By investing in Chrono24, the Portuguese footballer is betting on second-hand luxury watches, a market that is fueling renewed interest, particularly among young people. He is thus joined by Bernard Arnault, who has also taken a stake in the sales platform.
Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo has taken a stake in Chrono24, an online luxury watch sales platform, the German firm, which claims to be a leader in this buoyant market, announced on Wednesday.
“As a longtime watch collector and regular user of Chrono24, it is a pleasure for me to become a shareholder of the company,” commented the 38-year-old attacker, quoted in a press release published on the company’s website.
The percentage of his participation and the amount he was paid were not disclosed in the press release and Chrono24 could not be contacted for details.
a booming market
Among other Chrono24 investors is Frenchman Bernard Arnault, owner of the world’s number one luxury LVMH.
In recent years, the market for second-hand luxury watches has seen a boom driven by Millennials (those born between the late 1980s and early 1990s) and Generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2010), who are looking for the future. Want to consume luxury more responsibly? Planet’s
Founded in 2003, Chrono24 states on its site that it registers visits from “more than 9 million visitors” each month, with “more than 500,000 watches from more than 3,000 professionals and 30,000 private sellers in more than 100 countries”. comes”.
Certification is an asset to these platforms
Employing over 500 people with offices in Karlsruhe (southwest of Germany), Berlin, New York, Miami and Tokyo, the platform is valued at over a billion dollars.
The watch industry has long been very cautious about online commerce due to the fear of counterfeit watches. Experts agree that certification is actually the allure of this type of platform: watch makers check watches to make sure they’re not counterfeit.
In the United States, a new platform called Buzzell completed a fundraising campaign in early January with investors including former Disney chairman Michael Ovitz, comedian and actor Kevin Hart, and musician John Legend.