While in North Redwood, a jeweler refused delivery on the shipment of watches. Sears purchased them, then sold them at a low price to the station agents and made a profit. He started a mail-order watch business in Minneapolis in 1886, calling it "R.W. Sears Watch Company." Within the first year, he met Alvah C. Roebuck, a watch repairman. In 1887, Sears and Roebuck relocated the business to Chicago; later that year, the R.W. Sears Watch Company published Richard Sears' first mail-order catalog, offering watches, diamonds, and jewelry.