There’s a New Blind Box for Luxury Watches

Los Angeles—Collectibles platform Arena Club has launched a new blind box concept for luxury watches.

Founded in 2022 by baseball legend Derek Jeter and entrepreneur Brian Lee (The Honest Company, ShoeDazzle), the online marketplace specializes in trading cards, from basketball and soccer to Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering.

Its signature “Slab Packs” allow collectors to buy digital packs of cards that are backed by physical trading cards. The packs are graded using a tier system based on rarity.

As in real life, collectors don’t know what they’re getting until they open it, a concept that has been popularized by blind box toys, like the recent Labubu craze and Sonny Angel figures.

For consumers of a certain age, the blind-box craze is akin to McDonald’s Happy Meals or cereal boxes, both of which contained one toy in a themed series, tempting consumers to keep buying so they can collect the full set and/or get the toy they really want.

In the Arena Club, collectors can choose to keep the digital cards, and the physical cards will be sent to them, or they can trade and sell them on ArenaClub.com. 

The concept is now being applied to luxury watches via the new Time Box offering, which debuted July 1 after a beta launch in the spring.

“We built Arena Club around a simple idea: collecting should be transparent, trustworthy, and exciting,” said Lee, CEO and co-founder of Arena Club. 

“Slab Packs proved that collectors respond when you pair the thrill of the chase with real transparency and value. Luxury watches are one of the great collector categories in the world, with a passionate community, incredible craftsmanship, and strong long-term value. We believe that our Time Boxes will bring a genuinely new experience to the space.” 

Available at various price points, the Time Boxes contain a curated selection of authenticated new and pre-owned watches from brands like Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, Omega, Cartier, and IWC Schauffhausen, as well as Citizen, Hamilton, Mido, and Tissot.

Each Time Box holds a digital likeness of a watch that is sorted into a tier based on desirability and price. 

“The Grail” tier encompasses the most valuable watches. The chance of opening a box containing one of these watches, like a Rolex or a Patek Philippe, is the lowest.

“The Chase” tier is the second tier, including brands like TAG Heuer and Franck Muller, and has a slightly higher potential hit rate. Some Rolex watches fall into this tier as well.

“The Lineup” tier is comprised of the watches a buyer is most likely to receive, like a Breitling or a Citizen.

“Arena Club’s goal is to ensure that across all these categories, each offers strong value and a compelling piece, even if a buyer doesn’t hit the top tier,” the company said.

The “Eclipse” Box retails for $5,000. It gives the buyer a slightly better chance of finding a “Grail”-tier watch inside and contains a more expensive range of possible watches overall: Rolex, Breitling, IWC, and Tudor.

As of press time, there was a 0.05 percent chance of finding a “Grail Tier” Rolex Daytona in rose chocolate or a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, both in “like new” condition, in the Eclipse box.

Buyers also could find a “new/unworn” Rolex Oyster Perpetual in silver (0.44 percent) or a “new/unworn” Breitling Superocean (3.86 percent) in the Eclipse box.

The “Twilight” box retails for $1,000.  

Inside, there’s a 0.03 percent chance that collectors will get an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore in “very good” condition or an “excellent” Rolex Daytona in steel and yellow gold with a mother-of-pearl and diamond dial.

Other options for the Twilight box include a new/unworn TAG Heuer Carrera Day-Date (0.44 percent) or a new/unworn Citizen Series 8 831 with a green dial (3.86 percent).

The $250 “Dusk” box already has sold out.

The boxes will be available on a rolling basis over the coming weeks, ranging in price from $250 to $10,000.

A full list of possibilities for each box is shown online. 

Arena Club shares the odds of getting each watch prior to purchase. The odds update in real time each time a box is purchased.

A live feed also shows shoppers which watches have been opened recently.

After the digital reveal of what’s in the box, buyers can choose to have the watch shipped to them, sell it back to Arena Club, or vault the watch.

The vault is Arena Club’s storage option. Watches held in the vault are stored in a climate-controlled, high-security, fully insured facility, the company said. 

Buyers can access their collection through the Arena Club virtual showroom, where they can buy, sell, or trade with the community.  The physical watches can be delivered at any time. 

“For watch collectors accustomed to illiquid markets, the immediate buy-back option represents a meaningful shift,” Arena Club said, as they can avoid waiting to find the right buyer or using a third-party resale site.