How the Secondary Watch Market Works

Every luxury watch is sold new exactly once. After that, it can change hands many times: from its first owner to a dealer, from dealer to dealer, to a collector, back to a dealer and on again. That ongoing trade is the secondary watch market, and it's where most of the action in the watch world now happens.

This guide explains who takes part, how watches move through the market, how prices are set, and what the recent ups and downs mean.

Primary vs secondary market

• Primary market: the first sale of a new watch, through the brand's own boutiques or the authorized dealers (ADs) it appoints, at the brand's retail price.
• Secondary market: every sale after that. It covers pre-owned watches, and also new, unworn watches resold by independent and grey market dealers.

The secondary market is big. Boston Consulting Group estimated the secondhand luxury watch market at about $22 billion in 2022 and projected it would reach about $35 billion by 2026.^[1] Estimates vary by source, but all agree it's a major part of the industry.

Who's who in the secondary market

• Private owners and collectors buy, sell, trade and upgrade.
• Independent dealers, from one-person online businesses to large showrooms, buy from the public and each other and sell to collectors and other dealers. Those selling new or unworn watches outside the brand's network are often called grey market dealers (see authorized dealer vs grey market dealer).
• Auction houses sell watches to the highest bidder, from everyday pieces to record-breaking grails. Buyers pay a premium on top of the hammer price: at Phillips' New York watch auctions, for example, 27% of the hammer price up to $1 million.^[4]
• Retail marketplaces connect sellers, often dealers, with consumers online, usually for fees or commissions.
• The brands themselves have entered the secondary market. Rolex's Certified Pre-Owned programme, launched in 2022, sells pre-owned Rolex watches at least two years old through Official Rolex Retailers, with a new two-year guarantee.^[3]
• Watchmakers, service centres and authenticators keep watches running and verify them.

How a watch moves through the market

A typical path:

1. A collector buys a new watch from an AD.
2. A few years later they sell it, or trade it in, to a dealer.
3. That dealer sells it to another dealer who has a client for it, or lists it for retail buyers.
4. A collector buys it, wears it, and eventually sells or trades it again.

A large share of trading happens between dealers: one has the watch, another has the buyer. Much of it still runs through phone calls, group chats and personal reputations, with payment usually settled directly by wire.

How prices are set

There's no official price list for pre-owned watches. Prices come from what buyers and sellers agree, deal by deal, driven by:

• Supply and demand. When a model is hard to get from ADs, buyers who want it now pay more. When it's easy to get, secondary prices fall towards or below retail.
• The specific watch. Reference, dial variant, year, condition, set (box and papers), bracelet and link count, service history and originality all change the price.
• Who's buying. Dealer-to-dealer prices are lower than retail asking prices, because the next dealer still needs a margin.
• Momentum. Hype, releases, discontinuations and wider economic conditions all move demand.

Dealers judge where a reference is trading from recent sales, auction results and what similar watches are listed for. Sold prices are the most useful signal, which is why asking prices on retail sites can mislead.

Why some watches sell above retail and others below

A watch sells above retail on the secondary market when buyers can't easily get it new, so the market price reflects scarcity. Many popular steel sports models from the most in-demand brands have traded this way for years.

Most other watches sell below their original retail price once they're pre-owned, the way most products do. The size of the discount depends on the brand, the model and demand.

Boom, correction and today's market

The secondary market rose sharply during 2020–2022, then corrected. Using WatchCharts data, Morgan Stanley's reports show secondary prices fell 10.7% in 2023 and 6.1% in 2024, then rose 4.9% in 2025, with Patek Philippe, Rolex and Audemars Piguet among the stronger performers.^[2]

For dealers, the lesson is that market-wide numbers hide big differences between references. Price each watch on its own recent sales, not on a headline index.

What this means for dealers

• Buy on real data. Know what the reference actually sold for recently, in that condition and set. On Soda, real dealer price history shows sold and asking prices from deals between verified dealers.
• Keep inventory moving. In a market that can soften, holding stock for the perfect price is a risk.
• Trust is the currency. Most dealer trades rely on reputation. Verification and visible track records reduce the friction.
• Watch your costs. Commissions and fees take a bigger share when margins tighten (see watch dealer margins).

The bottom line

The secondary watch market is a large, fast-moving trade where prices are set deal by deal by supply and demand. Dealers sit at its centre. The ones who do well buy on real sold prices, move inventory, and trade with people they can trust.

Trade the secondary market on Soda

Soda brings the dealer side of the secondary market into one place: a marketplace of verified dealers, live auctions, Looking For alerts, trade offers and real dealer price history, with no commissions on your trades. See all features, see how we compare, then apply for access.