"Watches and perfume are my passions," says Marc Gebauer.

He is sitting in a room with a stylish interior in front of a large wooden cabinet with perfumes.

Gebauer wears an elegant tailor-made suit, his hair is carefully styled.

The 33-year-old is the owner and founder of Marc Gebauer Lifestyle GmbH in Düsseldorf.

In addition to watches and perfumes, he sells bags and accessories such as baseball caps, jewelery and lighters from expensive brands.

Coffee and watch accessories are also part of the range.

Some products are manufactured by selected suppliers according to Gebauer's wishes.

At the beginning of his career, Gebauer worked for a men's outfitter;

then he moved to a jeweler in Cologne, where he learned how to buy and sell luxury watches.

He stayed there for a few years before becoming self-employed.

Its main business is the distribution of luxury watches.

Atypical for the industry, Gebauer operates exclusively online.

He sees no disadvantage in this: “If a customer needs us tomorrow, I or one of my employees will get in the car and we will deliver.” According to Gebauer, he often buys the less rare watch models in large packages from wholesalers.

However, he acquires most watches from private individuals who want to part with one of their watches.

Perfume is the second most important part of the range.

Gebauer claims that he is now the third largest retailer in Germany in the fine fragrance segment.

He obtains many perfumes from manufacturers in the Arabic region.

He also increasingly sells his own perfumes.

They are called Air Tiger, Orange Flamingo and Arabian King.

The first two cost 200 euros per 100 milliliters, Arabian King 270 euros.

Many influencers as customers

Gebauer was already successful on social media channels before founding the company.

Social media is still his most important advertising tool today.

The successful Youtuber Emrah brought him into the scene with a joint video, says Gebauer, who took the opportunity and got to know other Youtubers with a wide reach, for example Nico Lazaridis aka Inscope21.

He now maintains personal contact with many influencers, and they also buy from him.

Marcel Eris, known as MontanaBlack, is Germany's largest gaming live streamer on Twitch.

He claims to be a good customer of Gebauer.

“People trust me,” believes Gebauer.

Unlike competitors, he doesn't pay influencers to advertise for him.

He advertises himself.

Other retailers like Nico Leonard from Belfast and Amsterdam Vintage Watches follow a similar strategy.

Gebauer himself has around 280,000 subscribers on YouTube and 290,000 on Instagram.

His videos are about his latest acquisitions that are for sale.

They are presented in the “watches of the week” format.

Other videos have pure entertainment value but also relate to the products he offers.

Watches as an investment instead of a design object

Gebauer founded his company in April 2020. Thanks to his strong public presence, he managed to achieve sales of around 10 million euros by the end of 2020.

According to him, last year's turnover was 40 million euros by mid-November.

This strong increase also had to do with the corona pandemic, which boosted online business.

In addition, he did not think that so many perfumes would be bought online, i.e. only because of the scents specified.

Gebauer's clientele is comparatively young, mostly under 30 years old.

She is "very well informed about the subject," he says.

They often didn't buy the watches as design objects, but as an investment;

they are often wealthy collectors.

Most of the models that Gebauer sells are between 10,000 and 30,000 euros.

The most expensive watch is currently a Richard Mille – RM67-02 for 330,000 euros net.

His online shop received 20 to 30 orders a day, most of them for perfume.

However, the share of sales from watches is higher.

Gebauer wants to expand into the USA and has already appeared on a number of American YouTube stars.

A fashion brand is also being planned.

The article comes from the student project "Youth and Business", which the FAZ organizes together with the Association of German Banks.