Want to own luxurious watch?

Hyderabad: The invention of timepieces is one of the greatest technological innovations that humankind has witnessed. And in today’s age of digitalisation, collecting a luxury pre-owned watch is akin to securing a rare hand-crafted piece that has been created with minute detailing and human intervention. This has accentuated a lot of interest and enthusiasm in […]

Hyderabad: The invention of timepieces is one of the greatest technological innovations that humankind has witnessed. And in today’s age of digitalisation, collecting a luxury pre-owned watch is akin to securing a rare hand-crafted piece that has been created with minute detailing and human intervention. This has accentuated a lot of interest and enthusiasm in the collectors’ community. The global pre-owned luxury watch market, which has been showing immense promise over the last decade, appears to have taken off this year.

The pre-owned watch market is gaining momentum, with a growing number of brands, retailers and digital platforms consolidating the marketplace into a more secure space. However, online players have been the real game-changers, considering 30 per cent of all pre-owned luxury watches are now sold online. AstaGuru has been at the forefront of this segment in India. Since our first standalone auction for Exceptional Timepieces in 2018, AstaGuru as an organisation has consistently offered a finely curated selection of luxury pre-owned watches from some of the top brands in the world.

The pre-owned luxury watch space is a niche in India, yet it is valued at about Rs 6,500 crore. In India, watches are considered as a part of fashion accessories and, thus, consumers straddle between classical watches to luxury brands with innovation and unique design. Furthermore, India is a lucrative market for various luxury brands, owing to the presence of royal heritage.

Consumers are showing willingness to pay for important pre-owned timepieces. The category is well represented in India, and is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Furthermore, McKinsey’s forecast expects the pre-owned market to expand by as much as 8 to 10 percent per year between 2020 and 2025. AstaGuru’s May 2021 auction witnessed a high value sale of a Piaget timepiece for Rs 1,10,93,071 ($154,070).

The elegant 18K white gold dress watch is encrusted with 86 pavé-set brilliant-cut diamonds on a reverse tonneau-shaped case, 293 on the dial and 600 on the bracelet.
Watch collectors and enthusiasts typically pursue rare models that tend to command significant mark-ups from the retail prices. Pre-owned models such as the Rolex – Daytona, Patek Philippe – Nautilus and Audemars Piguet – Royal Oak, to name a few, are among this elite group of models.

Another interesting insight is that the demand for high-end watches scaled during the Covid-19 pandemic. But the Big Four watch brands – Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Richard Mille – are holding firm on the limited production runs that make their timepieces extremely rare.

According to a global sales report of 2019-2020 from Morgan Stanley, Rolex sold 8,10,000 watches, while Patek sold 53,000 watches, Audemars Piguet 40,000 and Richard Mille 4,300 respectively.

Demand is expected to continue to rise in correlation to the supply. With stainless steel sports watches and other popular models all but impossible to buy at retail, with long waiting lists and scarce allocations, prices in the secondary market are rising. A Patek Philippe Ref. 5711 Green Dial, which retails for Rs 26 lakh, was auctioned in July for Rs 3.6 crore. Value for the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 15500ST (blue dial) has nearly tripled since 2017, to more than Rs 41 lakh, while the value of the Rolex Day-Date 40 is up 76% since 2017 to over Rs 37.5 lakh, according to Chronext.

One can say that the market for pre-owned luxury watches is growing and has found wider recognition in this age of digitalisation and continues to experience an upward trajectory growth with more collectors looking to add such important rare timepieces to their collections.

Deepak Krishnamoorthy
Timepiece Expert
AstaGuru

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