If it has been a handful of years now that we have been witnessing, sometimes dumbfounded, the vertiginous progression of the secondary watch market (until it is very close to that of new watches), it is difficult to remember the pre-speculative bubble .
Since its founding in England in 2002, Watchfinder (acquired in 2018 by the Richemont group) has seen a change of era pass before its eyes, seen brands emerge and others fall into disuse and above all observed the desires and trends of buyers.
All recorded in a series of Excel files that are now very expensive when you open them twenty years later.
Here are some excerpts.
Highligths
Full screen
Cosmograph Daytona “Leopard” watch in yellow gold, diamonds and sapphires.
Watchfinder / Photo press
Unsurprisingly, it is the steel models that stand out as the big winners of the past 20 years, far ahead of the gold models or the titanium newcomers.
With a preference for the metal bracelet, rather than the traditional leather, in the wake of the success of the sport chic watches of the 70's.
On the brand side, Watchfinder experts draw an undeniable hegemony of Rolex, which will have launched in twenty years some of the most requested models still today in stores and online: the green Submariner called "Kermit" or the Yacht-Master II of 2007. Without forgetting the Bulgari records or the appearance of the Code 11.59 at Audemars Piguet.
On the other hand, if these data still seem very topical today, some others could already be in the process of being reversed.
This is particularly the case with the most desired case sizes.
While the last two decades have generally celebrated diameters over 40mm wide, recent post-economic crisis changes should change the trend for the next few years.
Fluctuations in the global economy always invariably result in a need to be more discreet.
If indeed the word still makes sense in the face of the sale prices displayed recently by the stars of second-hand watchmaking.
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