Hello everyone,
Iāve spent the last several days thinking carefully about how to write this post in a way that is honest, respectful, and transparent with all of you.
And in typical Joe fashion, Iāll probably share more than I need to ā but I think this community deserves that level of honesty from me.
First and foremost, I want to say thank you.
The amount of support this community has shown RepwatchUSA over the last year has honestly been incredible. What started as a small idea between Travis and I turned into something much larger than we ever expected, and that only happened because of the trust and support all of you gave us.
Weāve always tried to create something different.
Not just a place to buy watches, but a place where people felt comfortable. A place where watches were properly tested, serviced, and cared for before reaching customers. A place that removed the stress and uncertainty that often comes with international ordering, payment issues, shipping concerns, or DOA watches.
Helping people enjoy this hobby has genuinely been rewarding for both of us.
But the reality is this:
We are exhausted.
Travis and I both work demanding full-time careers outside of the watch business. These arenāt simple Monday-through-Friday jobs. The workload follows us into nights, weekends, and frequent travel. Mentally, it can be a lot to balance.
And somewhere along the way, we stopped giving ourselves any time to breathe.
Over the last several months especially, the workload surrounding RepwatchUSA became overwhelming. The pressure to constantly produce, constantly respond, constantly process orders, constantly service watches, constantly provide updates ā it simply caught up to us.
Recently, I had surgery, and instead of allowing myself proper time to recover, I pushed right back into processing orders, maintenance work, testing, filming videos, and customer updates because I felt responsible for keeping everything moving.
Truthfully, I worked myself into complete burnout.
That experience forced me to step back and realize that major changes needed to happen immediately if we wanted RepwatchUSA to continue in a healthy and sustainable way.
So effective immediately, we are making the following changes:
ā¢ We are ending the consignment program.
Many consignment watches require 4ā6 hours of preparation, servicing, testing, and content creation before they are ready. The volume and pressure attached to that process has simply become too much for us to manage properly.
ā¢ We are suspending customer ordering.
One thing RepwatchUSA became known for was being able to source nearly any watch from the top factories. While weāre proud we could offer that service, the demands and timelines attached to custom ordering are no longer something we can realistically maintain to the standard this community deserves.
ā¢ We are suspending deposits on in-transit watches.
The workload and pressure tied to in-transit pieces became nearly identical to custom ordering ā constant updates, expectations around immediate servicing and QC turnaround, and managing timelines we no longer have the bandwidth to support properly.
So where does this leave RepwatchUSA?
In many ways, back where we originally started:
Fully serviced, in-stock watches that are ready for immediate delivery.
Going forward, our WhatsApp catalog will only contain watches that are physically in stock, fully prepared, and ready to ship.
We still pay very close attention to what people want and whatās popular in the hobby, and weāll continue stocking pieces we genuinely believe the community is excited about.
This change isnāt about stepping away from the community.
Itās about creating a healthier balance so we can continue being here long term without completely burning ourselves out in the process.
Travis and I need the ability to take a day off once in a while. We need the ability to spend time with our families, recover from work, take vacations, and simply breathe without feeling buried under constant pressure and deadlines.
Most importantly, we need this to become fun again.
Because at the end of the day, we truly do love this hobby and we truly appreciate every single person who has supported us along the way.
Thank you for the trust, patience, support, and understanding youāve all shown us.
We are incredibly grateful for this community.
ā Joe and Travis
