*Trade disruption in the US, surging demand in the Gulf, and a maturing secondary market in the UK — the luxury watch industry is being redrawn in real time. Here’s what the data shows.*
The luxury watch market has weathered pandemics, speculative bubbles, and post-hype corrections. But the past twelve months have delivered something it has rarely faced before: a genuine, structural reshaping of where and how high-end timepieces change hands — driven partly by geopolitics, partly by shifting demographics, and partly by a simple economic reality that is now impossible to ignore.
Pre-owned is no longer the secondary story. For a growing share of the world’s buyers, it has become the primary one.
The global pre-owned luxury watch market was valued at approximately **$24.9 billion in 2024** and is projected to reach **$63.7 billion by 2034**, according to research by Market.us — a compound annual growth rate of 9.9%, nearly double the rate projected for the new watch market over the same period. That gap is not an accident. It is the product of forces now playing out simultaneously in three of the world’s most important watch markets: the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Gulf.
The US Tariff Shock: How Trade Policy Became the Pre-Owned Market’s Best Advertisement
No single event has done more to redirect attention toward pre-owned luxury watches in the past year than the US government’s decision to impose sweeping tariffs on Swiss imports.
In August 2025, a 39% tariff on Swiss goods — including virtually every luxury watch made by Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Omega, and their peers — came into effect. The immediate impact was severe. According to data from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FHS), Swiss watch exports to the American market collapsed by **55.6% in September 2025 alone**, falling from CHF 355 million to CHF 158 million compared to the same month a year earlier. It was, by most accounts, the sharpest single-month contraction the Swiss watch industry had experienced in decades.
The tariff was later reduced to 15% following US-Switzerland negotiations in November 2025, but the damage to new retail flows had already been done, and pricing across authorised dealers had risen sharply in the interim. Industry analysts at the time estimated that brands passing through 75% of the tariff cost would see flagship models increase by 12–14% at retail — meaning a watch that cost $10,000 before August could cost upwards of $11,200 or more after it.
Paul Altieri, founder and CEO of Bob’s Watches, put it plainly: “If the new watch market slows under the weight of tariffs, the pre-owned market may very well become the lifeboat. Savvy buyers looking for value — and availability — will quickly pivot to secondhand, and that could reshape the luxury watch landscape in ways we haven’t seen before.”
The secondary market’s structural advantage in this environment is straightforward: tariffs apply at the point of import. Pre-owned watches already in the United States are unaffected. A Rolex Submariner held by a collector in New York carries no tariff premium, regardless of what happened at the Swiss border. For buyers priced out of new retail channels, or simply unwilling to absorb double-digit price increases, pre-owned became the logical alternative almost overnight.
The resilience of demand was confirmed in the half-year results of Watches of Switzerland Group, the UK-listed retailer and one of the largest Rolex sellers in the world. For the 26 weeks to October 2025, group revenue rose 10% at constant currency to £845 million, with the US market growing 20% and accounting for 48% of total revenue. Even as new supply tightened, buyers kept spending — they simply adjusted where they looked.
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**$63.7bn** — Projected value of the global pre-owned luxury watch market by 2034, up from $24.9bn in 2024 *(Market.us)*
**55.6%** — Fall in Swiss watch exports to the US in September 2025 following the imposition of a 39% tariff *(FHS)*
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The UK: A Mature Market Finding Its New Role
Britain occupies a distinctive position in the global watch trade. It is one of the most established secondary markets in Europe, home to Watchfinder — now part of Richemont — and a deep network of specialist dealers who have been buying and selling pre-owned timepieces long before the category became fashionable elsewhere.
The UK pre-owned luxury watch market generated approximately $1.34 billion in revenue in 2023 and is projected to reach $2.58 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 9.8%. That trajectory reflects a market that already has the infrastructure, the collector base, and the trust frameworks — authenticated platforms, certified programmes, specialist valuations — to support sustained growth.
Data from Chrono24’s Secondary Watch Market Report for the first half of 2025 identified four key trends shaping the global market: a Gen Z-driven shift toward slimmer, design-led watches; a normalisation of Rolex’s post-pandemic position as a market anchor rather than a speculative asset; consistent mid-luxury growth from brands like Omega; and a more measured, collector-led tone from the high end of the market.
The UK is well-positioned to capitalise on all four. Its specialist buyer network is mature enough to offer competitive, transparent valuations on everything from a stainless steel Submariner to a vintage Datejust, and the growing professionalisation of the sell-side — services that make it straightforward for owners to sell your watch with free valuations, verified pricing, and same-day payment — has meaningfully reduced the friction that once made selling a luxury watch feel complicated.
For anyone holding a timepiece they are considering releasing, the current market conditions are arguably among the most favourable in several years. New retail prices in the US have risen. Swiss watch supply into major markets has tightened. And the pool of informed buyers willing to pay fair prices for authenticated pre-owned pieces continues to expand globally.
