Interest in luxury watches surged during the pandemic as housebound consumers, flush with cash from lack of travel and dining out, began lusting over fancy timepieces online. Prices for pre-owned Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet timepieces soared to record levels before falling back sharply beginning in April as cryptocurrency values and stock markets declined.
Younger buyers born in the millennial and Gen Z eras are more likely to purchase second-hand watches, as they are more comfortable with buying pre-owned items online and are looking for cheaper prices, according to the report. Almost half of Millennials said they would likely buy a second-hand watch in the next year, compared to just 12% of Baby Boomers.
As the luxury watch market has going through a difficult period that saw average prices of the likes of Rolex and Omega’s timepieces decline across the industry in the last 12 months, a glint of sunlight is stirring hopes of its recovery – the cryptocurrency sector’s resurgence. The luxury watch market and the crypto market are increasingly going hand in hand. Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer recently made it known that it has given its customers the ability to make crypto payments online in the United States through an integration with BitPay.
