By Silke Koltrowitz
By Silke Koltrowitz
ZURICH, April 7 (Reuters) – Swiss luxurious watch manufacturers have lengthy thought of the marketplace for second-hand watches as a possible risk to their enterprise, however now their view is shifting as they see it may well present useful insights into pricing and demand.
Initially seen as cannibalising gross sales of recent watches, the marketplace for beforehand owned or “pre-owned” watches has grow to be one of the best place to evaluate the worth of a watch over time and supply liquidity to look at homeowners who wish to commerce of their look ahead to a brand new one.
Richemont CFR.S, which owns Cartier, has up to now been the one massive luxurious items firm to embrace the pre-owned market with its acquisition of on-line retailer Watchfinder in 2018.
Watchfinder has simply launched a house assortment service to make transactions simpler throughout the pandemic.
Justin Reis, chief government of pre-owned platform WatchBox, mentioned the dimensions of the pre-owned watch market was estimated at $16 billion and WatchBox’s enterprise was rising about 25% per 12 months, together with final 12 months, when gross sales of recent watches took a extreme hit.
“We have seen a lot when it comes to new tailwinds pushing this sector. There’s been a cultural change the place persons are extra emphatic about collectibles,” Reis advised Reuters.
Reis mentioned costs for fashionable Rolex, Patek Philippe or Audemars Piguet fashions had elevated by round 25% and smaller impartial manufacturers like H. Moser & Cie, F.P. Journe or De Bethune have been additionally gaining traction on WatchBox.
WatchBox and Watchfinder each set out as on-line platforms, however now even have some bodily showrooms.
H. Moser & Cie head Edouard Meylan advised Reuters demand for the model’s new watches had benefited from the “good job” WatchBox and friends have been doing within the second-hand market.
“Some manufacturers nonetheless attempt to struggle this market as an alternative of working with it,” Meylan mentioned. “We monitor it virtually day-to-day, it provides us indications on costs, on what we must always produce,” he mentioned in an interview forward of the Watches & Wonders digital trade occasion launched on Wednesday. .
Watch manufacturers like Audemars Piguet and established retailers like Bucherer have already began promoting pre-owned watches, whereas eBay EBAY.O lately launched an authenticity assure for luxurious watches offered on its market.
Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Jon Cox, who estimated the dimensions of the pre-owned market at near $20 billion, mentioned manufacturers used to see the secondary market as a channel for discounted gray market merchandise, however tighter controls had helped ease that drawback with some pre-owned fashions now promoting at a premium.
“This can be a optimistic,” Cox mentioned. “It’s a part of the change that in the end can rejuvenate an trade that struggled for a lot of the final decade.”
(Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz. Enhancing by Jane Merriman and David Evans)
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