One of the advantages to paying more for a product – most any product – is the idea that it will retain its value over a lesser brand. It’s true in almost all worlds: a nice Martin guitar will not only maintain but sometimes increase in value, whereas a Ibanez or off-brand will certainly decrease to the point of being worth nothing. If you are ready to step into the world of owning and appreciating high end luxury watches, you should consider which brands are more likely to maintain their value.
Appreciating a watch that maintains its value is not only for those who plan to sell and trade watches up as a way of generating profit. If you are a serious watch collector or owner, you may in the future simply decide that you want to upgrade, or trade up, at some point. There’s nothing wrong with that and it doesn’t make you less of a watch connoisseur; in fact quite the opposite.
So which luxury brands are most likely to maintain their value in the near and long term?
The first rule of thumb with any high end purchase like a car or a watch, is that if you buy your item new, it will immediately lose a percentage of its value immediately after leaving the so-called lot. If you’re looking to maximize the return on a future trade up or sale of your watch, you should consider buying a pre-owned watch from an established reseller like watchrecon.com. You don’t want to buy a used high end watch from CraigsList of eBay; you should find a professional to give in the once or twice over and the stamp of authenticity and approval.
The heavy hitter brands of watch that maintain their value over all others are: Patek Philippe, Panerai, Audemars Piguet, JLC, Vacheron Constantin, Rolex. Of these, you are probably most likely to find a Rolex model that maintain its value over the years. The reason for that is that Rolex watches have a high degree of name brand recognition while still being a top brand in reliability and beauty. True high end collectors will recognize the worth and value of these other brands, particularly Panerai watches, but with Rolex you have the advantage of the masses’ recognition, which drives values up and consistent. A Rolex, many will argue, is not the best watch for the money. But numbers show that the more popular models of Rolex will maintain their value better than almost any competitor.
Another tip for keeping your watch’s value over the years is to avoid the allure of boutique watches and features. Boutique metals and features of a watch can drive up its initial sticker price and you will love the watch’s unique and beautiful features, but when it comes to reselling it, you will have to try to convince a purchases of these features’ value. That becomes exceedingly difficult and you will end up bearing the brunt of the loss of value, simply because the metal used is not familiar to the common people. A stainless steel watch will be your best bet going forward for resale value.
In any world of high end goods and value and reselling, it’s important to remember that you will become a sales person in the future. Think about what draws you to a watch, and knowing that when people are buying from an unknown source like a private owner, they will want a watch or a product with familiar features that they can easily deem to be valuable or authentic.
For this reason, Rolex brand watches are the most likely to maintain the highest percentage of value form what you paid for it.