My Experience Selling Watches on Chrono24
written by Mads – April 30, 2024
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Chrono24 Looked Perfect on Paper
Online marketplaces have become one of the main places to buy and sell watches. One of the largest platforms in the industry is Chrono24, a marketplace dedicated almost entirely to wristwatches. In theory, this sounds ideal for collectors. In practice, my experience selling watches there was far less convincing.
This article is not a general judgement of the platform. It simply describes my personal experience as a private seller offering vintage watches.
The listing process is surprisingly cumbersome
Creating a listing on Chrono24 initially looks simple. However, once you begin entering the details of a vintage watch, the process quickly becomes more complicated than expected. Sellers must manually enter large amounts of information – brand, model, reference number, condition, movement details and more.
Unlike many other online marketplaces, the platform offers very limited autofill functionality. Even when listing multiple watches from the same brand or model family, most fields have to be entered again manually. For collectors selling several watches, this becomes surprisingly time-consuming. Another unusual limitation is that titles cannot easily be edited once a listing is published. Even small corrections may require deleting the listing and creating a completely new one.
Image restrictions and listing delays
One of the most frustrating parts of the process was image approval. Listings were sometimes rejected without clear explanations, which led to several rounds of communication with customer support. In some cases images were rejected because they looked “too professional,” while in other cases they were rejected because they had already been used on another website.
This made the process unnecessarily complicated. Publishing new listings could also take hours or sometimes even days. For sellers hoping to react quickly to market demand, this delay can be inconvenient.
Visibility can be limited for private sellers
Chrono24 positions itself as a global marketplace for luxury watches, and the platform indeed hosts an enormous number of listings. However, this large inventory can also work against individual sellers.
Without additional promotion tools, listings can quickly disappear among thousands of similar offers. Compared with broader marketplaces such as eBay, I personally noticed significantly lower visibility and engagement. When I listed the same watches on both platforms at the same price, the listings on eBay consistently received more views and inquiries.
Communication with buyers
Another challenge was dealing with potential buyers. Like many online marketplaces, Chrono24 includes negotiation features where buyers can submit offers. While this can be useful, it also led to a number of situations where buyers simply stopped responding after negotiating a price.
These situations are not unique to Chrono24, but they did occur more frequently than expected during my experience.
Customer support
Customer support is an important part of any online marketplace, especially when transactions involve valuable items. In my experience, responses from support were often slow and sometimes fairly generic.
Questions occasionally took several days to receive a reply, which can be frustrating when a transaction is already in progress. Faster and more detailed support would greatly improve the experience for sellers.
Concerns about aftermarket parts
One topic that often comes up in vintage watch collecting is the presence of aftermarket parts. Vintage watches sometimes receive replacement dials, hands or bezels during their lifetime. While this is not unusual, it should ideally be disclosed in listings so that buyers understand what they are purchasing.
While browsing certain vintage Seiko listings on Chrono24, I personally noticed a number of watches that appeared to contain aftermarket components without this being clearly mentioned in the description.
For experienced collectors this may be easier to identify, but for new buyers it can be difficult. As with any online marketplace, careful research remains essential before purchasing a vintage watch.
Final thought
Chrono24 remains one of the largest dedicated watch marketplaces online, and many collectors use it successfully.
However, based on my own experience as a private seller, the platform has several drawbacks: a cumbersome listing process, limited visibility for individual listings and customer support that could be more responsive. For some sellers it may still be a useful marketplace.
But depending on the situation, other platforms or direct sales to collectors may sometimes provide a smoother experience.
