Why pre-owned high jewellery watches are a great investment: from Van Cleef & Arpels’ timeless designs to Richard Mille’s diamond-encrusted RM 07-01, rare gemstones and pricey metals make a difference

Jan 4 , 2023

This women’s Piaget limelight gala high jewellery watch with tsavorite gemstones is typical of the type of pre-owned watch savvy millennial investors should be aiming to buy at auction. Photo: Piaget

The used luxury watch segment has been growing rapidly, but high jewellery timepieces at auctions – especially women’s – are still shockingly undervalued

Such watches are more likely to sport rare gemstones such as pink diamonds, which make them an excellent investment – especially since Rio Tinto’s Argyle mine closed

The second-hand watch market has never burned so hot. Demand has been skyrocketing thanks to millennials, with Deloitte reporting that 48 per cent of them say they are likely to buy a pre-owned model in the next 12 months. The same study suggested that the second-hand market could surge 75 per cent by 2030 to an eye-popping US$35 billion.

The collectible luxury watch segment has been on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic – just as life ground to a halt, interest in vintage timepieces exploded. Auction houses were outperforming each other, setting new world records, week after week.

At Christie’s Asia in Hong Kong back in 2021, ahead of a highly anticipated autumn auction, Alexandre Bigler, the auction house’s regional head of watches, introduced that season’s stand-out lots, pointing out Rolex after Rolex, and Patek Philippe after Patek Philippe.

The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Yacht Master. Photo: Rolex

Christie’s did not know it then, but the auction house was about to have its best year ever for high-end timepieces – 2021 brought in a staggering US$205 million in blockbuster sales, which marked a jaw-dropping 257 per cent increase from the previous year.

Noticeable across the showroom were the price tags attached to the handful of women’s high jewellery watches on display. Estimates were half, if not two thirds, less than the men’s novelties. When asked why, Bigler shrugged. When demand exceeds supply, prices tend to rise and, historically, there haven’t been many women collectors, he explained. The result: bargain-basement prices.

Sharon Chan, director of watches for Bonhams in Asia. Photo: Bonhams Hong Kong

When asked the same question, Sharon Chan, who leads Bonhams auction house’s team of watch specialists in Hong Kong said: “Men’s high jewellery watches have a wider demand in general and this means their second-hand market is larger and therefore prices can be more competitive than women’s equivalents,” she said.

Richard Mille, in particular, has become one of the hottest names in pricey wrist candy. The Swiss company’s ultra-macho novelties are hard to resist at auction, even for female collectors like Lung Lung-thun, a financier who runs her own brokerage in Hong Kong.