It’s no secret that 2022 Q2 has not been a fun party for the luxury watch market! The current correction has been in the back of the minds of watch collectors and grey market dealers alike for quite some time. After all, during the recent, multi-year bull market, the high end watch market saw record after record of unprecedented, price increases.
During their “Four Key Takeaways from Secondary Watch Market in 2Q” market analysis report, investment banking giant Morgan Stanley, in collaboration with WatchCharts, dive deep and provide quantifiable data showing the magnitude of the losses sustained by popular models of brands like Rolex, Audemars Piguet, and Patek Philippe.
Not all is doom and gloom though. Morgan explains that despite the significant downturn during the second quarter of 2022, watches have still outperformed other (more “traditional”) asset classes like stocks and crypto. In fact, the bank also breaks down both short and long term factors that justify the strength of the grey market. These include investor confidence in certain brands and models as stores of value, as well as fundamental factors that give luxury watches intrinsic value, such as global appeal, high craftmanship, heritage and scarcity.
During episode 68 of CRM Life (see video above), we discuss Morgan Stanley’s report in greater detail. The fact that an investment company of this size is even writing about luxury watches is a BIG plus in our opinion for the industry in general!