Watches as Investment?
How to Invest in Watches
Beyond just serving as a style accessory, watches can be a very profitable investment. Here are some tips on how to invest in watches as a high ROI asset.
In my previous post, I started a research about Rolexes as an investment tool. As you may have seen, the news about Rolex prices was not very encouraging...:)
So I started to look for more expensive models as an investment, but now I can't afford more than 15 thousand dollars. This leads me to exclude collectible watches other than Rolex from my list. While I was researching how to invest in watches, I saw platforms on the internet that allow me to invest in watches with small budgets. Has anyone had experience with these platforms before? And what do you think about investing in watches that are outside your budget at the moment?
27 years old. Living in Istanbul. Entrepreneur and watch enthusiast.
Good luck to you, but I would advise caution and don't get swept along with the hype. Don't forget many giving "advice" about investing in watches have a vested interest in you investing! I would never buy a watch and expect it to go up in value. If it did then great, that's icing on the cake.
Good luck to you, but I would advise caution and don't get swept along with the hype. Don't forget many giving "advice" about investing in watches have a vested interest in you investing! I would never buy a watch and expect it to go up in value. If it did then great, that's icing on the cake.
Agreed 👍 and I’ll add I personally know watch dealers and unless your liquid 1 million dollars the amount of low interest pieces you would have to recieve/ sell to even get to the unicorns as investment pieces dosent make any sense for somone without deep pockets and holes to fill every slot with whatever. That being said good luck! I have heard a million stories like this that ended up in dred.
I think you need contacts to get the right models at the right prices. If you're best mates with Mark Wahlberg it's easier.
Watchcharts just did a video on this. Looked at a Rolex GMT from the 70s as an example, arguably one of the best gainers. It gained 3000% in value. Meanwhile the S&P 500 gained 4x more during the same period.
Enjoy your watch. Don't invest in them because you are going to underperform.
I'm convinced (wishful thinking) the trend for smaller watches will continue and therefore there could be some value in the less popular sizes now. I'm still sticking to buying lottery tickets though.
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I do not believe that I stand alone when I say loudly to not bother with timepieces as an investment, save a few thousand more and look at real estate. It was a different time in history but I was acquainted with a fella who was fired from his job as a middle level excecutive from a Toronto department store, cashed his settlement cheque rented a store in a depressed area of the city with a sign advertising cash paid for old watches. Persons desperate for a few dollars would sell their watches for pittance, the guy became a top vintage watch dealer at a moment when there was little interest in watches of any sort. However, I will admit that had I agreed to buy a grey market new unworn ceramic Daytona a few summers ago from
a trusted seller instead of investing the amount with my bank investment guy, I would have suffered financially but not to the degree that conventional investments have during the same period. My wife is fond of warning me to not quit my day job which is tough advice for a guy who is mostly retired.
It's not a particularly smart 'entrepeneur' who decides to invest in a market that is already demonstrably in decline, and historically has had little short term return on investment. That's a great way to lose lots of money.
Agreed 👍 and I’ll add I personally know watch dealers and unless your liquid 1 million dollars the amount of low interest pieces you would have to recieve/ sell to even get to the unicorns as investment pieces dosent make any sense for somone without deep pockets and holes to fill every slot with whatever. That being said good luck! I have heard a million stories like this that ended up in dred.
Yeah it's a great point. 15k is a lot of money to many people but it's not going to go very far. You don't invest 15k in a watch, you buy a watch for 15k. Yes you have an asset which has value, but I wouldn't see it as an investment.
All I can think about is how the Japanese bought up a bunch of US property in th eearly 1990's at the then height of the real estate market to only have the market crash a few years later and the Japanese were left "holding the bag". Many economists blamed the Japanese economy's downturn on this.
Watches as invetments is not a good idea. To volatile a market.
However, if you buy a Rolex at MSRP, you can pretty much sell it for what you paid in a few years. Of course there is no profit in that. 😉
All I can think about is how the Japanese bought up a bunch of US property in th eearly 1990's at the then height of the real estate market to only have the market crash a few years later and the Japanese were left "holding the bag". Many economists blamed the Japanese economy's downturn on this.
Watches as invetments is not a good idea. To volatile a market.
However, if you buy a Rolex at MSRP, you can pretty much sell it for what you paid in a few years. Of course there is no profit in that. 😉
Didn’t the Japanese also buy up the Rolex bubble backs from the 40s thinking they were gonna go way up in value?
A watch really isn't much of an investment, because there is no cash flow. Kinda like a plot of land is just something of value, until you farm it and turn a profit, at which point it becomes an investment.
Expecting that used Rolex prices will rise beyond the rate of inflation is something I would classify as 'hope'.
If you send me online 1,000US$ I'll teach you how watches as investment really work.
Daft idea
Maybe roll them in cocaine and you'd make a profit 😂😂
Didn’t the Japanese also buy up the Rolex bubble backs from the 40s thinking they were gonna go way up in value?
There was a time element to Rolex Bubblebacks falling in the collectors’ marketplace. People wanted watches that were wearable, Bubblebacks are beautiful but they are challenging as a daily watch. A lot of vintage Rolex watches including Bubblebacks were bought up by the Japanese, repaired and sold profitably to style obsessed Japanese in large department stores as niche products. I am sure the very best remain in private collections. This are just some of my own reflections on Bubblebacks and my interactions with a few Japanese collector friends.
There was a time element to Rolex Bubblebacks falling in the collectors’ marketplace. People wanted watches that were wearable, Bubblebacks are beautiful but they are challenging as a daily watch. A lot of vintage Rolex watches including Bubblebacks were bought up by the Japanese, repaired and sold profitably to style obsessed Japanese in large department stores as niche products. I am sure the very best remain in private collections. This are just some of my own reflections on Bubblebacks and my interactions with a few Japanese collector friends.
That’s very interesting. I actually like the bubble backs but from a collectors perspective I can see how they would fall into a much more niche group.
I have never and would never buy a watch as an investment. I buy watches I like - and wear them as timepieces. However......
I bought a Rolex Explorer II (ref 1655) for $850 in 1978. Wore it for 30 years. Sold it for $25,000.
Sure, a good stock market investment would have netted even more profit. But I wouldn't have had 30 years of daily enjoyment of those stocks. I can think of very few items one can buy, use daily for three decades, and then sell for 30 times what you paid for it originally.
In 1995, datejust caused 1,000 usd. 2006 explorer caused. 2900 usd. 2013 submariner date caused 5,200… and now prices are so high because of the hype. If only…
That’s very interesting. I actually like the bubble backs but from a collectors perspective I can see how they would fall into a much more niche group.
I still keep a few Bubblebacks that are not completely Franken, would not pass with a very serious collector wanting impeccable dial case and movement investigation but just like the idea of the old divers.
Best
Jerry
Watches are to be enjoyed not as an investment, have you ever noticed the people that push this notion are grey market dealers?!
Watches are a passion for me...not an investment
https://youtu.be/VtpYV--Vnmw?si=svrryFoFpaTQloXI
Mike has said it all…
Worth repeating for the folks in the back: