Crypto Downturn Floods Market With Rolex and Patek Watches, Trading Platform Says

The latest troubles in the crypto space have allegedly led to an increased supply of second-hand luxury watches, according to a leading trading platform. As a result, prices of sought-after models by major brands like Rolex and Patek have dropped, the company revealed.

Higher Supply After Crypto Crash Hurts Resale Prices of Top Watches From Swiss Brands Like Rolex

The recent decline in the valuations of crypto assets has directly impacted pricing of luxury watches from Rolex, Patek Philippe and the like, a German online platform that lists hundreds of thousands of watches has noticed.

The supply of trophy watches, such as the Rolex Daytona or Patek Nautilus 5711A, “is now much larger,” the Karlsruhe-based Chrono24 said in a statement, quoted by Bloomberg. The crypto collapse is easing supply of the most desired models on the second-hand market, it elaborated.

The report notes that the decreasing prices of the most wanted timepieces is an indication that the second-hand luxury watch market is starting to lose pace. That’s after surging crypto rates before that had led to the birth of a new class of luxury buyers and unprecedented increase in the prices of models from the top brands.

These consumers are now retreating and the prices for the most sought after watches fall closer in line with other, similar products. The trend represents a consolidation of the market, remarked Chrono24 Co-CEO Tim Stracke.

Meanwhile, the trading volumes on the site, where dealers and private sellers find buyers, have spiked more than 50% during the first half of 2022, the executive revealed. And while a Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711A is now selling for $190,000, down from $240,000 in the first quarter, the prices of many models from Cartier and Breitling have risen.

The German company also pointed to an increase in demand for almost all models from Omega’s Speedmaster collection, offered as a product of the collaboration with Swatch. Chrono24 also expects overall sales on its platform to increase in the second half of the year.

Cryptocurrencies and luxury watches already have a history together. In May, Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer said it’s introducing online crypto payments for its customers in the U.S. through an integration with Bitpay. This month, another luxury watch manufacturer from Switzerland, Franck Muller, announced it’s launching an exclusive Binance NFT collection with limited-edition timepieces.

Do you expect resale prices of top models from luxury watch brands to increase again with rising crypto valuations? Tell us in the comments section below.

Lubomir Tassev

Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchens’s quote: “Being a writer is what I am, rather than what I do.” Besides crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.

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