Erik Boneta has been trading collectibles since his school days. Back then, he was the envy of his friends, making money from buying and selling comic books, trading cards, and even Beanie Babies.
He made enough to buy his first watch, a Rolex GMT Master 16700 with a ‘Coke’ bezel.
He had no intention of selling the Rolex, but when a particularly hefty credit card bill came in, he was forced to list it on eBay.
“I ended up breaking even when I resold it, and thought to myself, well that was not so bad, maybe I can try something else,” he says.
From these humble beginnings, entrepreneur Erik has become one of the biggest wholesale traders of pre-owned watches in the country through his company Boneta Inc. He now has offices in New York, Miami, Barcelona and Hong Kong, as well as remote employees in the UK, Dubai and Mexico.
This year Boneta Inc. is making its biggest move, taking on a 7,000 square foot office with a massive walk-in vault in the middle of Manhattan.
Erik is committed to investing in Boneta Inc., despite the difficulties of the past year for watch dealers.
“The final quarter of 2022 was slow for us and prices kept on dropping, but we hung-in tough and realized that the watch market goes with the financial markets and everything is a cycle,” he says.
“Watches, art, jewelry, cars and all luxury goods generally go in tandem with the financial world.”
The pre-owned market is really in its infancy as an organized sector, but it is maturing fast. Even Rolex is getting into managing its own used watches in conjunction with its authorized dealers.
“I think it is great that Rolex went into the CPO [certified pre-owned] market,” says Erik.
“It was just a matter of time, and it gives more customers a chance to purchase and enjoy a watch and only makes the industry larger and stronger.”