Soda vs Chrono24: A Retail Storefront vs a Trade Floor

Chrono24 is where a lot of dealers meet retail buyers. Soda is where dealers meet each other. That's the short verdict: they do different jobs, and the honest comparison is less "which one wins" and more "which job are you trying to do, and what does it cost you to do it there."

I'm writing this because dealers ask me the question constantly. I sold watches for years before building Soda, and the trade I knew didn't run on a retail storefront. It ran on group chats, screenshots and trust nobody could check. So let me lay out, plainly and with sources, how the two compare.

For the full picture across every type of tool, see our watch dealer platform comparison.

What Chrono24 is

Chrono24 is a large online marketplace for luxury watches, aimed at collectors and enthusiasts. As of October 2026, it says it reaches "600,000+ watch enthusiasts and collectors" every day in over 200 countries, and that over 3,000 partners use its pricing model.^[1] Both professional dealers and private sellers can list; private sellers are limited to 10 listings at a time.^[2]

For professional dealers, Chrono24 lists a monthly subscription from €199 (excluding VAT), with packages from 25 to 1,000 watches, plus a commission that it says starts "as low as 3.5%" and is calculated per watch by brand, price and condition.^[1] New dealers get a 30-day trial where only commission is charged, and packages adjust to your number of active listings.^[2] It also offers a dealer app, a dashboard, translations and automatic import from your own store, updated daily.^[1][2]

When Chrono24 moved to this dynamic model in September 2024, one dealer told WatchPro his listing fee went from €249 to €629 a month, and that commission was "routinely over 10%".^[4]

Why I built Soda differently

A retail marketplace is built to put your watch in front of an end buyer, and it gets paid when that buyer pays you. That model makes sense for retail. It doesn't fit the trade, where margins on a dealer-to-dealer sale are thin and the deal is often closed in minutes.

I built Soda for the people who actually do this work: a platform where only verified businesses can trade, at trade prices, with one flat subscription and no commissions. Built by watch dealers who've lived every one of these headaches.

Chrono24 vs Soda at a glance

As of October 2026, from each company's own pages.

Retail asks vs trade prices

This is the biggest difference, and it's structural. Retail asks carry around 10% platform commission. Trade prices don't. When a dealer prices a watch on a retail marketplace, the number has to cover the package, the commission and the margin. That's fine for an end buyer. It's not a number another dealer can buy at and still make a living.

On Soda, every price on the marketplace is a wholesale price, seen only by other verified dealers. There's no retail price mixed in and no commission to build into it, so a trade price is a trade price.

Who you're actually dealing with

Chrono24 is open to the public: collectors buy, and private sellers can list alongside dealers.^[2] That's the point of a retail marketplace.

Soda is the opposite by design. Nobody trades until our team has manually reviewed them: ID, a selfie holding the ID and business documents. Every profile shows the real full name, company and rank, the verification date, completed deals, completion rate, ratings, vouches and strikes. Our team doesn't trade on Soda, and contact details stay private: you talk in the app.

Commission, and where the sale closes

Chrono24 is clear about this in its own guidance: "All sales initiated on Chrono24 are subject to reporting and fees", including when the buyer finds the watch there and completes the purchase on your own website, or when the conversation moves elsewhere.^[3] In other words, Chrono24 charges commission even when the sale closes elsewhere. It also says unreported sales carry a penalty fee.^[3]

There's nothing like that on Soda, because there's no commission at all. You pay one subscription (Solo: $80 USD a month; Team: $150 USD a month; see pricing), and every deal you do is yours.

Deals that hold, not just listings

A retail marketplace ends at checkout. The trade needs more: a way to claim a watch fairly, make offers that bind, swap watches and settle safely.

On Soda, a buyer taps Mark as Sold to commit at the listed price; the first confirmed buyer wins, the seller confirms within 24 hours and there's a backup queue. Offers are binding for 24 hours, 48 hours or 7 days, and trade offers let you put watches on both sides with cash either way. Once a deal is agreed, both sides see secure, verified payment details inside the deal and nowhere else. We never touch your money.

And because every completed deal feeds price history, you can check what a reference actually sold for between dealers on the platform, without third-party data. For more on pricing, see how to price a luxury watch for resale.

Who Soda is for

Soda is for registered watch businesses that buy and sell with other dealers: independents, wholesalers and dealer teams. It isn't a place to sell to the public, and it isn't open to collectors. If retail buyers are your main business, keep your retail channels, and let Soda handle the trade side and the publishing. If most of your volume moves dealer to dealer, through groups and phone calls, Soda was built for you. The guide to selling watches online covers the retail side in more depth.

The bottom line

Chrono24 is a retail storefront: broad reach to collectors, a monthly package and a commission on each sale, including sales that start there and close elsewhere. Soda is a trade floor: verified dealers only, trade prices, binding deals and no commissions. They're not substitutes, and you don't have to pick one.

Keep the storefront, add the trade floor

Run your whole business from one tab: trade with verified dealers on Soda, and publish the same inventory to your retail channels when you want to. See every row side by side on How we compare, browse all features, then apply for access or book a demo.