description on Facebook.
We state whether parts are original or added afterwards. This offers people the chance to customise their watch in a way that is personal to them.
Regards.
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I started out being positive to keep an open mind, there are always exceptions to the rule. However, your response isn't very confidence inspiring. When a business person (and especially a youngster) talks about where they started out they always use "I" and only use "We" when referencing the business itself. You claim to be an individual who started out young yet state "we started our (out) very small buying and selling watches". It should have been "I started out.....". Then add in "there is nothing else to say". I can bore people to death talking about how I started out in business. Of course offering the option of people to come in to store for a chat might seem quite charming but doesn't help those who will be buying off Chrono24, your preferred website for selling.
oddly, your response doesn't seem very informal as I would expect from a young person, almost as if it's a preprogrammed response - AI maybe?
Hi there, definitely no AI here, I simply don’t want to bore people on the Forum talking about how I started, if anyone wants to know they’re more than welcome to get in contact with me or pop in store,
When I say We are not I, that is because I started the company by myself and how there are a few of us in store, as always everyone is welcome in to meet us and have a chat with any questions or queries about anything and we will happily answer any questions !
Sorry if my reply has confused you or wasn’t sufficient, I’m very happy with the progress that the business has made since it was started, but as I said don’t want to bore people !
Regards
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Ah, gotcha, thanks.
Ok, so I looked on eBay and among the first that caught my eye was this one, ebay item 126213811969 / https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/126213811...sAAOSwt55lKCs7
Looking at that clasp, are you confident it is correct ?
It says that it comes with "original box," but isn't it photographed in a fake box of a type that wasn't supplied with 69173s ? Does it actually have the original box ? A lot of your watches seem to be photographed in this same type of box, even though described as having their original boxes. Is it just for the photos ?
This is a watch forum and we're not bored at all by the story of successful start-ups in the business and how they grew. Indeed, your modesty probably allows others to be suspicious; they've asked because they are interested. Come on, tell us more about your own growth and if in your early years you ever came across some of the characters in the trade like Jamie Hadleigh or Jamie Thorpe ! Love to hear about those guys.
Last edited by Haywood_Milton; 19th December 2023 at 01:23.
Hi there
Yes more than confident with everything we sell that’s my we provide all the documents we do with this.
The box is an original Rolex box, we picture in these boxes as the quality comes out the best, in any case it sells with a 69173 we would ask the client the type of box they would like (the green or more well known for the 69173 - the red boxes)
If you have any more questions feel free to drop us an email
Regards
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I'm not so sure.
What are the documents to which you refer - the punched chronometer certificate ?
Are you confident that you would spot a renumbered case ? Saw one with paperwork from Hadleigh & Royal only recently.
I don't think people are giving Tom enough credit for his business acumen, which speaks for itself.
As at 31 August 2022 TB Timepieces Limited had fixed assets of £10,769, current assets of £205,723 and creditors of £186,447. So the book value of stock, assuming stock represented 100% of current assets, was only about £19,000 more than the company's debts.
It's quite impressive that only 16 months later the company finds itself in the enviable position of having 330 prestigious watches to sell via Chrono24. The thirty most valuable watches listed have a retail value of about £1.6m based on the asking prices. If you assume an average price of £10k for the remaining 300 watches (I think likely to be a substantial underestimate) that'd be a total of £4.6m retail value.
To get from one place to the other in that time, especially during a period when the watch market generally has been feeling rather seasick, is an achievement we should all recognise.
;-)
This is a most remarkable story and I think tz-uk members would love to learn more about it. TB appears to be on the forum today, so perhaps we can look forward to more from him directly.
It’s clear he is not selling his own stock and probably listing watches that he knows he can acquire from others and still make a profit. His prices are toppy IMHO and that factors in the margins he will need to make it worthwhile. Maybe I am wrong, but it’s what I would do in his position.
Hi there
All of the stock listed online is either our own or taken on a consignment agreement from existing clients and private collectors we deal with.
Some prices online may seem expensive due to clients asking prices or also having to factor in the fees when selling through such a platform
If anyone wants to know more regarding our stock / consignment agreements you’re more than welcome to either drop us an email, or pop in store
Regards
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...but he says he has "no connection to any other jewellers or dealers."
There is a soupçon of "BQW" about some of the stock.
With reports like those one reads about Manchester Watch Hub, it is something of a wonder that people risk selling by consignment even through longer-established businesses, so you've done spectacularly as a newer one. Another angle of the success story it would be great to read about !
