The Evolution of the Modern Secondhand Watch Marketplace

How a niche collectors’ hobby became a multi-billion-dollar global market — and why the best may be yet to come.

Twenty years ago, buying a pre-owned luxury watch was an exercise in faith. You found a listing on a forum, wired money to a stranger, and hoped that the Submariner arriving in a padded envelope was genuine. There were no escrow services, no authentication guarantees, and no recourse if something went wrong. The secondhand watch market existed, but it was fragmented, opaque, and — for most consumers — intimidating.

Today, secondhand sales of luxury watches have reached over $45 billion in annual gross merchandise value, of which over $15 billion is from online marketplaces. The transformation from niche hobby to mainstream asset class has been nothing short of remarkable — driven by a confluence of cultural shifts, technological innovation, and macroeconomic tailwinds that few in the industry could have predicted.

The Channel Shift: From Brick-and-Mortar to Browser (2004–2014)

The earliest phase of the modern online secondhand marketplace was defined by a simple channel migration: transactions that once happened in person — at dealer showrooms, watch fairs, and collector meetups — began moving online. Platforms like Chrono24, founded in 2003, and eBay’s growing luxury watch vertical offered sellers something they had never had before: global reach. A dealer in Munich could now sell to a collector in Miami without either party leaving home.

During this period, growth was steady but measured. The online secondary market was still a fraction of the primary retail channel, and trust remained a significant barrier. Buyers were largely experienced collectors who understood reference numbers and could spot a redial from a photograph. The uninitiated — the casual luxury consumer who might have walked into a jeweler on a whim — was largely absent from the secondhand market.

Yet the infrastructure was being laid. Early platforms invested in listing standards, seller verification processes, and rudimentary escrow services that would prove critical in the years ahead. The watch industry’s digital transformation had begun, even if most of the industry didn’t realize it yet.

The Inflection Point: Social Media, Scarcity, and Sophistication (2015–2020)

Around 2015, several forces converged to fundamentally accelerate the secondary market’s growth from a healthy clip into something approaching exponential.

The first was cultural. Instagram, and later TikTok, transformed luxury watches from a quiet enthusiasm into a shareable, visual obsession. Influencers and content creators educated millions of potential buyers almost overnight, demystifying reference numbers, explaining the difference between a caliber 3135 and a 3235, and — perhaps most importantly — creating viral demand for specific models. A Rolex Daytona was no longer just a chronograph; it was content.

The second force was supply constriction. High-end brands like Rolex, Audemars Piguet, and Patek Philippe had long managed production volumes carefully, but as demand surged through the latter half of the 2010s, the gap between supply and demand widened dramatically. Authorized dealers found themselves with multi-year waitlists. For many buyers, the secondary market became not just an alternative but the only viable path to ownership. Secondhand prices for the most sought-after references — the Submariner, the Royal Oak, the Nautilus — crossed above retail for the first time around 2013 and never looked back.

Note: Prices shown are 2024 inflation-adjusted USD. Each line represents the average price of the current top three men’s models for each brand, equally weighted.

The third was platform maturation. Marketplaces invested heavily in authentication processes, condition grading standards, escrow mechanics, and pricing transparency. These improvements were essential in bridging the trust gap that had kept mainstream consumers on the sidelines. When a buyer could see verified seller ratings, review standardized condition reports, and know that their funds were held in escrow until inspection, the psychological barrier to a five-figure online purchase dropped substantially.

It was also during this era that watches became part of a broader collectibles boom. Sneakers, streetwear, trading cards, and luxury handbags were all experiencing similar dynamics: limited supply, strong brand equity, transparent resale price discovery, and a new generation of buyers who viewed these items not merely as possessions but as investments. Watches fit neatly into this framework, and the macro environment — rising asset prices, low interest rates, and growing discretionary wealth — only added fuel.

The Pandemic Surge and Subsequent Correction (2021–2024)

The COVID-19 pandemic created a perfect storm for the secondhand watch market. Government stimulus programs flooded consumers with discretionary income. Supply chains, already constrained, tightened further. And with travel, dining, and entertainment curtailed, luxury goods became a favored outlet for spending. Secondary market prices for premium references surged more than 20% annually in 2021 and 2022, with some models reaching premiums of nearly 100% above their retail prices.

