Apr 10, 2025
A Watch Dealer's Diary Part II - How Many Watches are Sold at Goldammer?
Marcus Siems @siemswatches
Collector, Author, Data Analyst
It is that time again. We are lifting the curtain and let you peek into the inner working at Goldammer. Come and join me into the heart of our Northern German vintage watch powerhouse...
It have been almost two year since the first entry into the watch dealer's diary and a lot has changed, not just watch related. It starts with the location as we moved out of 'downtown' Rostock into the picturesque Goldammer mansion - an old school principal's house with Northern and Prussian elements from the late 19th Century.
The Goldammer mansion on the outskirts of Rostock.
But it's not only the location. We're selling straps now. And since June 2023 5 new members joined the team: Martin (Head of Sales, June '23), Andre (Head of Product, Jan '24), Stephie Goldammer (Back Office, Oct '24, Felix's wife), and Ronny (Ecommerce Manager, Jan '25) crowding the new office space. That makes 8 Goldammer members in total...
1) How many watches do we sell?
That's quite a few hungry mouths to feed! This means we gotta sell some watches, too. And luckily we did quite constantly over the last years: In summer '23 (when we last checked in) we sold between 25 and 40 watches per month. Since the summer '24 we're north of 50 watches monthly! In detail below: How many watches did we sell on a monthly basis between 2021 and today?
Figure 1. Monthly sold watches at Goldammer between 2021 and Mar 2025.
Since January 2021 until Mid-March 2025 we sold a total of 1,487 vintage watches! And luckily it has been a period of growth and expansion. The "eye of the tornado" plot on the right is spiraling outward: we started with only a few watches four years ago but sell around 2 timepieces a day by now! We thus keep adding more and more watches to our stock and to the collections of numerous fellow enthusiasts around the world.
1,487 watches and over four years of business under the loupe: A solid base for another round of analyses and the fruitful grounds of our livelihood. It is thus also the time to say thank you to every client, every watch dealer, every person who spread the word and simply everyone who joined us along the way.
Transparency has always been a core principle for us. Transparency in reporting every aspect of a watch to make an informed decision is in our view the bare minimum. We also need to be transparent about us and our business. Who are you dealing with? What are we selling in detail? What's our expertise? And how do we traverse through the tides of an uncertain market? Let's find out and if you got any more question you can always reach out on social media (@goldammer.me, @SiemsWatches) and via email.
Over the last years we were lucky enough to have many, many highlights coming through our office. One of them has been this 1980s Rolex Octagon Cellini 4350 with wooden dial, brushed and mirrored case finish and an indescribably comfortable bracelet. Photo Goldammer Shop.
2) How much is a vintage watch at Goldammer's?
But let's get back to watches; many, many beautiful vintage watches. We've had a myriad of amazing watches in the entry-level range (<4,000Eur) and could also acquire and sell some ultra-rare and special pieces on the higher end of the spectrum.
Generally, I believe we got something for everyone who's looking for a serious and cool vintage gem. Over 47% of our watches come in this (subjectively defined) entry-level bracket (<4,000Eur). Overall, 36% of pieces sold between 4,000Eur to 8,000Eur; 15% between 8,000Eur and 16,000Eur; which leaves about 2% of pieces to the 16,000Eur+ range. Now, a closer look at how did sales prices evolve between 2021 and today?
Figure 2. Prices for vintage watches at Goldammer from 2021 to March 2025.
However, giving you the overall numbers is of course hiding the dynamics of pricing over time. If we dig a little deeper we see that average prices did rise over the last years. While 50% of watches sold between 2,000-3,000Eur in 2021 we're also observing that from 2024 onwards the median price eclipsed 4,000Eur and stands at over 6,000Eur in 2025. This trend is evident in the high-end pieces as well: Since 2024 the 5% most expensive watches sold at 15,000Eur and above, before 2023 that has been 6,500Eur+.
This uptick can to some extent be explained by prices generally increasing - aka inflation and market dynamics - but there's something else behind this. We explicitly started to move our catalogue up-market while keeping the entry-level inventory strong as well. Or in other words, we started to stock more expensive watches.
One of the most fun watches we sold over the last months - a 1970s Patek Philippe 3649 in yellow gold with black onyx dial. Something we could only handle and move because we expanded into a higher price segment. Photo Goldammer Archives.
3) But what watches were sold?
How did we expand the inventory? Well, one aspect of it is a recent trend that always felt very natural to our own tastes and preferences: 1970s & 80s time-only bracelet watches. The unnecessary opulence of an otherwise extremely simplistic design creates a very special allure. Extravaganza clothed in common sense. What these pieces have in common are almost always clean and minimal dials encased in finely crafted precious metal cases. The combination of different case finishes, shapes, dial materials and bracelet constructions makes up for almost infinite possibilities of unique designs. Truly these 'Rostock Vice' watches are final brush strokes to your individual expression.
On the white sleeve of destiny... a cornucopia of the finest of 1970s and 80s artisanal watchmaking coming from the holy halls of Piaget, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin, Patek Philippe & Rolex. Photos Goldammer Archives.
