Buying a High-end Watch: Think of its Reselling Value

A decade ago, people who bought high-end watches were only interested in their aesthetic. Today, new buyers also take in account the potential resale value a certain model may have in the years to come. The market of pre-owned watches is booming and it is changing the way buyers acquire new ones, but also how they add to their collection.

Pre-Owned Resellers are changing the Watch Market

Today, you can look up on the internet the resale value of your luxury watch by going to a website like Chronext where you will find thousands of models from various brands being resold second-hand. Since nobody once to buy something that loses too much value with time, we can predict that a person will enquire about certain brands and models reselling value before acquiring one, thus changing the way someone makes his decision on which watch they will buy.

That is if they decide to buy a new watch, since many people today choose to acquire a pre-owned one. The choice is great, and the condition of the items is usually impeccable. Sometimes, they have not even been worn before. They will have the same effect on the buyers’ wrist as if they had bought it brand new, but will have cost them a lot less. It’s a great way to acquire a unique work of art, such as Omega watches to pass on to the next generation of the family later on.

Second-hand Luxury Watches: An Expanding Market

According to a study by Bain & Company, the market of pre-owned high-end watches will grow from $16 billion annually (today) to over $22 billion by the year 2028. That is a raise of almost 40 % in only eight years, showing how strong the demand has been and still remains today. In fact, this industry has grown at an average of 9 % every year for the last five years. According to analysts at Kepler Cheuvreux, sales of second-hand watches currently represent 25 % of the whole market and it is still only at the starting gate.

With and additional value of $50 billion new watches being sold on the market every year, it increases tomorrow’s pre-owned potential sale by as much. When questioned, one of the leaders in the industry said that not a day goes by that a $100,000 watch is not sold. They keep an inventory worth $80 billion and they sell around 45,000 watches every year. These are all signs that this momentum will keep growing and develop furthermore for many years to come.