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Dubai and the Gulf: The World’s Fastest-Growing Watch Hub
If the US story is about disruption and adaptation, and the UK story is about maturity, the Gulf story is about growth — raw, data-backed, structurally grounded growth that shows no sign of slowing.
The UAE luxury watch market was valued at approximately $1.61 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $2.21 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of around 5.21%, according to MarkNtel Advisors. Swiss watch imports into the UAE rose by approximately 11.8% in 2024 compared to the previous year.
Singapore-based auction platform FutureGrail forecasts that watch auctions worldwide will surpass $1 billion in 2026, with GCC buyers accounting for roughly 20–25% of top-value transactions — meaning over $200 million worth of high-value luxury watches is expected to pass into regional hands over the next twelve months.
The structural drivers are well understood. Dubai’s tax-free environment removes one of the most significant cost barriers facing buyers in Europe and North America. The emirate’s expanding millionaire population — over 86,000 according to New World Wealth, up from around 4,700 new arrivals in 2023 to roughly 7,000 in 2024 — creates a continuously refreshing base of high-net-worth buyers with both the appetite and the means to invest in serious timepieces.
But the most significant development is the maturation of Dubai’s pre-owned market, specifically. Where the city was once known primarily for new retail — flagship boutiques in the Dubai Mall, hotel shopping arcades stocked with the latest references — it has developed a specialist secondary sector that now competes credibly with London and Geneva for the attention of collectors. Authenticated boutiques offering in-person inspection, condition grading, and transparent provenance are filling a gap that large online platforms and grey-market operators cannot. Buyers in the UAE want to see a watch on their wrist before committing — a preference that aligns with global data showing that offline retail still accounts for around 85% of luxury watch purchases in the UAE, even as online channels grow.
For buyers in the region looking to access authenticated pre-owned watches in Dubai, UAE, the city’s specialist boutique sector now offers an alternative to both new retail waitlists and the risk that comes with unverified online transactions.
The Global Picture: Three Markets, One Direction
Taken together, the US, UK, and Gulf data tell a consistent story. The pre-owned luxury watch market is not simply growing — it is being institutionalised. The forces driving that institutionalisation are converging from multiple directions:
**Brand endorsement.** Rolex expanded its Certified Pre-Owned programme to key European and US markets in early 2025. Richemont’s Watchfinder has introduced manufacturer-certified programmes for additional brands, including Vacheron Constantin. When the brands themselves formalise the secondary market, they are not conceding ground — they are expanding their ecosystem.
**Demographic shift.** A survey found that 20% of individuals aged 18 to 24 expressed interest in purchasing a luxury watch within the next year, compared to an average of 11% across all age groups. Neo-vintage timepieces have surged by 123% in the pre-owned market since 2023, making them the fastest-growing segment in the secondary market. Younger buyers are not waiting for retail allocations or saving for new boutique prices. They are buying pre-owned deliberately, and often knowledgeably.
**Supply constraints.** Rolex produces an estimated one million watches per year, against demand that far exceeds this figure. Discontinued references — the Hulk Submariner, the two-tone GMT-Master II “Rootbeer,” specific Daytona dial variants — simply cannot be bought new. For collectors pursuing specific pieces, the secondary market is the only market.
**Value retention.** Fifteen years of market data show Rolex average prices climbed from around £1,640 in July 2010 to a post-correction level of approximately £10,740 by mid-2025 — a gain of over 555% in sterling terms. The Submariner 116610 showed 335% total appreciation from 2011 to 2025, while the Datejust delivered an impressive 639% over the same window.
These are not the characteristics of a niche collector hobby. They are the characteristics of a mature, data-driven alternative asset class — one that happens to be wearable.
What It Means for Buyers and Sellers in 2026
For buyers, the present moment offers a clearer value proposition than at any point since the post-pandemic correction. New retail prices in the US are elevated by tariff pressure. Swiss supply chains are still absorbing the disruption of 2025. The premium for pre-owned — in terms of price, immediacy, and access to discontinued references — has rarely been more compelling.
For sellers, the conditions are equally favourable. A tightened supply of new watches in the US and continued strong demand across the Gulf means that well-maintained timepieces from respected brands are finding motivated buyers across multiple markets. The key, as it has always been, is connecting with buyers who understand real-time market pricing and can complete transactions without delay. In the UK, the infrastructure to do this now exists at a professional level — specialist services where owners can sell your watch through a free, no-obligation valuation process backed by live market data, with same-day payment available for agreed transactions.
The global pre-owned watch market is no longer a compromise for buyers who cannot afford new. In 2026, for a growing number of collectors, investors, and first-time luxury buyers across the US, the UK, and the Gulf, it is the preferred destination. The data, the institutional backing, and the global infrastructure now all point in the same direction.
For more information, visit Watch Boutique Sell My Rolex, Omega, Tag, Breitling London 3rd Floor, 45 Albemarle Street, Mayfair, London, W1S 4JL 020 7167 6783 https://watchboutique.uk/sell-my-watch-london/