The RealReal: Which Watches Are Growing More Valuable?

 

The 2021 Luxury Consignment Report has established which items generated the most demand and which ones saw the greatest resale value growth. As one might expect, two watch brands that made the top-ten luxury brands were Rolex and Patek Philippe (ranked 6th and 7th, respectively), whose value only goes up as the years go by. 

 

At the same time, Patek Philippe rose in the ranking — up three spots from last year. Is this not more proof that we're seeing a new surge of interest in collector's watches and investment in this particular luxury item? Rolex — the Swiss watch brand with largest share of the luxury watch market — remains the most popular.

 

Firstly, this particular brand is the leader in terms of its resales, and secondly, five out of the top-ten men’s high-value watches with the greatest year-on-year resale value growth came from this particular manufacturer. The experts also noted that the most popular watches in 2020 were from Rolex sports collections, and the average resale price for pieces from the Explorer line grew by 15%. The GMT Master II “Batman” model sold for an average of 170% of the original retail price.

 

Analysts from the online marketplace also calculated the average sale price growth of watches and singled out the leaders. They did the math and noted the following results for new models: the brand Franck Muller had the greatest average sale price growth with a year-on-year increase of 63%, and the women's brand that achieved the best result was Louis Vuitton with +40%.

 

If we look at the secondhand market, the collections with the fastest growing resale value were the men's Audemars Piguet Royal Oak collection (+24%) and the models for her from the iconic Cartier Tank line (+25%). The experts have also focused attention on the speed of sales. Panerai showed the best performance in this category for men's watches, which were sold 1.3 times faster than in 2019, and Patek Philippe models were the fastest selling watches for her, which sold 1.5 times faster.

 

Analysts from the online marketplace also calculated the average sale price growth of watches and singled out the leaders. They did the math and noted the following results for new models: the brand Franck Muller had the greatest average sale price growth with a year-on-year increase of 63%, and the women's brand that achieved the best result was Louis Vuitton with +40%.

 

If we look at the secondhand market, the collections with the fastest growing resale value were the men's Audemars Piguet Royal Oak collection (+24%) and the models for her from the iconic Cartier Tank line (+25%). The experts have also focused attention on the speed of sales. Panerai showed the best performance in this category for men's watches, which were sold 1.3 times faster than in 2019, and Patek Philippe models were the fastest selling watches for her, which sold 1.5 times faster.

 

A Patek Philippe watch was also the most expensive offer out of all the watches on the site. The Nautilus 5722G model sold in just five days for USD 117 995. The second most expensive model was the Richard Mille RM030 sold to a buyer after ten days, who was willing to pay USD 107 495 for it. The third most expensive model was the Rolex Sea-Dweller Special Edition sold for USD 89 995, which is over seven times more expensive than the current retail price.