Category Lead Watches

An opportunity to combine passion and professional expertise at Europe’s fastest growing tech company – that’s about as rare and beautiful as an 18-karat gold Omega Constellation watch from the 1970s. Incidentally, both can be found at Catawiki.

About Catawiki

In 2008, Catawiki started out as an online platform for comic book collectors from around the world, where they could keep track of their collections together, hence the suffix “wiki”. It soon turned out to be useful for a wide variety of collectors, whether it’s model trains, coins, watches, art, jewellery or classic cars that makes them tick. The auction functionality was added in 2011 and turned out to be a strong means of monetization. Fast forward to 2017 and these auctions attract over 14 million visitors a month. Catawiki has a unique business model, because all items are selected and checked by expert auctioneers.

“My dad used to say: a watch is the most beautiful jewellery a man can wear. When I was thirteen, he gave me my first Timex watch as a Christmas gift. That was quite a big deal at the time, but as I grew older, the more exclusive watches began to appeal to me. I became a stallholder at the Bermondsey antiques market in London, where I bought and sold watches. This allowed me to learn a lot and establish a vast network. Since then, I opened my own jewellery shop specializing in watches, which has been going for eleven years. With more than 25 years of trade experience, I’ve acquired an extensive knowledge of watches which I gladly put to good use at Catawiki. ” Jamie Brindle, Auctioneer Watches

About the vacancy: Category Lead Watches

The Category Lead Watches is end-responsible for managing all auctions in the category Watches and ensures the development of the category according to the strategy and in view of the targets. He/she creates and launch new auctions in collaboration with marketing and sales departments. In short, the Category Lead is responsible for the performance and quality management of the category Watches and reports to the Cluster Manager Luxury Goods.

The Category Lead designs a tight planning for the continuing development of auctions in this extremely important category. There is a whole team of specialist auctioneers such as Jamie Brindle dedicated to Watches. They are based in different locations, so that they can build good working relationships with important watch suppliers in different areas. The goal is to make the team of remotely located auctioneers work in the most efficient, scalable and consistent way possible and to meet the targets of the category.

As a team manager, the Category Lead Watches will lead, grow and develop the (assistant) Auctioneers in the remotely located team. This includes HR-tasks, preparing targets for assigned auctions, ensuring a follow-up of their productivity and commercial activities. The Category Lead will also take the lead in finding new sellers, sourcing quality supply, collaborating with colleagues in Customer Support and Sales to ensure all complaints or disputes are dealt with in a quick and efficient way and to ensure a smooth fulfillment process. The Category Lead Watches also provides content and input to Marketing to ensure that the best marketing strategy for the category is defined.

Personality

• Expert knowledge of watches
• An eye for trade
• Strong presentation and communication skills

Experience

• A Bachelor’s degree
• At least 5 years of trade experience
• Including online auctions
• Confident people manager (min. 2 years)
• Fluent in English and Dutch/French/German/Italian/Spanish