WatchChoice.com Sees Second Hand Watches Become The Hot Ticket In A Cool Market
WatchChoice.com has seen a significant upturn in recent months in the interest being directed towards luxury watches that have previously been owned by someone else. While some people call them second hand watches, others say “used” while others prefer “pre owned” or even “pre loved” but whatever your term of choice, the market for quality pre owned luxury watches is increasing in popularity.
As the Global Financial Crisis takes hold and the luxury watch market softens, a greater number of luxury watch buyers visiting WatchChoice.com are changing their focus from new luxury watches to used watches. Glenn Palmer, WatchChoice.com’s Managing Director, says feedback from Watch Choice enthusiasts points to a number of reasons for the rise in interest in the used market. The soft economy and the concern about whether the economy will slow further or when it will bounce back has lead to low degrees of confidence in buyer’s future financial circumstances. Therefore, buyers planning to acquire a luxury watch have found it more difficult to justify the investment and have turned to the used watch market as a cost effective way to get a luxury watch on their wrist.
Other feedback from luxury watch enthusiasts shows the current economic climate has also affected their buying patterns. A number of collectors have reported they are more likely to sell one or more luxury watches from their collection to raise money for the purchase of their next watch where previously they may have simply continued to add watches to their collection. Collectors who become sellers before buying have therefore added to the number of used watches for sale.
Luxury watch buyers in countries that have recently experienced substantial currency rate declines, such as Australia, against stronger currencies such as the US dollar, English pound and the Euro have seen substantially increased watch prices. Buyers in these countries are particularly looking for the best value and are looking to quality second hand watches to meet their luxury watch needs.
Glenn Palmer says that the increased levels of interest in second hand watches is likely to continue for at least as long as the economic climate remains depressed and possibly longer. He says “we could see higher interest levels in pre owned watches maintained in the long term as the current economic climate has introduced buyers who would not have normally considered buying a second hand watch to the value and variety of the second hand watch market”. It will be interesting to see whether pre owned watch sales return to their usual levels when the economy recovers.
