A new approach to watch collecting
Mission
WATCHFID is an independent advisory company founded by a group of private investors.
Our mission is to create a genuine ecosystem to serve watch collectors. In a complex and opaque market, our objective is to establish a climate of confidence by promoting quality, transparency and traceability with regard to collectors’ watches. Our concept is underpinned by an array of complementary activities, each one of which naturally contributes to the benefit of the others, thereby creating a virtuous circle:
- our research activity linked to the production of watch books continuously fuels our knowledge of models and our network of collectors,
- harnessing these competencies, and in collaboration with expert partners sharing our methods, we prepare comprehensive and rigorous expert reports,
- aware of the problems and issues associated with the market, we make use of new technologies to ensure all information is both reliable and secure,
- we offer an online showroom of watches benefiting from this quality process, available to both private and professional sellers,
- we provide other customised services such as watch searches, advisory services or the production of specific books.
These services ensure watch collectors and watch lovers possess the keys that are vital to guide them in their passion.
”A clear vision, independent shareholders and a set of complementary capabilities have allowed us to build a structure that really sets us apart.
Innovation
WATCHFID delivers new solutions for the problems and issues associated with the collectors’ watch market.
We are perfectly aware of the queries and doubts that watch collectors and watch lovers might have and consequently employ an innovative approach that combines watch appraisal and new technologies, so as to ensure transparency and traceability.
- We associate a virtual identity to each watch in the form of a digital passport. The watch’s characteristics, along with photographic documents, appraisals or associated events are recorded and centralised in the digital passport when it is created and then updated throughout its life, thanks to Blockchain technology and the guarantee of data durability and traceability it provides.
- This technological solution does not do away with the need for a traditional watch appraisal: the technology enables all the information to be secured and traced over time, but its usefulness depends primarily on the reliability of the information recorded when the digital passport was issued. This explains why the watches are verified by a network of specialists.
”Our objective is simple: enable anyone to verify the quality of a collectors’ watch in the simplest and most reliable way possible.
Organisation
WATCHFID brings together a network of high-level competencies in pursuit of its objectives.
WATCHFID aims to serve as a hub for innovations, ideas and developments related to the collectors’ watch market.
This explains why our organisation includes an Advisory Board comprising professionals with strong reputations in each of the professional sectors potentially involved in the company’s development. The role of these selected members is to support WATCHFID in all its missions:
- guide strategic choices,
- promote chosen methodologies and solutions,
- facilitate the introduction of new initiatives,
- oversee the coherency and smooth-functioning of activities.
”Our organisation and our philosophy are the result of our complementary backgrounds and our networks of partners formed during several decades of professional experience.
Network
WATCHFID is setting up a network of recognised watch experts who will work through innovative procedures.
In order to cover as many brands and models as possible, with a consistent and rigorous level of quality, WATCHFID has implemented innovative operating procedures:
- watches are analysed anonymously by a network of specialists,
- issues or possible inconsistencies are immediately reported and discussed,
- conflicts of interests are neutralized,
- the collectors’ interests are privileged.
The objective is to grow this network over time, in terms of number of specialists as well as quality of expertise.
”We believe in sharing knowledge and the immense added value represented by a network of high-level experts.
This network forms the basis of our organisation and we aim to continue developing it.
A new approach to watch collecting
Board of Advisors
Anthony MARQUIE
Anthony MARQUIE
Co-Founder, CEO
Anthony Marquié is a French national and trained aeronautical engineer who swiftly turned to an international career in finance, focusing on capital markets and investment businesses. He has held numerous management positions for major international financial players, successively in private banking, institutional asset management, private equity and family offices. He started his career as an auditor and consultant for a French leading advisory firm.
His longstanding fascination for both modern and vintage watches led him to begin collecting several types of model at a very early age, and after having devoted a significant share of his time to studying and analyzing the watch market, he started writing watch books and created the WATCH BOOKS ONLY series, together with Grégoire Rossier. These books are now recognized as a reference work by the watch industry and the specialized media.
In 2020, whilst being fully aware of the vintage watch market challenges, and with the contribution of private investors and strategic partners, Anthony decided to launch WATCHFID, an advisory company fully dedicated to watch collectors.
Anthony is an Engineer from ENSMA and graduated from HEC School of Management in Paris.
