Bezel- can we trust this App?

Not on Android, so no I have not

Never heard of them. They are based out of CA. Using the SOS site to look up the business, looks like they opened just last year and are based out of a private residence.  Founder looks like he is just out of school, so this is HARD PASS for me trust-wise.  Also, an "authentication guarantee" is only as good as the person guaranteeing it.  This guarantee is sketchy as hell:

"We verify watches sold through Bezel by means such as machine learning technology, digital authentication, in-hand verification, or a combination of the same. To support our verification process, we log thousands of data points on our products to help ensure their authenticity. Our team of authentication specialists are highly trained to identify any indication that a watch may not be authentic. "

‍That is a total BS guarantee relying on AI (maybe, would love to see what they claim to use) to determine if a watch is real or not. Wow. There is no way they could maintain a margin while covering shipping from the seller, paying for authentication, and then getting to a buyer. Looks like they are trying to make money on the spread with an app. That said, in all fairness, they could be trying to start something new, but based on the TOS and the number of fly-by-night grey dealers trying to make a quick buck, I would be hard pressed to trust them for buying a watch. 

Sorry, but this app all sounds sketch. 

I'd stick with places like WatchBox or WatchFinder if you want 3rd party authentication. 

Even Ebay now offers free authentication over $2k USD I think. 

You can download it on IOS as well.

Thank you for the amazing insight!!!

The app is not available on Android. 

I knew I worded that poorly. 

Just purchased (and received) an SMP300m from them. It was great from start to finish. They ask your budget, and come back with offers (if—like me— you were looking to have a new watch sourced). They sourced the new watch at a solid discount from an international AD. That was my only gripe…as it meant I’d have to wait ~2 weeks to get it. Their concierge was helpful and informative, and they even offered to hold the watch for delivery when I was out of town. There are articles in Bloomberg about their process, so I felt comfortable and then brought it to an AD to confirm!

Hi All! Mike from Bezel here - I’m new to Watch Crunch and was planning to use it for my personal collecting experience, but I found this thread and figured it was at least worth it to give you all some quick updates on our business based on the above posts. @HenryWilson - you found us about a month after we launched, and I hope you’ll share what you think about the progress we've made!

A couple of quick clarifications:

• Our HQ is in LA - this is where most of our team sits - including the entirety of our watch authentication team. 

• Our authentication team is made up of humans—specifically watch specialists and watchmakers that hand-authenticate every watch sold. You can find a high-level overview of our authentication process here. You can read all the details about how we authenticate here. @AllTheWatches hoping those two resources clear up the authentication worries you mentioned.

A few other updates:

• You can read more about our Seed round that closed in January—it was covered by Bloomberg, check it out here. If you get hit with a paywall, you can learn more about our plans and investors on our blog here.

• Our app has 450+ reviews and 4.9 out of 5 stars on the iOS App Store. You can read them here.

• An Android app is in the works, but in the meantime, we’ve spent a ton of time building out getbezel.com - check it out and let me know what you think (@UnholiestJedi you are definitely not the first who has asked for this!)

• We have 10,000+ watches, all in-stock, totaling $250m+ in inventory. The majority have prices that are negotiable.

• If you create an account, you’ll be assigned a client advisor from our concierge team who can help you throughout the process. Our concierge team is comprised of real people who you can call, text, email, and chat with. They can source you a watch as well ( @KyleC93 thanks for the kind words on this front!).

• We’ve also launched an interview series on our blog and social where we interview watch collectors. Everyone from Max Busser and John Reardon to JJ Owens and Steve Aoki. If anyone here has an interesting story about watch collecting, we’d love to hear from you.

We are always looking for feedback - especially from the watch-collecting community. I would love for you all to download the app or check out the site, create an account, and tell me what you think! All feedback is welcome and I’m happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thanks for sharing and circling back on this old thread. I have noticed the growth of the site since then including the capital funding. Good luck with the continued growth.

@MikefromBezel Wanted to plug the Bezel team for the awesome job y'all did finding a rare Aquaracer that I have been looking for. Blake and Vince were awesome to work with and I found the in-app experience to be top-notch. Communication was great and the transparency at every step of the transaction was really appreciated.

For anyone reading who may be wondering about the experience, here's a brief rundown of my experience.

1. Found out about Bezel through a podcast sponsorship they did for an episode of About Effing Time on or around 1/21

2. 1/22 decided to give them a go... submitted my request form and within an hour Blake had messaged me to let me know he didn't immediately find any in their seller network, but that he'd let me know when they were able to locate one.

3. 1/24... Blake messaged me to let me know he found one... shared pictures, and answered my questions. He was very responsive.

4. Since this happened much faster than I was expecting, I needed a little time to adjust some finances to make the purchase work. Blake was able to put the watch on hold for me for a day while I worked that out.

5. 1/25... I let Blake know that I'd like to proceed with the purchase. He loaded the listing into Bezel and sent it to me. I handled the purchase via Apple Pay directly in the app. Shipping process status initiated and fully tracked in the Bezel app.

6. 1/29... the watch was delivered to Bezel for authentication.

7. 1/30... authentication was complete and it was shipped out (FedEx overnight)

8. 1/31... I received the watch. I had 24 hours to review it and make sure it was in the state that was described in the listing. If there were any discrepancies (which there weren't) I could return the watch for a refund.

All-in-all it was a really pleasant experience and I can definitely recommend Bezel's service for those hard-to-find pieces.