And to be clear: We would also stock them if they wouldn't be hot right now but the surge in interest helps getting them out of bank vaults and into our hands. You were hard pressed to find any good looking Patek, VC or AP bracelet watch four years ago let alone any Piaget. But back to the numbers: How many watches per brand did we sell over the last years?
Figure 3. Most popular brands sold at Goldammer since 2021.
Overall, our most sold brands since 2021 are Omega (20.5%) and Rolex (19.3%), followed by IWC (10.9%), Vacheron (10.2%), Patek (8.0%), Cartier (5.5%), AP (5.2%), and Universal Geneve (4.4%). But this ranking (Figure 3, right panel) does of course again hide the miniscule variations we had over the years (Figure 3, left panel). With one exception maybe; Omega has been a very stable part of our portfolio (18-25%) predominantly covering the more affordable price range.
But we also see some of the macro- and micro-trends emerge in our own stock, too. Take for example Rolex: They've been the bestseller - by far - in 2022 but are down in to a shared 4th in 2025 so far. At this point Rolex is just one sale ahead of the aforementioned 2021-rarebird Piaget. On the other, hand Patek Philippe developed from just four pieces sold in 2021 to the #2 spot this year. A very similar trajectory as Audemars Piguet by the way. And all these brands' evolutions are part of our ever changing portfolio.
The Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse references are a quiet favorite at our office. They are minimalistic yet unique, subtle yet outspoken. The perfect design blend for a group of vintage nerds looking for that special and classic vintage feeling. Of course, it is also a beneficiary of the expansion of our endeavors as they can become quite pricy very quickly (see also [here]). Photo Goldammer Shop.
This momentary interest in this particular style of watches - the 'Rostock Vice' - also led to another small shift in our offerings: The watches in stock became slightly younger...
We are still focused on the mid-Century design era it is not that we all of a sudden moved to Neo-vintage. Nevertheless, while during 2022 (26.9%) and 2023 (22.9%) the 1960s led all other decades we now see the 1970s being more prevalent in 2024 (30.0%) and 2025 (27.9%). Take a look below: What design eras sold most over the last years?
Figure 4. Proportion of sold watches at Goldammer by decade between 2022 and 2025.
4) Who are we selling to?
This last bit is one of the most interesting pieces of information that I can share with you. Of course won't name names but what we can look at are the countries our watches head to. We are based in Northern Germany but we are an online-only watch seller. This means that we draw in a somewhat worldwide crowd of collectors, enthusiasts and first-time vintage lovers.
The Map... Every single needle represents a sale in 2024.
In our last "Watch Dealer's Diary" entry we could already show that our European and particularly German customer base is quite large but the U.S. Americans were leading them all: 24.8% of all our watches were heading over the Atlantic in 2021/22. How did the distribution of sale destinations change in 2023/24?
Figure 5. Top 15 destinations of watch sales at Goldammer in 2021/22 & 2023/24.
The Top 5 destinations stayed identical over the years: #1 USA, #2 Germany, #3 France, #4 UK, #5 Italy. But you can already see with the naked eye that their proportions changed. USA increased from 24.8% to 28.0%, Germany (24.0% -> 12.1%), France (13.1% -> 10.3%), UK (9.6% -> 7.6%), and Italy (7.2% -> 2.6%) however dropped over the years.
If you think about it ... the decrease in a few hub regions indicates that the distribution is getting broader. Similarly, the 'Other' category had risen from 14.0% to now 26.9%. Or putting it in non-stats terms: Our audience is getting more global! This is fantastic.
Before we come to the conclusion I just wanted to share one of my personal highlights from the slightly more affordable category... A lovely 1940s Vacheron Constantin with Breguet quarter numerals and two-tone dial, 29mm of greatness originally sold in the US sme 80 years ago. What a jewel and my congrats to the lucky buyer. Photo Goldammer Archives.
5) What did we learn?
For me personally, it's a pleasure to be part of the vintage watch world. And seeing first-hand how it evolves and expands is a privilege. We at Goldammer are just a ripple in the vast ocean of the watch market but the tides are affecting us as much as everyone else.
To make this clear: Seeing these shifts and changes in our portfolio over the recent years is only partly owing to our own plans and intentions. What we do - and always did - is stocking what we like. And we like stunning watches both in design and condition. If the market does not offer more in a certain price bracket or for a specific brand, we won't buy it.
It was never about a quota on certain features... If we don't like a watch, we don't stock it. Excellent quality and that specific vintage 'uh lala' is what we need. Like what you find in this recently sold Universal Geneve Uni-Compax 124103 from the early 1950s. Photo Goldammer Archives.
Gladly, with increasing success and reach the opportunities to see, handle and move amazing and rarely seen watches are only getting plentier. And that's all we want to do: Getting the watches that we'd love to wear out to the people who appreciate and cherish them in every moment on every day they're putting them on the wrist!
We're doing things differently here in Rostock, most of you like it and we will never take that for granted!
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