Why I Built ABA Watches Around Price: A Note From Adam Barnsley

September 19, 2026

Adam Barnsley
Founder, ABA Watches & ABA Partners, London

After more than four years of selling watches, the pattern in our data is hard to ignore. The people who buy from ABA want the watch they have already chosen, at a fair price, from someone they can trust. The brand, the presentation and the London bench are what give them that trust. So that is how ABA Watches is built: price first, trust behind it.

Price is the reason, luxury is the bonus

Most watch retailers sell the experience and hope the price does not put you off. We do it the other way round. The first thing you should know about any watch on our site is what it costs. A genuine Seiko Presage Cocktail Time starts from £275. A genuine Hugo BOSS chronograph starts from £85.

The luxury feel of the site is deliberate too, but it is there to reassure you, not to justify a higher price.

A fair price does not mean cutting corners

Every watch is genuine and goes through an 8-stage bench check in London before it ships.
Full sets come with the original box, booklet and warranty card, and we say so in the title when they do.
Every order is covered by the 12-month ABA Warranty plus your statutory rights.
Delivery is tracked and insured, with 30-day returns in the UK.

How we source

ABA is an independent retailer, not an authorised dealer. We buy genuine branded stock through the grey market, which means outside a manufacturer's official dealer network. That stock is the same watch you would find elsewhere, often with the same box and papers. The trade-off is that the manufacturer's warranty card usually arrives unstamped, which is exactly why every ABA watch carries our own 12-month warranty instead.

What ABA Partners is for

ABA Partners Ltd is the company behind ABA Watches. It gives the business a proper structure to grow from: more stock and more channels, without changing the promise to the customer.