Stories from the dealer’s side of the market

Dealer interviews, buying guides and market reads, written for the professionals who trade here.

Watch, Dial and Frame (c. 1936). Harry G. Aberdeen

Dealer Guides · 8 min

Excel, Google Sheets, Airtable or Worldwatch for a watch inventory

Six watches bought on a Saturday are an evening's work at a laptop, or they are six photos on the way home. What each of the four options does with a dealer's stock, and the one file none of the first three can produce every quarter.

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Meet the Dealer · 6 min

Ilja Rijs buys like the good watches are already gone

He built Benjamin Marcello with no investors, a small book, and a rule about purchasing. It works. Here is how.

View of Geneva. Edward Theodore Compton (German, 1849-1921)

Dealer Guides · 7 min

Watch fairs and auctions for dealers, September to December 2026

Every watch fair, dealer show and auction between 1 September and 31 December 2026. Three of them fall on 7 November.

La Source, by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (French, 1824–1898)

Dealer Guides · 7 min

Sourcing watches as a dealer in Europe

Where watch dealers source stock in Europe; private sellers, the trade, estates and auctions, with the paperwork and the real cost of each. A €10,000 hammer at Sotheby's is €12,800 before VAT.

Tetradrachm (Coin) Portraying Queen Cleopatra VII, 37–33 BCE, issued by Mark Antony

Dealer Guides · 11 min

The VAT margin scheme for watch dealers in the EU: how it works

How the EU margin scheme taxes a dealer's profit instead of the full price of a pre-owned watch, with a worked example at 21% and the three places it stops working.

Dealer in Fancy-Ware, 1877, by John Thomson (Scottish, 1837–1921)

Dealer Guides · 12 min

How to become a watch dealer in Europe: registration, tax, stock and the first year

What it takes to go from flipping watches to trading them in NL, BE, DE, UK and FR: registration from €20, the margin scheme, the €10,000 cash line and 43-day stock turns.

Law of the Wild (1881) Charles S. Raleigh (American, 1830-1925)

Dealer Guides · 13 min

The EU's anti-money-laundering rules for watch dealers from July 2027

From 10 July 2027 Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 makes watch dealers obliged entities across the EU, caps cash at €10,000 and requires ID on cash from €3,000. What changes, country by country.

Meet the Dealer · 7 min

Jossip Wille turned a 50 euro profit into a Cartier specialty

He was sixteen, the watch was a 250 euro Omega from an Italian auction, and the lesson stuck. How Le Petit Suisse became the Cartier address in Ghent.

Patek Philippe reference 2508 in stainless steel with the Geometric dial

Reference · 6 min

Patek Philippe ref. 2508 "Geometric"

Reference Guides is a new series where dealers share specialist knowledge with peers. Alessio Zenga opens it with one of the most desirable Calatrava iterations Patek Philippe ever made.

Hat Shop, 1913, by August Macke (German, 1887–1914)

Dealer Guides · 7 min

The EU One Stop Shop for watch dealers selling to consumers abroad

Margin-scheme watches never go in an EU One Stop Shop return; straps, winders and full-VAT watches do. What a dealer files where, the €10,000 threshold, and what the 2028 ViDA package does and does not change.