Unlike the consumer goods, beverage or retail sectors, the note continues, there are no large consultancies publishing market share data in the Swiss watch industry. “This is due to the impracticality of conducting such investigations and the discreet nature of the Swiss watch industry,” he said.
Perhaps no brand is more discreet and influential than Rolex, which continues to dominate the market. According to Morgan Stanley's seventh annual report, published in February, Rolex's share is said to have grown – to 30.3% – on the strength of its sales in 2023, estimated to have exceeded 10 billion Swiss francs.
However, since the company is said to prohibit its authorized retailers from sharing point-of-sale data with third parties, Luxury Watch Barometer's monthly reports do not include the brand.
The second-hand sector
On the secondary market, where Rolex is equally dominant, EveryWatch, a new data-driven company, is helping shed light on how much pre-owned watches are worth and where to buy them.
“EveryWatch was born out of a need,” said Giovanni Prigigallo, the company's co-founder, on the phone from Cagliari, Sardinia, where he lives and works. “We created this service with the idea that aggregators exist in different fields such as art, cars, wine, etc. But it was completely missing in the watchmaking industry.”
The company publishes monthly reports with sales statistics, aggregated by artificial intelligence from more than 300 auction houses and more than 180 markets and dealers around the world. For example, the report released in February included details such as the total value of the watches in the secondary market ($9.4 billion), which Cartier achieved the highest auction price that month (a Crash model, for $277,200 ) and the model that suffered the collapse. largest price increase compared to the previous month's results (an Omega Seamaster, with more than 107.2%).