The internet has been around for a long time, and any brick-and-mortar company that has not adapted to the digital landscape will eventually feel it.

The strongest watch and jewelry retailers have had an omnichannel presence (a seamless customer experience that integrates both online and offline touchpoints), including an advanced e-commerce website, with up-to-date new and pre-owned inventory, as the baseline for years now. It’s not optional.

Bellevue, Washington-based Alvin Goldfab Jeweler will permanently close later this month.

Comments from the owner to the National Jeweler suggest that the required costly retrofitting of the store was the impetus for the store’s closure. Considering the high cost of labor and materials to retrofit a luxury watch store, it could have been the most significant reason behind the longtime watch and jewelry dealer’s decision to retire.

The other critical detail, seemingly omitted from all the business news articles on the topic, was the lack of a seamless digital presence. For an Official Rolex Jeweler, having a website that has not evolved with the times is certainly something Rolex cares about just as much as the look of the physical store. Remember, omnichannel is the standard.

Running a luxury e-commerce website is far more technologically complex than operating an Instagram account, especially at the level that top-tier watch brands require in order to keep an active account with them. Suffice to say, a Squarespace account is not enough. Operating a premium omnichannel e-commerce website requires a significant ongoing expense (we estimate it costs six or seven figures annually, depending on the scale of the operation) to pay for the technology and the people needed to run it daily.

Before the recent Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler closure announcement, Professional Watches reached out to the retailer after we learned they no longer carried Rolex, then again after other brands started disappearing from inventory, and received no reply. Reply or not, based on the timeline of events, we can ascertain, the owner’s decision to retire was a long time coming.

A culmination of a lack of digital expertise, pressure from inflation, an economic downturn, and the need for an expensive retrofit of the store, all at once, presumably caused this seemingly well-liked, old-school, multi-generational, multi-brand watch retailer to opt out.