It's one of the most common phrases in watch marketing, sometimes explicit, sometimes just implied: buy this watch, and it'll be worth more later. Occasionally, that's even true. But treating a watch primarily as an investment vehicle is a genuinely different mindset than collecting one you love, and conflating the two tends to lead to disappointment more often than it leads to profit.
The Honest Reality: Most Watches Lose Value
The uncomfortable truth is that the vast majority of watches, even well-known Swiss and Japanese names, depreciate the moment they leave the store, just like a new car does. Retail markups, brand overhead, and simple supply all work against near-term resale value. A watch bought new and sold a year later, in the same condition, will typically sell for less than it cost, sometimes significantly less, regardless of how prestigious the brand name is.
That's not a knock on those watches as objects to own and enjoy. It's simply a reminder that "well-made" and "financially appreciating" are two completely different qualities, and most watches only have the first one.
Where the Exceptions Actually Come From
The watches that genuinely do hold or increase in value tend to share a specific set of traits, and they're much rarer than auction headlines make them seem. Extremely limited production numbers, genuine and sustained demand that consistently outpaces supply, strong brand heritage built over decades or centuries, and a track record of holding value across multiple market cycles, not just one good year, all tend to matter.
Certain references from Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet have built reputations for this kind of performance, but it's worth being clear that this applies to specific references and specific market conditions, not to "luxury watches" as a broad category. Buying a Rolex doesn't automatically mean buying an appreciating asset; plenty of Rolex references trade at or below retail on the secondary market at any given time.
Why Chasing Investment Watches Is Genuinely Difficult
Even setting aside the fact that most watches don't appreciate, successfully investing in the ones that might requires a specific kind of access and knowledge that's hard to replicate consistently. The watches most likely to appreciate are often also the hardest to buy at retail price in the first place, frequently requiring waitlists, existing purchase history with a boutique, or paying a premium on the secondary market that immediately erases much of the potential upside.
Timing also matters enormously, and it's notoriously difficult to predict. Watch market trends shift with fashion, cultural moments, and broader economic conditions, and a reference that's red-hot one year can cool considerably a few years later. Treating watch investing like a reliable, predictable asset class tends to underestimate just how much genuine unpredictability is baked into that market.
A More Honest Way to Think About It
Most experienced collectors, and most financial advisors who've been asked about this directly, land on a similar piece of advice: buy a watch because you genuinely want to wear and own it, not because you're counting on it to appreciate. If it happens to hold or increase in value over time, treat that as a pleasant bonus rather than the entire point of the purchase.
This reframing matters practically, not just philosophically. A watch bought purely as an investment that fails to appreciate feels like a straightforward loss. A watch bought because you loved it, that also happened to hold its value reasonably well, feels like a win either way, because the enjoyment was already the return.
If You Do Want to Buy With Value in Mind
For those who do want to factor potential value retention into a purchase, a few habits genuinely help. Stick to well-established references with a long track record, rather than newly released pieces with no real secondary market history yet. Keep box, papers, and any original accessories, since completeness meaningfully affects resale value. Buy at or as close to retail as realistically possible, since overpaying on the secondary market erases much of any future upside before you've even started. And be honest with yourself about your time horizon; watch values, even for genuinely strong references, tend to move over years and market cycles, not months.
The Bottom Line
A watch can be a legitimate financial asset under the right, fairly narrow circumstances, but treating that as the default expectation for any watch purchase sets most buyers up for disappointment. The healthiest approach, and honestly the one that tends to actually work out best even financially, is buying watches you'd be happy to own even if the resale value never moved at all.