Luxury Watches - Easy money

So recently i made some profit from crypto and to diversify my portfolio i stared buying luxury watches on Chrono24.

Does anyone else dabble in this market? The gains right now are unbelievable, before Xmas i bought a Rolex Submariner and only 3 weeks later sold it for £2900 profit. I also have a Rolex Explorer II in my possession which looks like making me a further £1000 profit after only a few weeks.

Have my eye on a Rolex GMT Master II at the moment however waiting for what seems to be forever for the market to dip. I've heard there's a pandemic driven manufacturing issue causing a supply shortage however the demand right now is unbelievable. If you have a Rolex that's been regularly serviced, in good condition with box and papers and would like to sell please drop me a PM, any model at all.

Used the profit to upgrade my daily wear Seiko and ordered a Maurice Lecroix Aikon 39mm, these watches don't lose much value and the finishing for the price is outstanding.

Have to say one of the more profitable endeavours of the recent few years. I've also purchased a Tudor Black Bay which again appears to be holding value and selling for right around retail. If you manage to secure a discount of 10-15% from a dealer you can bank that profit on the second hand market with a little patience. I now have 2 rather nice watches that were bought entirely by profit from selling a couple of Rolex.

Anyone have any insight into why the luxury watch market is on fire?

Cool thread idea. I have appreciation for fine watches and have a 50's Oyster from my dad not for sale.

But I have a friend who is a lonely guy but a very nice man and buying himself some of these beauties is his passion.

He would be no competition as a seller so I would appreciate any info you'd share that I can pass on to him so he can snag him a watch or two a year at a bargain price.

He's not big money. I'd say he's looking for anything well made that catches his fancy 1 to 3 thousand. His Omega Constellation is his current best, I think, so there ya' go.

Thanks!

Checked out the website, very cool!! Kinda like viewing the new releases from Lamborghini or looking at the swimsuit issue, nice but I can’t touch!!

originally posted by: Grenade
So recently i made some profit from crypto and to diversify my portfolio i stared buying luxury watches on Chrono24.

Does anyone else dabble in this market? The gains right now are unbelievable, before Xmas i bought a Rolex Submariner and only 3 weeks later sold it for £2900 profit. I also have a Rolex Explorer II in my possession which looks like making me a further £1000 profit after only a few weeks.

Have my eye on a Rolex GMT Master II at the moment however waiting for what seems to be forever for the market to dip. I've heard there's a pandemic driven manufacturing issue causing a supply shortage however the demand right now is unbelievable. If you have a Rolex that's been regularly serviced, in good condition with box and papers and would like to sell please drop me a PM, any model at all.

Used the profit to upgrade my daily wear Seiko and ordered a Maurice Lecroix Aikon 39mm, these watches don't lose much value and the finishing for the price is outstanding.

Have to say one of the more profitable endeavours of the recent few years. I've also purchased a Tudor Black Bay which again appears to be holding value and selling for right around retail. If you manage to secure a discount of 10-15% from a dealer you can bank that profit on the second hand market with a little patience. I now have 2 rather nice watches that were bought entirely by profit from selling a couple of Rolex.

Anyone have any insight into why the luxury watch market is on fire?

I have a Panerai. I wanted to buy a rolex batman last year until i discovered how insane the market had become . Im eyeing other brands now.

Market will crash. No reason rolexes are so inflated. They make like a million watches a year. At this point it is flippers selling to flippers.

a reply to: The GUT

The Tudor Black Bay range is a lot of watch for the money and slightly below retail Omega prices, their dive watches IMO aren't far off Rolex quality for a fraction of the price, not to mention they use in house movements and hold value well.

I'm waiting on delivery of my Maurice Lecroix Aikon 39mm, again another beautiful watch for the price with an exhibition back and lovely finish. The dial is a myriad of light and colour.

Not really a fan of Omega personally, i've tried a few on but they don't sit well on my wrist and i don't really wear purist dive watches.

Bvlgari is another brand that do interesting movements, not sure how well they hold price but if you can get a used one at a highly discounted price they're really nice watches IMO, have that Royal Oak feel without the massive price tag.

a reply to: Edumakated

Panerai are nice but personally i don't wear watches over 40mm so rules them out for me. Also they depreciate like lead balloons so hopefully you bought on the second hand market.

Wouldn't be so sure about Rolex, especially the discontinued models.

Any Rolex Daytona has almost doubled in price in the last 12 months, if you bought one with a rainbow dial last year you'd be looking at the kind of profit that would fund a small property purchase.

