Expensive watches as safe haven?

TreasureHunter

TreasureHunter

Well-Known Member
Hi,

I was wondering whether besides PM's, expensive watches could play the role of a financial safe haven?

I'm thinking of Swiss and Japanese watches in the 500-1,000 USD range, like Tissot, Seiko, for example.
Some of them are rare, special editions - this is what it might be worth focusing for.

Basically their price is around 10-30 g of gold and some of them are really beautiful and rare editions.

Might be worth keeping and re-selling 20+ years later or just keeping (not using) them for the sake of "safe haven"/wealth preservation?

(my first guess is that the moment you buy it, a watch like that immediately depreciates, loses 20-30 % of the original price, but 10-20 years later they might be worth "something serious" and could become sought after items)
 
Only Rolex sports, Patek Phillipe, Richard Mille and AP can be considered safe haven investment level watches at this time. Even then, only certain models ( sports models mainly).
 
$500-1000 is not considered a luxury watch, it's entry level in the watch world.
As mentioned above Rolex sports watches have been a great investment over recent years. Richard Mille will tank in value over the coming years imo.
 
I was thinking of rather "cheaper" watches like Tissot, honestly. Would rather buy a few of that instead.

Rolexes cost as much as a used car and selling them would be a lot harder.

Would rather purchase a number of Tissot watches. And during severe economic collapse, one could just "barter" with them. Of course, not for groceries :)

Around 800 USD is a nice price tag on some models. It's like buying 42-45 1 oz Silver coins. It's like buying a tube of Silver bullion.

So, for the sake of diversification, perhaps a few nice watches wouldn't be a problem.
 
wouldnt call it safe, would be more of a gamble.
Traditional Watch sales have been in decline the last few years, thanks to smart watches, fitbits and smart phones and so less people wear regular watches these days, You might find people in 20 years time will have little interest in luxury watches that only tell the time, as they dont have the attachment to them like previous generations.

its only the Super high end stuff that hasnt been effected as much, and your not wanting to buy those so, then your just taking a gamble that time pieces some how make a miraculous recovery in Popularity in the next 20 years.
 
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Agreed. I has to be a collectors item. To be blunt my Cartier is worth about what I paid for it 15 years ago. Tissot I general has zero collectible value.

Bit like the difference between a Rolls Royce Phantom III and a Commodore SS.
 
Thanks for your opinions, some very strong points made there, indeed!

I also think smartwatches are spreading like smallpox and people will tend to use them instead of REAL watches.
Just like people using their smartphones instead of buying small pocket cameras.

DSLR cameras are losing ground to the latest versions of mirrorless cameras. It will take a while, but the future of digital cameras is mirrorless.

So, I guess the energy is still better put to the metals and real estate, rather than expensive watches.
 
Huge gamble that will most likely not pay off.
Test it yourself, go and buy a watch you think might be good and then try and resell it now and see how much you get for it, if you can sell it at all.
 
Cheapest watch worth buying would be Omega Speedmaster, not the cheap quartz models which are hard to move
$5K and upwards
A Omega Professional Speedmaster is near $10k
Rolex Dayton a $30K
 
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