3 years on the web and 688 watches.

Three years ago tomorrow www.oxfordpocketwatches.co.uk went live, I was up till then selling from display cabinets at three antiques centres and also through eBay and I had finally got round to setting up a web site to support them together with a Facebook page and four months later this Blog.

The Benson Hunter shown here is the five hundred and fifty-sixth watch to have been sold directly from the web site with a good many more sold from the display cabinets as a direct result of the web site.

Within 2 months I was selling more from the web site than through all three antiques centres combined. During November the web site had some minor customisation  to improve the graphics and sales were really taking off as Google and other search engines started giving good rankings.

Having started off with about 140 watches by the following April I no longer has sufficient stock to support three cabinets so I had to close first at Chipping Norton and then in November at Wallingford when I also changed from a full cabinet at Brackley to the half cabinet I have now.

Stock is now very low at 38 watches and although I expect that to improve when the fly fishing season ends It is unlikely that I will ever get above fifty or so as they sell too quickly and the supply of good watches to restore continues to decline.