Today, a part of being a watch collector is knowing how to buy, sell, or trade your watches. It’s a great way to update your watch collection over the years. However, with the growing number of platforms, it can be challenging to know how to find the best place to buy, sell, or trade your watch to get the most value. Even if you just want to explore your options, knowing how to research secondhand watches from reputable sources can be tough. Today, we’re taking the guesswork out of buying, selling, or trading your next watch. We sat down with five watch industry experts to compile everything you need to know about the secondhand watch market.
The State of the Market
E-commerce sites and other digital platforms have been key to expanding the reach of the secondary market. This is true of both seasoned collectors and new collectors from Gen Z, who are increasingly comfortable buying (and selling) online. According to EveryWatch, an AI-powered platform offering comprehensive luxury watch sales data and analytics, pre-owned watch sales hit $24 billion in 2023. This makes up approximately one-third of the retail value for all luxury watch sales for the year, which clocked in around $75 billion.
With the continued growth in the secondary market—from independent dealers to retailers—watches are increasingly becoming a commodity resembling stocks. When considering watches as an investment and embarking on the journey of buying, selling, and trading watches in your collection, it’s crucial to understand the ever-fluctuating trends in the secondary market. Just like the stock market, you want to have a grasp on the current supply and demand.
Watchfinder, one of the premier resources for buying, selling, and exchanging pre-owned luxury watches, has used its sales data to produce such trend reports, which show some key insights. For instance, materials beyond stainless steel are increasingly in demand, from classic precious metals like gold to more contemporary alternatives like ceramic. Watchfinder also notes the “50-year rule,” marking the rising popularity of watches from the 1970s and even 1980s.
Thankfully, with the evolution of the secondary market, there are more and more resources like EveryWatch and WatchFinder available to collectors to educate themselves and make smarter buying and selling decisions. Still, keeping up with the latest shifts in the market or sifting through the myriad of sources that can come up in a single Google search for the secondary market can be overwhelming even for the most tenured collector. That’s why we tapped five experts in the field—including executives at EveryWatch and Watchfinder—to share their thoughts on the value of condition, researching watches to buy and platforms to sell, the importance of seizing the right time, and some key trends in the secondhand market.
Condition is King
When it comes to the most imperative element to consider when buying in the secondary market, the consensus is that condition is king. Linden Lazarus, founder of the Los Angeles-based vintage and pre-owned resale site Oliver & Clarke, did a fantastic job of explaining how multifaceted the importance of condition can be as an indicator of the quality of the watch and the quality of the seller.
“I think there’s nothing more important than the condition of a watch,” he shares. “The rarity, the desirability of a specific configuration, box, and papers, all those things pale in comparison to the condition. It’s the most paramount thing both for your experience of wearing the watch and for the soundness of your investment. If you’re buying the best example, it will always be desirable—there’s always a buyer for a watch in truly exceptional condition, sometimes even above market.”
All this said, it’s vital to look for sellers who prioritize robust condition reports with the watches they sell. “Especially if you’re purchasing online, you can tell a lot about the professionalism and rigor of a seller by their website, photography, product descriptions, how in depth they go on condition reports,” continues Lazarus. [Any common scams people need to look out for?
With this in mind, the third piece of the puzzle is preserving the condition of your watch to retain its value if you plan to sell or trade. Tim Stracke, co-founder of the popular resale site Chrono24, weighs in. “There are some standard practices to preserve the condition of any watch,” he says, “Don’t take it to a sandy beach or into saltwater unless it’s a dive watch built for that purpose. Don’t wear your watch on the tennis court or golf course unless it’s something like a Richard Mille that’s built to withstand thousands of Gs of force. However, watches are also meant to be used. If you want to enjoy your watch, keeping it in mint condition is impossible. In fact, I prefer watches with a little sign of wear and patina—it gives them character.”
There’s No Such Thing as Too Much Research
When you’re approaching watch collecting not just as a hobby or passion but as an investment, you have to do your research—whether you’re buying or selling a piece. The good news is, researching the watch market isn’t as dry as it sounds—this can be a part of the process that’s just as fun and as exciting as buying a watch itself. “The secondary market can definitely be a great place for education and exploration,” agrees Giovanni Prigigallo, Co-Founder of Everywatch. “One thing I recommend is checking out catalogs from reputable auction houses and reading the notes of watches that catch your eye. Another is researching based more on qualities rather than by brand, for example, a particular complication paired with a specific case material: like ‘platinum tourbillon’ or ‘rose gold skeleton.’ This will open up a world of possibilities, and engaging in this type of research consistently will bring you new discoveries every time.”
Another critical component of research is not just surrounding the watches themselves but in the places where you plan to buy and sell your watches. According to Lazarus, you have to buy the seller. “It’s important to look at the cohesiveness of a seller, whether that be in-store or online,” he explains. “A lot can be told by the selection of watches that someone is offering and whether you should buy or sell with them. For instance, if I’m a new buyer or seller, I want to work with somebody with a specialty, so to speak. If someone sells a lot of vintage Rolex, perhaps that’s not the right person to buy or sell a Cartier, even if they’re a very reputable seller. Or, for example, if a pre-owned retailer primarily sells sub $10,000 watches, you probably don’t want to buy or sell a $150,000 watch with them—again, they may be highly respected but not the right outlet for you.”