The data tells a striking story. Inflation-adjusted secondhand prices for the top three Rolex steel sports models — the Submariner, GMT-Master II, and Daytona — had been climbing at roughly 4–5% annually since the mid-2010s. During the pandemic peak, the equal-weight average for these references exceeded $33,000, against a retail average of approximately $12,000. The Daytona alone, with a retail price of around $15,000, reached secondary prices north of $40,000.

The correction, when it came, was swift. Beginning in late 2022, as stimulus effects faded, interest rates rose, and speculative enthusiasm cooled, secondary market prices declined meaningfully — reverting roughly to 2021 levels. But the correction was in price, not volume. Transaction volumes on major platforms remained steady or grew modestly through 2023 and 2024, suggesting that while the speculative froth had dissipated, the underlying structural demand for secondhand watches had not.

This distinction matters. A market that corrects in price while maintaining volume is not a market in decline; it is a market normalizing after a period of excess. And the post-correction landscape reveals a healthier, more sustainable ecosystem — one in which buyers are motivated by genuine interest in horology rather than speculative returns.

The Structural Shift: Secondhand as a Permanent Channel

Perhaps the most consequential development of the past decade in the watch industry is that the secondhand market has evolved from a niche alternative into a structural pillar of the broader watch industry. As watch brands have struggled to maintain sales growth through retail channels, secondhand sales have grown ~6 - 7% annually over the past twenty years and the online marketplace segment within the secondhand market has grown ~15%+ during that period. That is not a sideshow; it is a major sales channel.

The brands themselves have acknowledged this shift. In a 2023 Deloitte industry study, 71% of watch brand executives described the secondary market as having a positive influence on brand perception and value. Sixty-four percent viewed it as enabling a new type of clientele to experience their brand. Only 1% considered it a threat to new watch sales. Industry forecasters have predicted that the pre-owned market could grow to match the primary market in size within the next decade.

This embrace has manifested in direct action. Rolex launched its Certified Pre-Owned program in December 2022 — the first of its kind among luxury watch brands — offering used Rolexes with certified authenticity and a two-year warranty through selected authorized dealers. The program generated over $500 million in sales by the end of 2025, with inventory growing to nearly 8,000 pieces. Vacheron Constantin followed with its own CPO program in 2024, and Audemars Piguet has signaled imminent plans to do the same.

Richemont’s 2018 acquisition of European secondhand watch retailer Watchfinder was another landmark moment, representing the first major foray of a luxury conglomerate into the secondary market. The strategic logic was clear: capture revenue from a growing channel, control brand pricing in the pre-owned segment, and — critically — gain access to secondhand sales data that had previously been invisible to the brands.

What Comes Next

The online secondhand watch marketplace has grown at a compound annual rate of roughly 15%+ over the past two decades, making it the fastest-growing segment of the luxury watch ecosystem. Yet for all this growth, the competitive landscape remains remarkably concentrated. Chrono24 dominates with approximately 600,000 active luxury listings. eBay maintains a substantial presence with around 170,000 luxury watch listings, though it lacks watch-specific branding and robust authentication. Bezel, a venture-backed challenger founded in 2021, has built a curated marketplace with roughly 23,000 listings. Beyond these three and a fragmented network of forums and small communities, the field is thin.

The opportunities ahead are significant. Seller fees across incumbent platforms range from 5% to as high as 15% of the sale price — fees that reduce proceeds for sellers, inflate prices for buyers, and create a persistent drag on marketplace liquidity. Authentication and fraud prevention technologies continue to improve but remain unevenly distributed.

The secondhand watch market has come an extraordinary distance from those early forum transactions. But its evolution is far from complete. As the market matures, the platforms that will win are those that prioritize liquidity and minimize friction for both buyers and sellers.

Market data referenced in this article draws from industry analyses including the Deloitte 2023–2024 Watch Industry Reports and Tempo internal research. All dollar figures and growth rates are inflation-adjusted to 2025 USD unless otherwise noted.