Grégoire ROSSIER
Grégoire Rossier
Co-Founder, Managing Partner
Grégoire Rossier is a Swiss national, biologist by training. He then specialised in a new field at the time: bioinformatics.
He became a watch enthusiast as a teenager when he got his first Omega. A few years later, he started serious research as a watch collector by gathering data on a selection of models like the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch. Applying the scientific rigor from his research career and a methodology stemming from a previous experience with Ferrari sports cars, he developed a systematic and very detailed database for several models, referencing his observations as well as the market trends for vintage watches.
This database was one of the starting point for the “ONLY” books projects, which started in 2012, co-written with Anthony Marquié. Since a few years, together with Anthony, he published several articles in specialised magazines and gave several conferences about watch collecting.
Grégoire obtained his Ph.D in Biology from the University of Lausanne and a Master in Bioinformatics from the University of Geneva.
Olivier BOUVET
Olivier Bouvet
Co-Founder, Senior Advisor
Olivier Bouvet is a French national who trained in finance, audit and administration.
He is the deputy CEO of a leading French bank specialized in wealth management since 2017. Prior to that, and after consolidated experiences in various financial institutions, he has been the CFO of a leading international asset management firm for 8 years.
With more than 25 years of experience in the financial sector at a management level, Olivier joined WATCHFID at its first stage as a Senior Advisor. His role is to advise the Company by giving it the benefit of his financial, organizational, and management skills.
Olivier graduated from ESLSCA business school in Paris.
Pier Paolo BOCCADAMO
Pier Paolo BOCCADAMO
Senior Advisor
Since adolescence deeply attracted by the creative and transformative power of software and technology, Pier Paolo had the chance to develop his own professional life around this passion.
After a few years collaborating with boutique software companies in development teams, he joined Microsoft, where he has to date spent 30+ years in different roles, at Microsoft Italy, Europe HQ and Corporation.
In recent years, he has been involved in the creation and launch of an Italian hyper-accelerator (growITup) and related VC (Indaco Ventures) aimed to startups scale-up. Currently acting as Go to Market Advisor for selected Microsoft Partners. Serving as Board Member in COSBI. Practitioner of a growth mindset culture, among all topics he’s currently more passionate about, responsible and ethical AI is surely near the top.
Leveraging on his deep knowledge in both new technologies and startups developments, Pier Paolo represents a significant asset for the Company and is a member of the Advisory Board.
Fabrice MUGNIER
Fabrice Mugnier
Senior Advisor
Fabrice Mugnier is a Swiss national. Together with his wife Suzanne, he created in 2001 Watchprint.com, the first online bookshop dedicated to watchmaking and jewelery. The following year they began organising the Baselworld and SIHH event-based bookshops. And since watchmaking is firmly export-oriented, they also travelled a lot to meet aficionados during specialized shows in New York, Paris, London and Hong Kong.
This ongoing closeness with passionate watchmaking enthusiasts has enabled them to understand their needs and wishes, as well as leading them to broaden their scope of activity from the role of bookseller to publisher. Through partnerships with watch collectors and publishing professionals, the books they publish are now distributed in bookstores across more than 100 countries, and their website represents without any doubt the most complete and recognized watch books online platform in the world.
Thanks to his huge network in the watch industry, Fabrice is able to support the Company in its strategy and development.
Thierry-Yves PHILIPPE
Thierry-Yves PHILIPPE
Senior Advisor
After starting his career in leading advisory firms – audit at Arthur Andersen and restructuring at Deloitte – Thierry-Yves has built up a rich and solid experience of around thirty years as an investment fund manager, with majority investments aiming at the redeployment of small and mid-cap companies, and in companies operating in the financial or industrial sectors.
Thierry-Yves has been the CEO for nearly three years of the French car manufacturer PGO Automobiles. At the end of 2021 he chose to join Transactions et Compagnie as a Partner and to leverage on his expertise in entrepreneurial financial strategies. He is in charge of opening the New York office and building the operational interface with the French teams based in Paris, Bordeaux and Lyon. His main objective is to support the development and growth of Transactions et Compagnie, the leader in family transactions in France.
Thanks to a strong expertise and an impressive network of investors and entrepreneurs, his role is essential for the development of WATCHFID.
