They Said Buying Would Make You Money... Pre-Owned Rolex Watches Fall with Gold Prices

Rolex Daytona Oysterflex Drops 4% Since April

"The Era of Automatic Watch Gains Is Over"

'Watch Investment' Enters Correction Phase

The market prices of high-end watches, once considered investment assets, are declining alongside falling gold prices and weakening consumer sentiment.

Rolex watch. The photo is not directly related to the article's content. Photo by EPA Yonhap News.

According to the Bloomberg Subdial Index, a joint tally by Bloomberg and the pre-owned watch trading platform Subdial on July 9 (local time), the secondhand price of the gold Rolex Daytona line model ‘Daytona Oysterflex’ has dropped by 4% over the past three months since April. The prices of 13 other gold watch models included in the same index have also mostly remained flat since April. These 13 models had seen their average prices rise by nearly 9% last year.

Bloomberg interpreted, “The upward momentum of pre-owned gold watches, which had broadly increased on the back of rising gold prices, has effectively come to a halt in less than a year.”

According to Forbes’ report on July 9, the retail price for a new stainless steel Rolex Submariner currently sells for $11,350 (about 17.08 million won) in the United States. In contrast, the 18K gold version of the same model sells for $50,900 (about 76.6 million won). The market value of the gold contained in the gold version alone amounts to $15,000 (about 22.58 million won) at current gold prices. As a result, both the price of new 18K gold models and the market price of pre-owned gold watches tend to move in tandem with gold prices, rising or falling accordingly. When gold prices increased, these watches were considered to benefit as gold-linked assets.

In fact, at the beginning of this year, the price of gold surged to a record high of around $5,597 (about 8.42 million won) per ounce. However, after peaking, prices plummeted following the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran at the end of February. As gold is a safe asset that does not bear interest, experts noted that, contrary to expectations of further U.S. interest rate hikes, the simultaneous strength in gold prices diminished its appeal as an investment asset. As a result, the secondhand prices of high-end watches have also entered a correction phase.

Experts commented, “The era in which any luxury watch would increase in value simply by purchasing it has ended,” and added, “Amid prospects for further rate hikes and rising volatility in asset markets, the market is shifting toward selective buying, where real demand and scarcity are weighed more carefully.”

Conversely, Bloomberg noted that for collectors eyeing pre-owned gold Daytona Oysterflex models, now may be an opportune time to buy. However, Bloomberg also pointed out that it is unlikely for the market to return to the pandemic-era frenzy, when premiums were attached to any model regardless of specifics.

Meanwhile, the Bloomberg Subdial Index, created in 2022 by Bloomberg and the UK-based watch trading platform Subdial, tracks and announces the prices of the 50 most actively traded high-end watch models in the secondhand market based on transaction volume. Trends in the pre-owned prices of luxury watches such as Rolex can be observed through this index.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.