Correct,
We of course know a lot of people in the trade as I’m sure you will also know being a trader.
But no affiliation in terms of borrowing stock from other traders
Regards
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I completely agree, I have heard about this situation in the trade and how people have been done out of money and it’s awful, but the clients and collectors we deal with have been with us from day one,
There is a lot of trust there - something that I’m sure everyone in here will agree is integral in an industry like this.
Regards
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*David Attenborough emerges from the undergrowth*
And you can see… it has begun… the contest to belittle and bully the new arrival is well underway… soon, the peacocks will show their full plumage and we will see who really rules the roost….
I'd quite happily bore people on a forum as to how I got started if they asked. I'd start of quite brief and if people kept asking questions I would answer them to the best of my ability, boring or not. The thread started by someone asking if anyone on the forum had experience of dealing with your business and judging by the replies it seems not. Assuming that you would be happy for members of this forum to buy from you then you'll need to build up an element of trust, that's often achieved simply through conversation.
I might have missed the answer to this but do you have a website? I did a brief online search which only comes up with website for a TB Timepieces in the USA.
Asking questions is the new 'belittle and bully' is it? If I was selling someone an item worth five figures, I'd be happy for them to ask as many questions as they wanted, related to the business at hand.
We both know that’s not what’s happening. Where are those tape measures?
If you stop and think about it the questions and comments are all valid, unless you have an unadulterated confidence in mankind's inherent goodness?
By all means pop into the shop and judge for yourself, but I think a bit of forum due diligence is appropriate here, especially considering the circumstances of the start up and the area's chequered history.
Hi there,
For us we find it better to work nowadays just through social media sites like:
- eBay
- chrono24
We do have a website but it’s currently locked as we are in the process of making one.
The tb timepieces you see online under the website in the US and also they have made an eBay store are scammers trying to price watches ridiculously cheap and scam people, we are aware of this and doing what we can to get them shut down of course.
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I’ve been a member of this forum for more than a week, so I think any hope that I have unadulterated confidence in mankind’s inherent goodness is probably wishful thinking.
This utter rubbish on this forum always, without fail, without any shadow of a doubt, descends rapidly beyond mere due diligence the moment the sharks smell the first drop of blood in the water. For some, this may be a misguided public service. I wonder if those people wouldn’t be better off volunteering for the Red Cross? For a great many, the usual suspects, if you will, this is about ego. About flexing theirs, taking it out for a pathetic little walk around the computer desk and quite happily mauling some unsuspecting party to feel better about themselves.
I offer in evidence m, exhibit A - namely any bloody thread in the sales corner that the jackals didn’t like the look of.
This is that and that is this… it’s the worst the forum has to offer, on repeat, forever.
Don’t do this to yourself. You’re on a hiding to nothing. You will never convince your detractors here. No matter what you say or do.
Go and look at any sales forum post that hits more than a single page… this will become that.
One may wonder at whom is this directed. This correspondent rarely visits Sales Corner unless directed and doesn't engage with threads there.
There are valid reasons for members of a watch forum to ask the questions raised here, but this does not equate to a genitalia measurement competition. If scrutiny of new and spectacularly ascendant traders is damned in this way, we surely create a rich environment for problems like the criminal Jamie Thorpe and what is reported to have gone on at Manchester Watch Hub.
TB may be a splendid and upright chap. This is a fine opportunity to demonstrate as much and I would wish him well if it were so.
He’s not wise for engaging with this, whatever else we might say.
Though we both know that it doesn’t matter what he says, the forum will eat him alive for its own amusement.
Last edited by PSTW; 20th December 2023 at 11:27.
You don't know me so you obviously have no idea what you're talking about. I also know my wrist size so don't worry abut the tape measure.
I'm always interested in a back story. We all have one. In these times where there are a lot of unscrupulous people around, especially in the luxury watch world. most people are going to be extra cautious (case in point being someone local to me who ran a watch shop knowingly selling counterfeit watches). I would expect that and if I owned a watch shop I would be more than happy to answer questions, especially from a forum regular (not me) who is well thought of and very knowledgeable. I'd probably even go out of my way to answer them to prove to people that they're dealing with one of the 'good guys'.
what I do find intriguing is that until I joined this forum I didn't know about Alex from Watches of Whitby yet when I saw someone start a thread asking about the shop, it was met with nothing but praise. I've since heard that first hand as well. Yet in this thread, we've not seen the same type of replies so either no one on this forum has ever visited the shop or those who have are keeping quiet. Either way, it doesn't yet inspire confidence, for me at least.
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