Buying a new Rolex from the manufacturer is impossible, even authorised dealers are running short and generally barter on price rather than listing.

originally posted by: Grenade
a reply to: The GUT

The Tudor Black Bay range is a lot of watch from the money and slightly below retail Omega prices, their dive watches IMO aren't far off Rolex quality for a fraction of the price, not to mention they use in house movements and hold value well.

I'm waiting on delivery of my Maurice Lecroix Aikon 39mm, again another beautiful watch for the price with an exhibition back and lovely finish. The dial is a myriad of light and colour.

Not really a fan of Omega personally, i've tried a few on but they don't sit well on my wrist and i don't really wear purist dive watches.

Bvlgari is another brand that do interesting movements, not sure how well they hold price but if you can get a used one at a highly discounted price they're really nice watches IMO, have that Royal Oak feel without the massive price tag.

Bulgari octo line is great.

I want an omega 007. My dream watch though is the Moser Streamliner. I may go with a grand seiko lake suwa though since the rolex oysters are practically impossible to get at retail.
Sinn is another brand with bang for buck for a daily tool watch.

Love watches. Too many great ones to choose from.

a reply to: Edumakated

I wouldn't bother with Grand Seiko, they have fans but really it's just a £500 Seiko movement with a pretty dial. Way too expensive and not enough of a jump in quality over a standard Seiko watch. If you like the brand or the style by all means go for it but don't expect to make a profit when you go to sell, you're looking at 60-70% loss of value the first time you put it on your wrist.

originally posted by: Grenade
a reply to: Edumakated

Panerai are nice but personally i don't wear watches over 40mm so rules them out for me. Also they depreciate like lead balloons so hopefully you bought on the second hand market.

Wouldn't be so sure about Rolex, especially the discontinued models.

Any Rolex Daytona has almost doubled in price in the last 12 months, if you bought one with a rainbow dial last year you'd be looking at the kind of profit that would fund a small property purchase.

Buying a new Rolex from the manufacturer is impossible, even authorised dealers are running short and generally barter on price rather than listing.

I bought my Pam 17 years ago when they were hard to get. It held its value pretty well. I could sell it for about what i paid.

What is crazy is i bought the pam because everyone had rolexes. The AD had explorers, subs, and daytonas.... market was totally different. I dont know when market changed but was definitely caught off guard. Wanted to buy a batman as im nearing 50.... quixkly discovered the market is tight for rolexes.

a reply to: Edumakated

Yeah, any limited edition like Kermit, Hulk or Batman are impossible to find and when you do be prepared to pay the premium.

You'd be better with a Submariner, IMO a much more classy choice with the heritage, value and style you want in a Rolex. Not really a fan of the multi-coloured bezel although i think the GMT Pepsi is still a good investment.

Panerai are nice watches just not my style, they wear too big on the wrist.

a reply to: Edumakated

Rolex Batman - With box and papers

Best deal i can find on a Batman, considering the retail is around £10,000 it kind of proves what i mean about the second hand market for Rolex. £5k above retail for a 2014 watch is crazy.

I bought my first Rolex Submariner in 1995, it was a self reward for a project that I completed..I wore it every day for 10 years. I’m a rough and tumble man and it was wore out. My son wrote a true story about how I had wore that watch while cave and wreck diving around the word. He ended it with the line, “If your going to bet you ass on a time pice, then you have got to decide what your ass is worth.”

We listed it on eBay with that story and it sold for more than I gave for it. So I bought a two tone for sub. I’m now on my third one. Everyone else can have their apple watches and other gadgets. I’ll stick with my Old Submariner. My ass is priceless.

a reply to: Grenade

It used to be easy money until prices started skyrocketing and waiting lists extended to a couple of years. Now it's a hit or miss, by the time the discontinuation rumors are out, prices are set higher. You know the whole come spend $500k and we get you the stainless steel sports models? Was good when you could easily get them from AD's. Now retail prices have now been increased as manufacturers realize just how high people are willing to pay for them.

I do flip occasionally but haven't come across any good deals and my AD shut down. I do have a few pieces atm including a Patek 5711/1A which I'm holding on to as they were recently discontinued.

I wonder how the financial crisis will affect the grey market? I see perhaps a flip and more of a demand in Gold watches rather than stainless steel. Only time will tell I suppose.