Timing is Everything
If the shifts in the secondary market over the past several years have taught us anything, it’s that timing is everything, as cliché as that may sound. You can have a watch that’s in excellent condition from a great brand, but if the market is saturated or demand is low, selling or trading your watch might not give you the return on your investment that you hoped for. That said, this begs the question why now? Why is this a good moment to buy, sell, or trade in the secondary market? According to Edouard Caumon, Watchfinder’s U.S. Country Manager, there are three main reasons: choice, accessibility, and value. “In recent years in particular, the primary market has struggled with production and keeping enough inventory to offer clients whereas when you come to a secondary retailer, you have a very wide selection thanks to growing interest in pre-owned and vintage and the practices of trading and selling,” he shares.
This also translates to accessibility, and Eddie Goziker, President of the hybrid—online and brick and mortar—pre-owned retailer, Wrist Aficionado, agrees. “The secondary market affords you instant gratification,” he says. “The days where you can walk into a brand boutique or an authorized retailer and walk out with the watch you want no longer exists. But if you have a birthday, anniversary, holiday, or a gift to give, you don’t want to wait. And we’re at a point right now in the market where there’s not that much of a standard deviation between retail and secondary watch pricing because prices have come down considerably on some models that were once going over retail in the secondary market. Especially for a first-time buyer who hasn’t poured years into building a rapport with a brand, the secondary market makes a lot of sense because they can get what they want when they want it.”
Goziker brings up a key factor when it comes to pricing, which brings us to Caumon’s last reason that now is the time to buy, sell, and trade in the secondary market: value. “Today, prices have mostly come back to reasonable levels,” he confirms. “Sure, models from the big three (Rolex, Patek, and AP) are often priced at 50-60% above retail, but if you put those aside and you want to buy any other big brand—an Omega, Breitling, TAG Heuer, IWC, and even certain Rolex models will fall below retail pricing.”
Navigating Trends
Trends are a loaded topic in any facet of the watch industry. In one respect, watches are inherently timeless. If properly taken care of, they’re meant to last generations, and brands know the aesthetic needs to transcend passing fads. On the other hand, watchmakers have gotten increasingly playful with their designs in more recent years, and one of the joys of collecting is, of course, buying a watch you love regardless of whether it’s deemed “en vogue” or not. Still, when it comes to approaching watches as an investment and evolving your collection through selling and trading, trends remain an important factor to consider. Here are five of the top trends our experts are seeing:
Quiet Luxury
Tim Stracke, Co-Founder of Chrono24
We know quiet luxury has been a growing trend not just in the watch industry but beyond. Stracke confirms that Chrono24 has seen this to be true through its market index tool ChronoPulse based on the retailer’s years of real sales data. In one of the company’s latest reports, it saw models like the Grand Seiko Heritage Collection performing well, and even among bigger brands like Cartier, more discrete models like the Santos are outperforming others. “More and more, we see people wanting super high quality but less visibility of branding and logos,” clarifies Stracke.
Independent Brands
Giovanni Prigigallo, Co-Founder of Everywatch
Independents only make up a small portion of the secondary market thanks to their low production numbers. However, their popularity in the primary market has started to trickle over to the secondary market as we see more and more independents appearing at auction and for sale at pre-owned retailers. Though they may be rare, when they do appear in the secondary market, they consistently perform well, according to Prigigallo. “With many independents being newer to market and produced in smaller volume, there’s a lot of potential here. With their current performance, we’re only just starting to see their initial stages of growth.” [Pictured Left: Journe Chronomètre à Résonance, Photo Courtesy of F.P. Journe]
The Big Three
Eddie Goziker, President of Wrist Aficionado
On the flipside, the big three (Rolex, Patek, and Audemars Piguet) continue to dominate the secondary market, even if certain models continue to command prices over retail value. This is precisely why Wrist Aficionado has chosen to distinguish itself in the pre-owned market by specializing exclusively in these brands and offering a brick-and-mortar counterpart to its e-commerce site. “When you’re dealing in the top three brands, people are making big purchases—$50,000, $100,000, sometimes millions of dollars. When we first tried to break into the secondary market, we found it hard to build trust for these types of transactions online. So, we began opening our stores where people could touch and feel things, see if they really want the 39mm or the 41mm or whether rose gold or yellow gold looks better on their skin. When customers are making such a big investment from brands like the big three, we want to provide them with the best possible experience.”
Sleeper Hits
Linden Lazarus, Founder of Oliver & Clarke
Say you aspire to own one of the highly coveted models from the big three, but you’re not there on your collecting journey yet. Lazarus offers a smart alternative and what he deems to be the “sleeper hits” of the secondary market. “For customers who want a highly desirable model like a Nautilus, Daytona, or Royal Oak but can’t afford one yet, I encourage them to look to other alternatives from the brand. Maybe a less desirable reference from the 80s or 90s or even just a more atypical model from the brands altogether.”
Unisex Sizing and Styling
Edouard Caumon, U.S. Country Manager of Watchfinder Diversity and inclusivity have also become major talking points within the watch industry in recent years. When it comes to accessible sizing regardless of gender, vintage and pre-owned are the place to look. This growing desire for more unisex sizing and styling has directly contributed to growth in the secondary market. “One of the things I love most in today’s market is both men and women seeking so-called unisex watches,” says Caumon. “For example, my wife and I love sharing watches, and we see this more and more with our customers.”
