The Journey Ahead — Part 6: Building a Website

When I first decided to build a website for NEXO Timepieces, I thought I had a reasonably clear idea of what I wanted. I needed somewhere to display watches, explain what I was doing, and perhaps allow someone to purchase one without having to go through the various marketplaces where most of the business was taking place.

That sounded straightforward enough. Websites have existed for decades, and there are now services that will happily build one for you with very little technical knowledge. Pick a template, choose some colors, upload a few photographs, connect a payment processor, and apparently you are in business. Except that I have spent more than thirty years as an engineer, which means I have developed the unfortunate habit of questioning things that other people seem perfectly happy to accept. The first question was not particularly technical.

Why would anyone buy an expensive watch from a website they had never heard of?

I could build something visually attractive, certainly. I could write descriptions, publish photographs, list specifications and explain shipping arrangements. But none of that would necessarily answer the question occupying the mind of someone considering sending several thousand dollars to a stranger.

Who exactly is this person, and why should I trust him?

That question has followed me through much of this journey, but building the website forced me to approach it from a different direction. In a face-to-face transaction, people can talk, examine the watch, ask questions and gradually develop confidence in one another. On an established marketplace, some of that confidence comes from the platform itself, through its reputation, payment protections, authentication procedures and dispute mechanisms. A small independent website has considerably less institutional credibility to borrow. It has to earn much of that confidence on its own.

I began to realize that the website was not simply a storefront. It was, in many respects, the first conversation I would have with someone I might never actually meet. And conversations, as I have learned over the years, are rarely improved by talking exclusively about how wonderful you are.

Beyond the Storefront

One of the more interesting decisions I made was to resist treating the website primarily as a sales channel. That may sound rather strange coming from someone building a business that sells watches, but I already had access to established marketplaces with audiences far larger than anything NEXO could realistically attract on its own in the beginning. Trying to compete with those platforms on traffic, convenience or brand recognition would have been an exercise in frustration. More importantly, it would have meant measuring the website's success against a problem it was not particularly well positioned to solve. Instead, I began thinking about what the website could offer that a marketplace listing generally could not.

A marketplace allows me to describe a watch. My own website allows me to explain how I think about watches.

That distinction became the foundation of much of what followed. I could write about movements, materials, provenance, authentication and the sometimes peculiar psychology of collecting. I could examine questions that interested me without worrying whether they would help sell a particular piece of inventory. I could share the reasoning behind my approach, explain why certain details mattered to me, and occasionally admit that the deeper I investigated something, the more complicated it became. The blog, which had initially seemed like a useful addition to the website, gradually became something much more central to its identity.

Looking back, that probably should not have surprised me. I have always been more interested in understanding how something works than simply accepting that it works. Watches happen to provide an almost inexhaustible supply of opportunities to indulge that curiosity. And now, apparently, I had a place to publish the results.

The Problem With Beautiful Photographs

Of course, a watch website still needs photographs, and this presented another interesting challenge.

Luxury watches are extraordinarily photogenic objects, at least until you actually try to photograph one properly. Polished surfaces reflect everything around them, crystals behave as though they have personal objections to cameras, and the smallest imperfections become surprisingly prominent under magnification. I began experimenting with lighting, equipment, focus stacking and different ways of presenting the watches. The results gradually improved, although the amount of effort required to produce what appears to be a simple photograph remains mildly ridiculous. But somewhere along the way, another distinction became important.

There is a difference between making a watch look beautiful and making it look beautiful while remaining faithful to the actual object.

This has become particularly relevant as image-processing tools have grown more capable. It is now possible to create remarkable visual presentations, change backgrounds, adjust lighting and produce scenes that would once have required a professional studio. I find those possibilities fascinating, but I also recognize a problem: the more convincing an image becomes, the easier it is to forget that its purpose in a sales listing is to represent something real.

A photograph of a pre-owned watch should help the buyer understand what he is purchasing. If an imperfection exists, removing it may improve the image while simultaneously reducing its usefulness as evidence. That is not the kind of improvement I am interested in. I want the watches to look their best, certainly, but I also want the photographs to remain honest. The objective is not to manufacture perfection. It is to present the object clearly enough that the eventual owner recognizes the watch when he opens the box.

In a business where trust matters as much as it does, that seems a reasonable standard.

