Luxury watches are among the worst performing assets that high net worth individuals could have invested in over the past decade.
In its 2020 Wealth Report, Knight Frank found that luxury watches increased in value by 2% last year and 60% over the past ten years.
A reasonable return, you would think, but nothing like the profits to be made from rare whiskeys, which rose in value by 5% last year and 564% since 2009.
With all the talk of unicorn watches such as Rolex’s and Patek Philippe’s steel sports models trading at huge profits on the secondary market over the past two years, the basket of watches tracked by the Knight Frank team under-performed almost all other assets into which the rich sink their money.
Rare handbags were the best bet last year, rising by 13% in value.
Among collectibles, art was up 5% and stamps increased in value by 6%.
The stock market was almost the best bet, with the FTSE 100 index gaining by 12£ in 2019.
The 2020 Wealth Report found that there were 14,367 individuals worth $30 million or more living in the UK and 71 billionaires.
