Article 5 of the P2B Regulation requires us to describe the main parameters that determine how listings are ranked in marketplace search and browse results, and their relative importance. This page is that description, in plain language, without disclosing the exact algorithms.
1.Main ranking parameters
In order of relative importance:
- Relevance to the query. How well a listing matches what the searcher asked for: brand, model, reference number, and listing attributes. Complete, accurate listings match better, this is the dominant factor in search results.
- Listing quality and completeness. Listings with full specifications, honest condition grading, clear photography, and complete documentation details (box, papers, service history) rank better than sparse ones.
- Recency and freshness. Newly listed and recently updated items receive a degree of prominence. Current availability matters in a trading market.
- Dealer diversification. Result pages are composed so that no single dealer dominates a result set. Two comparable listings from different dealers may be interleaved even where pure relevance scores would order them differently. This keeps the marketplace fair for smaller dealers and more useful for buyers.
- Demand and engagement signals. Aggregate marketplace behaviour (what dealers search for, view, and act on) can influence the prominence of listings and of curated surfaces such as "rare finds."
2.What does not influence ranking
- Payment. There is no paid ranking. Subscription tier does not affect where a dealer's listings appear in search results.
- Our own interests. We sell no watches and have no listings of our own to favour.
3.Curated surfaces
Some surfaces (homepage highlights, "rare finds", "new since your last visit") are composed by the parameters above applied to a theme, for example, scarcity of a reference across the market determines "rare finds." No dealer can pay for placement on these surfaces.
4.Changes
We update this page when the main parameters or their relative importance change materially, before or at the moment the change takes effect.
Questions about ranking can be raised through our internal complaint-handling system.