Watch Pilot has conducted research into what the most popular searches for pre-owned watches are online, and the results make for interesting reading.
Almost inevitably, Rolex topped the list of the most-wanted pre-owned watch brands, with 790,000 Google searches. Less predictable was it being over 20 times more popular than Patek Philippe.
Omega came in second place, with 117,640 Google searches, while Cartier was third with 102,780 searches.
The most in-demand pre-owned watch brands:
| Rank | Watch Brand | No. of Searches for “Pre-owned [BRAND] watch” | No. of Searches for “Pre-owned [BRAND]” | No. of Searches for “Used [BRAND] watch” | No. of Searches for “Used [BRAND]” | Total No. of Searches |
| 1 | Rolex | 12,000 | 292,300 | 108,000 | 386,600 | 798,900 |
| 2 | Omega | 11,940 | 20,100 | 66,400 | 19,200 | 117,640 |
| 3 | Cartier | 31,800 | 13,980 | 45,700 | 11,300 | 102,780 |
| 4 | Breitling | 8,890 | 17,100 | 33,500 | 18,600 | 78,090 |
| 5 | Tag Heuer | 3,860 | 20,900 | 14,400 | 35,900 | 75,060 |
| 6 | Chanel | 820 | 29,500 | 1,520 | 10,760 | 42,600 |
| 7 | Tudor | 5,570 | 7,180 | 19,800 | 5,950 | 38,500 |
| 8 | Patek Philippe | 410 | 11,080 | 4,380 | 21,300 | 37,170 |
| 9 | Gucci | 1,000 | 8,600 | 7,140 | 11,280 | 28,020 |
| 10 | Hublot | 740 | 7,800 | 10,780 | 6,990 | 26,310 |
“Rolex 20 times more popular than Patek Philippe in online pre-owned searches”
Not surprising…
Rolex is a currency. It’s like Pebble Beach. There may be a few more better golf courses but when you ask golfers where is the one place you would like to play above all else ? 98 out of a hundred will say “Pebble Beach” .
Newsflash: Significantly cheaper product more searched for than extremely expensive product…
Equivalents: Ford and Ferrari, Sony and Meridian, coach travel and private jet, McDonalds and Le Gavroche, Samsonite and Louis Vuitton…
In my opinion Patek is “shooting” their own foot with how they are handling the supply demand issue vs how Rolex is.
Rolex buyers at least have some expectation to eventually have an allocation vs zero chance with PP.
As they say, 50% of something is greater than 100% of nothing!