Swiss, Japanese watch collectors outperform with 40% returns

FINANCIAL returns earned by luxury watch owners based in Switzerland and Japan are the highest compared to collectors in other parts of the world, according to data from trading platform Chrono24.

Watch collections of Chrono24 users in both countries have appreciated an average of 40 per cent since the date of purchase. In contrast, returns for collectors based in the Netherlands were 24 per cent while the value of watches owned by German collectors gained 25 per cent.

Both Switzerland and Japan are major watch producing countries, possibly giving residents better insight into luxury watch values as well as access to greater supply. Switzerland is home to marques ranging from Omega to Rolex while Japan counts Seiko, Grand Seiko and Citizen among its best known watch brands.

Chrono24 said the study was based on anonymous data provided by its users and 1.3 million watch collections tracked on its website. The total value of watch collections tracked on Chrono24 is more than US$49.7 billion, making up almost 7 per cent of the estimated US$750 billion value of all the watches in the world, the company said.

The average collector in Switzerland owns about 6 watches with a total value of about 45,000 euros (S$64,764.20) while an average Japanese collector owns the same number of watches with an average total worth of about 64,000 euros.

After an unprecedented surge in 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, secondary market prices for the most in demand Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet models have fallen sharply with some references losing as much as a third of their value in a year.

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The Chrono24 data shows the value of Swiss watch collections declined by about 7 per cent in 2022 while Japanese collections fell 8 per cent. The value of watch collections in Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada all declined about 3 per cent last year, according to the Chrono24 data. BLOOMBERG