SELLER SPOTLIGHT

When Frank McKenzie told his wife that he and their son Joe were going to start an online business, she had one question: “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” As it happens, it was a very good idea. Today, their company, XUPES, is one of the U.K.’s most prestigious retailers — not just of pre-owned and vintage watches but also of top brand-name handbags, jewelry and artworks. The men clearly share a collecting gene. Frank has been buying and selling art and antiques since leaving his job as an accountant in 1988 — and Joe started collecting vintage watches while studying photography at the University of the Arts in London in the mid-2000s.

Tapping into the then-new phenomenon of e-commerce in the late 1990s, he began to search for and buy models online and soon noticed a lack of attention to retail essentials like repair and warranties, customer service and beautiful presentation. “There was a strange gap in this luxury category.” He began to service and photograph the watches he bought before reselling them, with considerable success.

At first, they worked out of Frank’s home office in the small market town of Bishop’s Stortford (in Hertfordshire, 27 miles northwest of London). By 2013, however, the business had expanded considerably, and they moved to a 17th-century thatched-roof barn on a former farmstead just outside the town center. As for their new premises, Joe says “We decided it should feel like being welcomed into a house.”

They designed the interior of their new headquarters from the ground up, with a special space for a full-time photographer and rooms for repairs, polishing and shipping, as well as a showroom to display their most alluring pieces. “One of the most important things for us is that we want you to have the same experience, or better than if you were to buy your watch from Cartier or your bag from Hermès or another big-name brand that we sell,” Frank says.