Not many people in watches have worked at brands, distributors, retailers, and even as watch liquidators.

Steven Holtzman is the Vice Chairman of CD Peacock, a retailer in the Chicago area that also operates in Miami. His first job was in sales for Gruen in the 1980s, slowly moving up to distribute higher-end brands. Most notably, he brought Roger Dubuis to North America in the 1990s, scaling it to a business that was doing $30 million in annual sales by the time he left in 2008.

From there, Steven founded Maîtres du Temps, a brand that created small series of watches with movements by independent watchmakers including Daniel Roth, Dubuis, Peter Speake, and Kari Voutilainen. Maîtres du Temps eventually folded, and in May 2021, Steven took over day-to-day operations at CD Peacock, an historic retailer that his father acquired out of bankrupty in 1993.

In our chat at CD Peacock’s store in Oakbrook, Ill., we talk about every aspect of the watch business Steven’s seen during his career, from growing Roger Dubuis during its heyday in the 1990s and 2000s to CD Peacock opening its massive new store in 2024. We discuss what it takes to be a watch retailer today. We also manage to break a little news about CD Peacock’s plans in the Miami Design District, which I think is indicative of where the industry’s headed.

We even talk about Steven’s time “discreetly” liquidating watches around the world. Honestly, we talked more about Steven’s career than I’d expected, and I didn’t even get to a lot of my questions about retail. Perhaps I’ll visit again for a part 2 sometime soon.

If you’re anywhere near Chicago, it’s worth visiting the CD Peacock Mansion. They rep 20 brands, have a sizable selection of pre-owned from Rolex CPO and other brands, and there’s a real bar on the second floor.

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(Btw, I have no commercial relationship with CD Peacock. I’m not even a client! We‘re friendly and I simply think Steven has a unique perspective on the watch industry.)

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