Why ICÔNE?
The Icône business model cannot be understood without knowledge of the company’s founders. In 2014, three friends and collectors of vintage watches decide to embark on a business venture with the idea of offering products similar to those they collect, using their combined experience to select the best vintage pieces on the Spanish market for their customers.
Following their professional-level entry into the vintage watch sector, the natural next step was to extend their product range to include the full spectrum of luxury timepieces, vintage and modern, once again using their experience to ensure the best pieces at highly competitive prices.
It is worth noting that, regardless of the company’s volume or how much it has grown in recent years, its core value remains the same, and we only sell timepieces that we would buy for ourselves, maintaining high standards of selectivity regardless of the price or importance each piece may have.
Chrono24 Trusted Seller accreditation
Icône has been present in Chrono24 from the outset. Chrono24 is currently the principal online platform for the purchase and sale of watches worldwide, and is increasingly considered the benchmark in terms of assessing the quality of service provided by professionals in the sector.
Chrono24 demands high standards of quality and reliability from all professional sellers that, via its platform, wish to attain the “Trusted Seller” accreditation, a credential that is not awarded for life and which can be cancelled unilaterally by Chrono24 if the seller does not meet the required standards.
This accreditation not only guarantees quality and reliability, but also allows Chrono24 to act as an intermediary between buyer and seller, offering the customer assurance throughout the entire process. This means that, should a claim arise, it will be dealt with immediately by Chrono24 and payment will be reimbursed without risk.
Certified quality and reliability
Icône is currently the sixth largest Spanish seller by number of Chrono24 Trusted Checkout transactions but tops the list in terms of the total value of these transactions. Scoring 4.9 points out of 5 in the opinion of platform buyers. Where reputation is concerned, Icône is one of the highest rated companies on the Chroo24 platform.
In any event, as far as Icône is concerned, the Chrono24 Trusted Seller certification is simply a supplement that does not imply any addition to the rigorous pre- and post-sales control that Icône applies to all its transactions, regardless of whether they have been made within or outside the Chrono24 platform.
Quality and reliability are just two of Icône’s distinguishing assets, and they are applied to all operations carried out both on the Chrono24 platform as well as to other online or even in-person modalities.
Online presence
In an increasingly global environment no growth strategy is possible without a significant online presence, and this, naturally, is the Icône strategy.
We are firmly committed to continued online growth, and while up until now this has been achieved via presence in specialized forums and on the Chrono 24 platform, in the near future our aim is to enhance our website so that it not only constitutes the showcase that it is today but also serves as a meeting point where collectors from around the world can share a common passion.
Icône without borders
A strong online presence allows us to market your product anywhere in the world, a fact that, in addition to a fully secure payment gateway and first class logistics, allows us to remain a benchmark company in terms of online sales.
In the early days of e-commerce, Nicholas Negroponte, then director of the Media Lab at MIT, told a joke in which one dog says to another: “the good thing about internet is that nobody knows we’re dogs…” This joke, which in essence is very true, points to one of the problems of the online world, and one from which the second-hand watch business is not exempt.
Nowadays it is not difficult to design eye-catching websites featuring a wide range of watches, and automatic content aggregation systems allow for the capture of third-party special offers, so websites can act as mere intermediaries without being accused of phishing. These drawbacks mean that some customers, especially the less experienced, refuse to carry out transactions online and prefer to go to a physical shop to carry out the operation in a real environment. In this respect, Icône places at the customer’s disposal not only its facilities but also the tools and knowledge necessary to be able to analyse, side by side with the buyer, all the details of the desired piece.
More than just a company
This link between the virtual and real worlds is essential for Icône, and we are committed to continuing to expand it in the future through the organization of talks, specific seminars aimed at collectors, and even an assessment service for third parties.
While an online presence is undoubtedly a necessary condition if one is to be competitive in today’s market, it is clear to all of us at Icône that nothing can replace a person-to-person relationship with the customer. On the other hand, these days it is relatively easy to learn about watches, at least on a superficial level, just by browsing web pages, forums, photographs, etc. And although one may reach a basic level of understanding, we know it is impossible to continue this journey without having physical access to the parts, being able to touch them, disassemble them, listen to the winding mechanism or simply analyse how the date changes on a watch that features a certain level of complexity. We know from experience that this level of specialisation can only be achieved in the physical world and over a period of years.
