Pre-owned watches of the most popular pre-owned ‘big three’ luxury watches; Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet have flooded the market with supply. Prices have been hammered as a result. In a move familiar to many manic FOMO markets prices have dribbled down 19% from record highs reached in early 2022. The luxury watches were touted as safe havens and long been the bastion for money laundering. What we got was the pre-owned watch market was flooded with Rolex, Patek and Audemars Piguet watches. Some brand prices are rising even as Rolex and Patek fall.
Royal Oak Extra-Thin Stainless Steel
Like the manic edges of the stock market luxury watch prices surged in 2021 and during the first quarter of 2022. The most in-demand models of the ‘big three’ account for 71% of the total traded value of the secondary luxury watch market.
There are two indexes we watch to track prices of the most popular models. The WatchCharts Market Index with 60 watches taken from the top 10 luxury watch brands by transaction value and the Bloomberg Subdial Watch Index, which tracks the 50 most traded pre-owned luxury watches by value.
Bloomberg Subdial Watch Index
WatchCharts Overall Market Index
There has been a significant increase of watch inventory in the secondary watch market with secondhand watch dealers and individual watch investors being forced to sell. Big buyers in the past have been Russians and the Chinese. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and then chine’s worsening macro backdrop pulled the rug under those buyers.
The best performing models on the Bloomberg Subdial Watch Index over the past 12 months are the Rolex Lady-Datejust in steel and gold, which gained 2.6% to an average price of $3,892, and the gold Rolex Day-Date 18038, from the 1970s and 80s, up 1.4% to $17,756.
The worst performing model over the past 12 months has been the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo Ultra Thin, with a current average price of $71,692 down more than 34%, the Bloomberg data shows. The Patek Philippe Nautilus Travel Time is down 28%, the platinum Rolex Daytona 116506 with a light blue dial and brown subdials has lost 25% in the used market.
As Rolex Falls, Bvlgari, Lange & Sohne and Girard Perregaux Rise
The markets do show some Swiss watch brands higher. The LVMH-owned Bvlgari models, Richemont’s A. Lange & Sohne and Girard Perregaux were all higher.
BVLGARI Market Index
I should disclose at the time of writing I own no luxury watches of any persuasion, time is happily kept on a 20-year-old Swatch watch, of no or little value.
Source: Bloomberg Sundial WatchCharts
From The KnovaLife Research Desk