Remarkable business model
What do Ebay, Christian Gerner and Andre Belfort have in common?
Christian Gerner is a registered watchmaker of the Chamber of Handicraft of Lower Bavaria according to his own statements. Based on that, the best basis for selling watches. And so Christian Gerner a.k.a. „time365“ states on his Ebay-about me page: „We have a store in Altdorf“. But Christian Gerner is also a large online dealer. With over 17.000 ratings and hundreds of watches offered, he is an Ebay-Powerseller. But not enough. Gerner operates online shops for wristwatches under the Swiss domain Gerner and under the German domain Uhren-Ass. There he offers watch brands among other things with well-sounding names like e.g. André Belfort, Buchner & Bovalier, Javelle and Roebelin & Graef.
Great rebates – unfortunately typical for many online traders
This is remarkable, because Christian Gerner follows very own price politics with many of these great watch brands- like many other typical online providers. Many watches are advertised with unbinding price recommendations of the manufacturer and then sold with high two-digit rebates at a fixed price. That such price recommendations and rebates are very questionable should be known especially to a watchmaker of the Chamber of Handicraft of Lower Bavaria.
For example a Roebelin & Graef with article number 380120059058 is offered on Ebay at a fixed price of 169 Euro, the alleged recommended sales price is 1.398Euros. The identical watch is offered under the article numbers 380120221544 and 170326181267. Equally with a Buchner & Bovalier Spacematic gold on Ebay with the article number 170320009829 at a fixed price of 159 Euro. The recommended sales price is stated here with 1.399Euro. It does not surprise anybody any more then that a Roebelin & Graef Arkadius rosegold black can be bought for 219 Euros in the Swiss online shop instead of 1.249 Euro.
Andre Belfort – the watch brand of Christian Gerner
Then, it is also hardy surprising that Christian Gerner even possesses his own watch brand. Andre Belfort is the name of the young „Luxury brand“ that he registered at the German patent and brand register in 2006 under the registry number 30618010. At Uhren-Ass the watch is described as follows: „The company André Belfort has the goal of joining perfect handicraft with artistic perfection in the manufacture of a watch, and thus to continue the decade-long tradition of its company founder in his sense...“ No word that it is his own watch brand and how "decade-long tradition" is possible with a brand of 2006 is also unclear. The price recommendations seem questionable with regard to these aspects. Interesting is, that this brand can be purchased easily online, but was not available at our trusted jewellers. Apparently the quality of these watches and the "impressive" price/performance ratio of watches of the brand Andre Belfort have not yet reached watchmaker colleagues of Christian Gerner. But why?
Attention in case of rebates
Information for all newcomers and watch buyers: Specialist dealers and jewellers nearly never grant rebates in the upper two-digit range for a brand name. Even shelf warmers are usually not offered – in spite of economic crises and low Dollar exchange rate- with rebates over 40 percent. Usually the rebates range between 3 and 20 percent on brand name watches. Thus, higher rebates and discounts should always make you critical and careful! Attention should also be paid if several watches of the same model are sold are the same time or on a regular basis with high rebates from the same provider. And lastly, the questions remains, what brand is it anyway?