In no way wishing to sound smug, according to Chrono24 (and I certainly appreciate it’s prices are not totally representative) my 2018 Ultraman is now worth 53% more than I paid for it. Would never let it go but it’s one in the eye to the “watches aren’t investments” naysayers brigade. Maybe some (but not all) watches might be viewed as the new safe havens after all?
Compared to the current stocks and shares market they are guilt edged!
In case you have not seen this interesting NY Times article from last year.
Some people do treat vintage watches as stocks/shares.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/style/collectible-watches.html
I wonder, did the OP ever sell that Tudor ‘Harrod’s’ and if so just how much of an investment did that turn out to be?
As someone who was already collecting watches in 1987 when the market dropped 24% in ONE DAY I'll tell you what happened 33 years ago. At the time I was working in Saudi Arabia but would transit through Zurich several times a year. I was buying NOS Cartier, Patek Philippe watches in the Kingdom and selling or trading them to the top vintage dealer in Zurich, it was a nice little sideline. When the market sank I happened to travel to Zurich a couple of weeks later and I commented to the dealer that his business must have been hit hard, his answer, 'business has never been better, people exited stocks and wanted hard assets, something that would hold its value'. Now, things are a lot different today but the concept is the same, in troubled times people will seek out safe places to park their money. Good watches that are attractive and well made will remain in demand and keep going up in value as more and more people rise in developing countries and people become more familiar with mechanical watches. There will be ups and downs along the way but the constant talk by some that the market is ready to dive, maybe permanently, is overblown and not likely to happen. And the hope that SS sport watches by Rolex will suddenly appear at list prices is also not likely to happen.
Many here say they don't care if their watches decrease in value because they don't plan to sell, but EVERY watch will eventually get re-sold, it might be after you are dead and buried, but spending good hard earned money on watches is still money that is part of your net worth. Treat it as an asset.
Why is it when someone dares to utter that demonic word “investment” in the same breath as “watch” everybody jumps on their case?
I haven’t got a cause 😒
As someone who was already collecting watches in 1987 when the market dropped 24% in ONE DAY I'll tell you what happened 33 years ago. At the time I was working in Saudi Arabia but would transit through Zurich several times a year. I was buying NOS Cartier, Patek Philippe watches in the Kingdom and selling or trading them to the top vintage dealer in Zurich, it was a nice little sideline. When the market sank I happened to travel to Zurich a couple of weeks later and I commented to the dealer that his business must have been hit hard, his answer, 'business has never been better, people exited stocks and wanted hard assets, something that would hold its value'. Now, things are a lot different today but the concept is the same, in troubled times people will seek out safe places to park their money. Good watches that are attractive and well made will remain in demand and keep going up in value as more and more people rise in developing countries and people become more familiar with mechanical watches. There will be ups and downs along the way but the constant talk by some that the market is ready to dive, maybe permanently, is overblown and not likely to happen. And the hope that SS sport watches by Rolex will suddenly appear at list prices is also not likely to happen.
Many here say they don't care if their watches decrease in value because they don't plan to sell, but EVERY watch will eventually get re-sold, it might be after you are dead and buried, but spending good hard earned money on watches is still money that is part of your net worth. Treat it as an asset.
You seem to be upset that others don't share your view that watches are investments.
I have been watching the value of my modest watch collection increasing (Chrono24) in the past few weeks, do speculators view them as a safe investment?
I think that when a large number of middleclass/higher middleclass people who only got into "collecting" a few years ago are laid off, a lot of them will be looking at their collection of modern watches in order to raise money.
A lot of them will be disappointed to find a lot of the value they thought were there, gone.
A brand that comes into mind for being hit massively by this is Tudor, which I think will be selling 2nd hand at large discounts once reality sinks in - that the days of standing in line for a BB GMT are over and the market now are flooded with them.
I think that 2nd hand Rolex prices will go down as well, but not to the same degree. Most other modern watches will continue to lose value the moment they leave the store...
