Sales of second-hand luxury watches booming

Swiss watches are in high demand these days, but sales of second-hand timepieces are also booming, driven by Generation Z buyers who want luxury goods but are also sustainability-minded.

The global second-hand watch market is estimated at nearly 20 billion Swiss francs ($21.7 billion) and could reach 35 billion francs by 2030, according to a study out in October by the auditing and consulting giant Deloitte.

Historically the province of collectors scouting for rare watches at auction, the second-hand market is turning increasingly professional with the proliferation of online sales sites that verify authenticity with even the watch manufacturers themselves getting involved.

"Nowadays, there is a realization that we need to consume more responsibly," said Fabienne Lupo, the former head of the Foundation High Horology, who organized a second-hand luxury watch salon in Geneva in November.

The event was attended by the online auction giant eBay, the watch sales platform Watchbox, and Swiss brands such as Zenith.Lupo said the craze for second-hand watches could be explained by the consumer choices of Millennials (born between 1980 and the late 1990s) and Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2010) who are "very concerned about the future of the planet, and no longer want to buy new."

There is also the fashion for vintage objects "that you can't find everywhere," she said.

And furthermore, buying certain Swiss luxury watches new is getting harder, as the booming market means longer waiting lists.

Swiss watch exports hit a new record in 2022, climbing 11.4 percent year-on-year to 24.8 billion Swiss francs, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry announced Tuesday.

"And then there is the digitalization which has...