The pre-owned luxury watch market experienced a pandemic boom on par with other collectible categories, if not even more drastic.
The "biggest bull run in watch history," as Robb Report described the run-up, which peaked in 2022.
That surge has been followed by nearly two years of decline.
Data platform WatchCharts brings this into stark reality, particularly as it pertains to 2024. The WatchCharts Overall Market Index, which is composed of 60 watches from the top 10 luxury watch brands such as Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet, is down 5.8% on the year and 15.8% in the past two years.
No price bracket could hide this year, as steep descents were felt in the sub-$500 index (-10.4%) and all the way up the ladder to the $100,000 and up index, which was down 4.4% (albeit, far less violent than the 18.5% crash recorded over the past two years).
The biggest loser in 2024 from the watches included in the index is the Patek Philippe 5711/1A-018. The most expensive watch included in the index, the limited-edition timepiece was released in 2021, with just 170 produced. That same year it sold for more than $6.5 million at auction. WatchCharts currently places a market value of $1,788,971 on the watch, reporting a decline of 25.9% in 2024.
Very few brands were spared the continued decline, with WatchCharts' Rolex index falling 5.2%, Patek dropping 5.8% and Audemars Piguet seeing a 7.7% decline in 2024.
This uniformly bearish trend is in direct contrast to the performance experienced during the boom.
"From August 2018 to January 2023, average prices in the secondhand market for top models from the three largest luxury brands — Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet — rose at an annual rate of 20%, despite broader market downturns during the pandemic, compared with an annual rate of 8% for the S&P 500 index," according to a report from BCG.
Behind this downturn is oversupply on the secondary market, "dampened demand for luxury items" and shifting perceptions on timepieces from consumers, according to Bloomberg.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.