The Details That Nobody Notices Until They Need Them

As the website developed, I found myself spending an increasing amount of time on things that probably attract very little attention from casual visitors. Shipping policies, warranty language, contact information, payment arrangements, descriptions of condition and explanations of what documentation accompanies a watch are hardly the most exciting elements of website design. Yet I suspect their importance becomes much greater precisely when someone is considering making a purchase. A beautiful homepage may create interest, but the small details help determine whether that interest becomes confidence.

I began approaching those details much as I would approach an engineering specification. What exactly am I promising? Can I support that promise? Is the language clear enough that two people reading it will arrive at approximately the same understanding? And what happens when circumstances do not follow the ideal scenario?

That last question is particularly important because policies are rarely written for transactions in which everything goes perfectly. They exist largely to establish expectations when something unexpected happens. The same thinking influenced how I began presenting the watches themselves. Rather than relying exclusively on attractive photographs and familiar descriptions such as excellent condition or runs perfectly, I wanted to provide more meaningful information whenever possible. Movement measurements, for example, can offer useful insight into a mechanical watch, provided they are presented for what they are: observations made under specific conditions at a particular moment, not promises about future performance. Documentation of condition, accessories and provenance can similarly help a prospective buyer understand what is known, what has been verified and what remains uncertain. I have come to believe that buying a pre-owned luxury watch should involve more information than simply looking at photographs and hoping for the best.

The website gives me room to provide that information.

A Place to Become Familiar

There is another aspect of the website that I had not fully appreciated when I started building it.

People do not necessarily arrive intending to buy something.

Some may be researching a particular watch. Others may have found an article through a search engine, followed a link from social media or simply become curious about NEXO after seeing a listing somewhere else. They may read an article, look at a few watches and leave. Perhaps they return a week later. Perhaps they remember something they read and mention it to another collector. Perhaps they never purchase anything at all.

From a conventional retail perspective, those visits might seem difficult to value. From the perspective of building a small independent business, I see them differently. Every meaningful interaction gives someone another opportunity to understand who is behind NEXO.

The articles are particularly useful in this respect because they reveal something that a product description cannot. A person can learn what interests me, how I approach uncertainty, what questions I tend to ask and, perhaps most importantly, how I reason through a problem. That does not mean everyone will agree with my conclusions. I would actually be rather disappointed if they did. But familiarity matters, and familiarity can gradually make an unfamiliar business feel less unfamiliar. I suspect that is especially important in the luxury-watch market, where the financial commitment can be substantial and the relationship between buyer and seller may matter almost as much as the object itself.

When Someone Finally Clicks Buy

Recently, something happened that made all of this feel a little less theoretical.

NEXO received its first direct purchase through the website.

There was no elaborate negotiation, no marketplace intermediary bringing an established audience to the listing, and no lengthy conversation required to complete the transaction. Someone found a watch, decided he wanted it, and placed an order. From the outside, that may seem like an entirely ordinary event. Online stores process purchases every second of every day, and a single transaction hardly establishes a successful business model.

But for me it represented something rather interesting.

Until that moment, I had thought of the website primarily as a place where NEXO could establish its identity, provide information and support transactions that often originated elsewhere. I still believe those are its most important functions. Yet, here was evidence that the website could also stand on its own.

I cannot know precisely what convinced that customer to purchase. Perhaps it was the photographs, the price, the description, the policies or some combination of those things. It would be tempting to construct a flattering explanation, but one transaction does not provide enough information to support one. What I do know is that someone was sufficiently comfortable with what he found to complete the purchase.

For a young independent business, that is a meaningful milestone.

And, rather fittingly, it produced another question for me to investigate: what exactly contributed to that confidence, and how might I preserve it as NEXO develops?

Earning the Next Transaction

I began building a website because I thought a watch business needed one. Along the way, it became a place to publish research, document inventory, explain policies, share ideas and give people an opportunity to become familiar with the person behind the watches. I still have plenty to learn about what makes a website effective, and I suspect it will continue changing as the business grows. But I am increasingly convinced that its most important function cannot be measured simply by counting visitors, clicks or completed orders.

A good website should help people make better-informed decisions, whether they ultimately purchase something or not. If it accomplishes that, it has already done something valuable. Of course, even the most carefully designed website cannot guarantee that every transaction will proceed smoothly. Eventually there will be misunderstandings, unreasonable expectations, unexpected complications and situations in which the interests of buyer and seller do not align as neatly as everyone would prefer. And when that happens, the question will no longer be whether the website inspires confidence.

It will be whether the business deserves to keep it.