Aftermarket Prices for Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet Have Fallen

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The Bloomberg Subdial Watch Price Index has been monitoring the costs of pre-owned luxury watches, focusing on the top 50 models by transaction value. In 2024, prominent Swiss brands such as Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet experienced a drop in their secondary market prices, reaching an unprecedented low after three years. This decrease of almost 6% last year marked the smallest decline since 2021.

The news follows reports that Rolex plans to boost its watch prices in the U.S. and U.K. starting from 2025. With the anticipated rise in the cost of future Rolex releases, it appears that the value of older models might decrease. However, contrary to this expectation, Bob’s Watches stated last year that vintage Rolex watches continue to be sought-after on the second-hand market. For instance, the “Batman” model has seen a consistent 10% growth, while the “Pepsi” and “Polar” models have experienced increases of 134.8% and 157%, respectively.

It was noted that popular models from Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet experienced an average decrease of approximately 5%, 4%, and 7.5% respectively over the past year. This price drop marks the third consecutive year that premium Swiss watches have seen lower prices. In contrast to the significant price increases observed in 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic, there was a sharp decline in pricing starting from April 2022 as the pandemic subsided. Although the decrease in used watch prices was less severe in 2024 compared to previous years, it still remains significant. Interestingly, Cartier is the only watch brand that saw an increase of 4% in used pricing over the past two years due to increased collector interest in smaller, more delicate jewelry watches. Omega also experienced a slight decline of 1% in 2024.

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2025-01-08 10:56