Investing in Rolex is hot at the moment and looks set to be for years to come, new data shows.
Bob’s Watches is a leader in the pre-owned watch sector and having been at the forefront of pre-owned Rolex sales for over a decade, it has compiled data from over the past ten years showing just how successful making a Rolex purchase can be.
The traditional means of investment of capital across the world ranges from gold to the stock market to real estate as the traditional means but over the past decade, Rolex raises a few eyebrows.
The Bob’s Watches data shows that when it comes to a flat-out percentage increase, Rolex watches significantly outperformed both gold and real estate.
This is based on inflation-adjusted values for the price of gold provided by macrotrends.net and median sales price data for houses sold in the United States from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) database.
Additionally, while the stock market (based on historical Dow Jones Industrial Average values from macrotrends.net) offered similar overall returns over the course of the last decade, Rolex watches offered a noticeably higher appreciation percentage when it comes to the last five years, and this trend only seems to be continuing into 2022.
The findings go on to show that when looking at the actual dollar-value amount (in USD) that prices for pre-owned Rolex watches have increased over the course of the last 10 years, this data becomes even more impressive.
The average price of a used Rolex watch has gone from less than $5,000 in 2011, to more than $13,000 by the end of 2021.
This increase is noteworthy by all standards, but the amount that Rolex prices have gone up since the beginning of the pandemic (2020) is nearly equal to the total price increase that can be observed during the entire previous five-year period, and this trend shows no signs of slowing as we enter the new year.
As per the above, all Rolex models have increased somewhat over the last decade, it is no surprise the likes of the Daytona, Day-Date and Sky-Dweller come out on top and have more than doubled in price during that period.
This opposes the likes of the Air-King and the Date which have shown modest yet steady appreciation.
With that in mind, the Daytona still claims the number one spot for the highest appreciating Rolex model, as it has more than tripled in value during the past 10 years, with an average pre-owned price of more than $30,000 for 2021.
As far as which Rolex watches are the most popular, it is the classic stainless steel Submariner 16610 that is the single best-selling Rolex reference of the last 10 years, with its two-tone steel and gold sibling, the reference 16613 claiming the number two overall spot.
The brand’s various purpose-built sport and tool watches account for 8 of the top 15 best-selling Rolex reference numbers of the past 10 years, including the top three positions.
However, the Lady-Datejust collection surprisingly represents a total of three reference numbers from this top 15 list, including the fourth best-selling Rolex watch of the last 10 years – the stainless steel and 18k yellow Lady-Datejust 69173.
Bob’s Watches concluded in affirming that while there are of course no future guarantees on value appreciation, the historical data provides some interesting considerations.
Investing in various asset classes is a personal choice and there are increasing options available.
You can see the full report HERE.
