SOFTWARE & AUTOMATION

Our in-house software development gives us maximum flexibility and a high level of automation, enabling us to swiftly address changing requirements—for instance, the rapid integration of additional sales channels. Specific challenges often demand custom solutions that off-the-shelf software simply cannot provide, such as our data-driven purchasing approach. Moreover, this setup ensures stable and predictable long-term costs, free from dependencies on third-party vendors or license fees. Retaining full data control allows us to conduct tailored analyses and evaluations, thereby maintaining oversight of our processes at all times.

Technology Landscape Overview

Our technology landscape is both modern and custom-built. At its core is our proprietary ERP software, StatusDB, which serves as the central data repository for inventory and orders. We also employ BlueBrain, our in-house software for process automation, enabling seamless external integrations via APIs and specifically designed crawlers.

We are integrated into multiple sales platforms and have developed specialized connections for a variety of purchasing channels. Our logistics system—including our so-called “Safe Management System”—ensures efficient management and automated shipping of our products, supported by automated integrations with leading shipping providers.

Advantages of In-House Software Development

Our in-house software development affords us a high degree of flexibility and automation, enabling swift responses to changing market demands. This is especially advantageous in a dynamic environment, where rapid integration of additional sales channels is critical. By creating tailored solutions, we can address specific challenges that off-the-shelf software cannot cover—such as our data-driven purchasing in the watch market.

Furthermore, our internal software development ensures long-term stability and predictable costs. Instead of relying on expensive, short-term solutions from external providers, we benefit from fixed salary structures and complete independence. This setup grants us full data control, enables customized analyses, and spares us from the burden of license fees.

Automation Across Processes

Our extensive automation strategy optimizes every central business process, ensuring efficiency, speed, and precision in all areas:

Sales

Our automation system ensures seamless integration and synchronization of orders and inventory across all sales channels. To meet the compliance requirements of our numerous integrated payment providers, we have implemented an automatic sanctions list check.

Purchasing

We make data-driven purchasing decisions using insights from our own sales history and external data crawling, combined with specialized analytics models for the watch market—perfectly tailored to our needs. Watches evaluated by our purchasing team arrive from various channels, with all critical information consolidated and presented to our buyers in a single overview.

Product Photografie

From initial capture to marketplace-compliant deployment, the processing of our product images is automated and optimized using state-of-the-art technologies. Feel free to review our accompanying case study for an in-depth look at this process.

Inventory & Logistics

We use precise, automated location management to maintain complete oversight at all times. Both watches and their original boxes and documents are tracked within a centralized system utilizing a “chaotic” warehousing method. Packaging and shipping are expedited through automatically generated shipping labels, thanks to integrations with various delivery service providers.

Spare Parts & Tools Inventory

By utilizing fully automated inventory management and reordering, we ensure our workshop remains consistently well-stocked with the necessary tools and components.

CASE STUDY 1: Data-Driven-Purchasing

The purchasing department is a critical success factor for our business. For this reason, we have invested substantial effort in optimizing the process. The watch market demands extensive, highly specialized expertise that only a few buyers possess. Such professionals are rare, making it even more important to design the purchasing process so efficiently that we can maximize purchasing volume with our existing team.

An additional key factor is tapping into multiple purchasing sources, ensuring we always have access to a wide range of high-quality timepieces. To support our buyers in making purchasing decisions, we provide relevant, pre-filtered data. This data-driven decision-making enables them to make informed choices and optimally manage our purchasing activities. Through these measures, we ensure that our watch procurement is efficient, scalable, and strategically aligned—an essential component for the long-term success of our company.

Accessing Purchasing Sources

We acquire potential watches for purchase through various channels. Alongside channels we directly control—such as our trade-in feature on the online store and our proprietary purchasing platform, meineuhrverkaufen.de—we also tap into external sources via web crawling.

Data Enrichment and Analysis

All incoming watch data from these channels is consolidated in a system called the Purchase Cockpit. By comparing each watch’s key identifying features, the system matches them to a reference catalog. This data catalog maintains relevant market information from both internal and external sources. These inputs feed into specialized calculation models, developed in collaboration with a leading luxury watch marketplace, allowing us to forecast crucial factors such as turnover time, sales price, and market appeal.

Central Purchasing Decision

Next, the watches are presented to the purchasing team in a centralized view, complete with all associated data and images. At this central decision point, buyers can—with just a few clicks—issue purchase offers at a target price, decline watches, or request more information. The underlying system automates these actions. For example, if a watch from an “eBay auction” channel is selected at a maximum purchase price within the Purchase Cockpit, an automated bidding tool is activated in the background.

Automated Settlement

Depending on the purchasing channel, the subsequent acquisition of the watch is handled automatically. For instance, users on our meineuhrverkaufen.de platform can accept the offer we send them online, book a preferred pickup date through a shipping service provider, download the shipping label, and even sign the purchase form directly in their browser.

CASE STUDY 2: Product Images

Our photography process serves as a prime example of the extensive automation and process optimization that underpin our entire operation—a core component of our corporate philosophy. Below, we outline our automated data pipeline, which starts with image capture at the photo station and continues through modern technologies to a cloud-based upload system. We would like to introduce you to our automated data pipeline, which ranges from capturing images at the photo table to modern technologies and cloud-based uploads:

Image Source Import

Workshop images of the watch mechanism (movement) and complete image sets of the watch and accessories from the photo studio are captured, automatically transferred to a server, and collected for further processing.

Automatic Categorization and Background Removal

Bundled image sets are automatically sorted into watch images, box images, and movement images, then isolated from their backgrounds using AI-based object recognition. The advantage is a significant time savings, allowing our photography team to focus on social media projects.

Fully Automated File Size Optimization

Using an innovative color quantization algorithm, we reduce file sizes without any noticeable loss in visual quality. This minimizes both data-transfer costs and loading times.

Creation of Marketplace-Compliant Image Versions

Each of our integrated sales channels has unique requirements for image size, aspect ratio, resolution, and the presence of watermarks. A specialized process automatically generates all necessary versions.