Worldwatch home
Get startedSign in

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.

Words by Stan Duin8 min readAugust 23, 2026

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

Phillips sold $235 million of watches in the first half of 2026, more than its modern and contemporary art department managed in the same period. That is the visible end of the trade. The question of where watch dealers source watches has four working answers: private sellers, other dealers, estates and auctions. Each buys a different kind of watch at a different price, and each comes with its own paperwork.

The order below is roughly the order of margin. Private sellers and estates are the cheapest way in and the slowest. The trade is the fastest and the thinnest. Auctions sit in between, and in 2026 they got more expensive.

Private sellers

A watch bought from a private individual carries no VAT on the purchase, and there is nothing to reclaim. The purchase price becomes the cost basis under the margin scheme, which charges VAT only on the dealer's profit rather than the full sale price. That is why a collector's Datejust bought over the counter is usually worth more to a dealer than the same watch on a colleague's margin invoice at a thinner spread.

The paperwork matters more than the coffee. In the Netherlands, a dealer who buys €500 or more in goods from one supplier must draw up a purchase declaration, an inkoopverklaring, and have the seller sign it. The Belastingdienst requires the date of delivery, the name and address of both parties, a clear description of the goods, the quantity, the amount paid, and a statement that the seller deducted no input VAT on the goods. Germany asks for the same discipline in a different form. Under § 25a(6) of the Umsatzsteuergesetz a dealer using the Differenzbesteuerung records the purchase price, the selling price and the taxable margin separately for every single item, with a simplification only for job lots where the combined purchase price is €500 or less. The paperwork also happens to be the document that shows where the watch came from if anyone ever asks.

Cash deserves its own sentence. From 10 July 2027, an EU-wide limit of €10,000 applies to cash payments in commercial trade under the new anti-money-laundering regulation, and dealers in watches priced above €10,000 stay on the list of obliged entities, with due diligence owed on suppliers as well as customers. A bank transfer from an account in the seller's own name costs nothing and answers most questions before they are asked.

The trade

Buying from another dealer is the opposite trade-off: the fastest stock, the thinnest margin. A watch bought on a margin invoice keeps its margin-scheme status, so the chain of VAT-on-profit stays unbroken from the first private seller to the last consumer. A watch bought on a normal VAT invoice does not, and the input VAT is only worth deducting if the eventual buyer can stomach VAT on the full price.

Dealer-to-dealer buying is also where a stock problem gets solved in an afternoon. A client asks for a 16610 with papers; nobody walks in with one; a colleague in Lyon has two. The spread on that watch is small and the phone call is the work. Worldwatch runs a dealer-to-dealer marketplace for its verified members at worldwatch.market.

The discipline is the same as with private sellers, in reverse: check the invoice states the margin scheme where it should, and check the seller is who they say they are before the money moves. A dealer who cannot name the person they bought from does not have a source, they have a risk.

Estates

An heir selling a father's watches is a private seller in law, and the same purchase declaration covers the buy. What changes is everything around it. Estate watches tend to arrive unpolished, on original bracelets, with the box in the attic and the papers in a drawer, which is the condition the market pays for. They also arrive with grief, several heirs, and sometimes a notary, which is why estate buying rewards the dealer who quotes one fair number and puts it in writing.

Two habits keep estate purchases clean. Ask which of the heirs is legally able to sell, and put that name on the declaration. And write down the family's account of the watch, with dates, while someone still remembers it; provenance recorded at the kitchen table is worth more than provenance reconstructed later.

Auctions

Auctions publish their prices, which makes them the easiest channel to cost and the hardest to find a bargain in. In 2026 the fees moved. Sotheby's raised its buyer's premium on 13 February 2026 to 28% on the first $2 million ($1.5 million in London), 22% from there to $8 million, and 15% above. Christie's has charged 27% on the first $1.5 million (£1 million), 22% to $8 million, and 15% above since September 2025. Phillips introduced lower fees for binding written bids placed at least 48 hours before the sale at or above the low estimate; it does not publish a simple headline rate.

What that does to a hammer price:

A €10,000 hammer price, before VAT and shipping

Sotheby's (from 13 February 2026)
28% premium — €12,800
Christie's (from September 2025)
27% premium — €12,700

VAT on the premium comes on top and depends on how the lot is sold. Many lots from private consignors sell under the auctioneer's margin scheme, in which case the watch can go into the buying dealer's own margin-scheme stock; lots marked for full VAT or import VAT cannot without losing the margin treatment. The catalog symbols say which is which. Read them before bidding, not after.

At a 28% premium, with VAT on that premium on top, a dealer bidding at Sotheby's needs the watch to retail about a third above hammer before the first euro of margin appears. That arithmetic is why the salerooms are full of collectors and thin on dealers, and why the dealers who do bid are usually there for the watch they cannot find anywhere else: the odd reference, the complete set, the consignment fresh enough to have never been on the market.

What the four channels are for

A sourcing mix is a portfolio. Private sellers and estates build margin; the trade builds availability; auctions fill the gaps and set the public prices everyone else negotiates against. The dealers who struggle are the ones sourcing everything from one channel, usually the trade, because it is the easiest to reach from a desk.

The most useful discipline is boring: one file per watch, opened on the day it is bought, holding the purchase declaration or invoice, the seller's identity, and the story. From 10 July 2027 much of that file is a legal requirement for higher-value watches anyway. The dealers who already keep it will notice nothing.

FAQ

Do I pay VAT when I buy a watch from a private seller? No. There is also nothing to reclaim; the price you pay becomes your cost basis under the margin scheme, and VAT is due only on your margin when the watch sells.

Can I still pay cash for a watch? National limits apply today; from 10 July 2027 the EU caps cash payments in commercial trade at €10,000. Dealers in watches priced above €10,000 also remain obliged entities under the EU anti-money-laundering rules, with checks owed on suppliers as well as buyers.

Does a watch bought at auction qualify for the margin scheme? Often, when the lot is sold under the auctioneer's margin scheme, which is common for private consignments. Check the VAT symbols in the catalog before bidding; a lot sold with full VAT or under temporary import cannot go into margin stock without losing the treatment.

What paperwork do I need when buying from an estate? The same purchase declaration as for any private seller, in the Netherlands required from €500 per supplier, signed by the heir who is legally able to sell. Record the provenance while the family can still tell it.