We share cars through Uber and Lyft, and homes through Airbnb. Why not do the same with luxury watches?
Two-year-old startup Eleven James has made that idea a reality. Founded by ex-NetJets exec Randy Brandoff, the company basically operates like Netflix used to, back when its primary business was sending you DVDs via snail mail.
After filling out your profile, you select a membership plan, and then hop on the phone with an Eleven James "concierge" for a welcome call. After that, your first rental watch will be mailed to you in two days. When your time with that watch is up (usually 3 to 6 months, depending on the plan), you send it back and receive your next one.
There are a few different membership tiers, starting at $150 and going all the way up to $800 a month. The more you pay for an Eleven James membership, the more expensive the watches you can access. The name itself is a reference to the man whom Brandoff calls the prototypical Eleven James member: James Bond, the spy who's always equipped with gadgets.
SEE ALSO: Why luxury watches cost so much money
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Brandoff got the idea for Eleven James while working for NetJets. As the CMO of the Berkshire Hathaway-backed private jet chartering and partial ownership service, Brandoff was often surrounded by a wealthy clientele.
What did this well-heeled group of people have in common? They all loved watches, just like Brandoff himself did.
"My taste for variety far exceeded the rational budget I could allot to [watch collecting]. You no longer have to buy all these other asset classes to enjoy them, but you have to buy watches," Brandoff said, in reference to luxury experiences like flying private. "I would be a consumer of an alternative model, and I'm not such a unique luxury consumer."
Once Brandoff's family gave him the green light, he left NetJets and Eleven James was born.
It's important to note that Eleven James only deals with high-value, well-designed, connoisseur-level watches with old-fashioned mechanical internals. They're for people who appreciate what goes into making a watch.
Eleven James has a watch collection in "the eight figures," according to Brandoff. This includes all of the most popular and most respected luxury brands, like Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, IWC, Tag Heuer, Tudor, Breitling, and more, including vintage models.
Brandoff said that every watch will eventually exit the collection and end up on a member's wrist permanently through full ownership. By handing watches back in on time and in good order, members accrue points that can be used as currency toward buying a watch from Eleven James.
To service these watches, the company has partnered with a trusted New York City-based watch repair service that has been scaling as Eleven James grows.
"We didn't set out to be the country's biggest watch repair service," Brandoff said.
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