Btw why is the Tifanny dial oyster trading for over $50k??? I was promised early access to the Tiffany 5711 but my plug never came through..

a reply to: Nickn3

Except that...a traditional chronograph isn't really a mission critical piece of diving gear any longer. Hasn't been for some time. I mean, I still wear a traditional watch diving, but more just out of habit and triple redundancy. My primary and secondary dive computers are what I'm looking at first for time, N.D. limits, alarms, pressures and other data. No watch can do all those things...and I'm a watch lover too!

a reply to: DeadSnow

Yeah, that's the thing, especially with Rolex too. Unless you have the watch someone is looking for you're out of luck as a reseller. The worst part is, Rolex dealers play favorites. You can get on a "list", but never let yourself get conned into believing that's the "only" list, and that you're on a 1st come 1st served basis! Preferred customers will always get 1st choice, regardless of where they are on the "list". So, you're right, people can wait 1-2 years for a Rolex...unless they buy 2-3 Rolex's per year, and then they'll wait a much shorter time! The sad part is, most of the preferred guys aren't really consumers; they're just flipping the watches. Rolex says they try to stop this, but do they really?

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
I don’t dive nearly as often as I did in my youth and I use a scuba pro computer now days as well. But I can still run the navy tables in my head if needed. I’m saying my Sub is an incredibly tuff time pice and a great investment. If you trade them occasionally it’s like wearing a Rolex for free.

It is just a simple, no nonsense wrist watch. Before I started wearing a Sub I could hardly get a years wear without breaking or flooding a watch. I have been wearing one for so long now that, I don’t think of how expensive it is. It’s just my watch.

a reply to: Nickn3

I'm happy for you, and glad they work to your advantage like that. I truly am.

I'm a big time watch guy, and have one on my wrist 24x7x365, but I can't wear Rolex anymore. Unfortunately, they're too small for my 8.5" wrist. I have one Sub left which I keep only because it was a gift and has sentimental value. Otherwise, I need something minimally in the 45mm+ range, else they look freakishly small on my wrist. As I'm sure you know, band width also plays a large part in how a watch wears on a wrist, but anything below about 22mm is too small for me. I think 21-22 is about the biggest you can get on a Rolex (if even that big), but I forgot the actual max dimensions as I never wear it anymore.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Yeah there's no way anyone is competing with Grey market dealers who buy tens of millions of dollars of inventory from the ADs every year. The world is full of corruption, in order to get higher on the list you literally have to make sure the sales team are taken care of.

I have a salesman who sends current inventory, thing is, he needs his cut and in most cases it's the less desirable pieces such bi-metal daytonas/Skydwellers, Datejust Palm Motif diamond bezel, Daytona Diamond dial white gold, Gold Yacht master oyesterflex 37 etc. All trading 1-2k below retail.

You literally have to make loses off these pieces to be able to acquire the more in demand ones. Say you buy 5 of these "crap" watches and lose 5-6k, you finally land a watch you can sell for 10-12k profit and recover your initial loss.

Edit: 44mm deepsea is the largest Rolex.

originally posted by: DeadSnow
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

...

Edit: 44mm deepsea is the largest Rolex.

I did not know that. I thought 41-42mm was max for Rolex. Interesting.

I completely agree with the rest of your post also. Just try to lay your hands on a two-tone Sub! LOL! I know a guy who's been waiting on one for over two years! Oh, and get this, his dealer found one for him that was "new" (sort of). I'd never heard of something like this happening, but he went ahead and bought it...and it stopped like the next day! And after that it would stop about every 4-5 hours or so. Rolex couldn't fix it for some reason. His AD took care of his return (and now he's waiting again), but I'd never heard of that happening to a brand new Sub like that.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk

originally posted by: DeadSnow
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

...

Edit: 44mm deepsea is the largest Rolex.

I did not know that. I thought 41-42mm was max for Rolex. Interesting.

I completely agree with the rest of your post also. Just try to lay your hands on a two-tone Sub! LOL! I know a guy who's been waiting on one for over two years! Oh, and get this, his dealer found one for him that was "new" (sort of). I'd never heard of something like this happening, but he went ahead and bought it...and it stopped like the next day! And after that it would stop about every 4-5 hours or so. Rolex couldn't fix it for some reason. His AD took care of his return (and now he's waiting again), but I'd never heard of that happening to a brand new Sub like that.

I've never heard of that happening. I know the Bi-metal (Two tone) Sub is the easiest to get. The guy who sold the watch probably screwed him over and sourced him a watch that perhaps had a broken crystal which wasn't taken apart fully and serviced after repair..could be that there's debris blocking the rotor? Could be a problem with the main spring? or perhaps he isn't winding the watch manually? or could be a replica? Unless the watch is open it's a guessing game.

It's not hard to fix them, very simple for someone who knows what they're doing and has the right parts and tools. Tell him to take it to a reputable watchmaker.

I know a couple of people that have screwed over by grey market dealers and sold fakes, celebrities included. It's important to do as much research as possible before purchasing time pieces. Too many fakes out there.