Can your 10-year-old Rolex earn you more returns than traditional investment means? Bob’s Watches’ data says so, but a watch journalist begs to differ.
While the fashion industry, including high-end, is starting to match pre-pandemic sales after the pandemic’s effect on the global economy, there’s one brand whose value spiked.
But not in comparison to its competitors, but against gold, stocks, and real estate investments.
READ ALSO: Three Reasons Why The Rolex Lady-Datejust Is The Queen Of All Timepieces
In data released by Bob’s Watches, a California-based reseller of luxury watches, the value of Rolex timepieces have been growing steadily since 2017—with a spike in 2020.
In effect, the average price of Rolex watches is now over $13,000, which equated to only $5,000 in 2011.
“We are the only company that can go back and grabs ten years of data,” Bob’s Watches CEO Paul Altieri tells Insider. Their data are from insights gained by buying and selling Rolex watches, thousands of them, using a consistent pricing strategy.
A decade worth of data
In comparison to traditional investment means like gold, stocks, and real estate, the company’s statistics show that the value of Rolex watches outperforms them. For gold, they based the numbers on inflation-adjusted values from macrotrends.net.
While for real estate, the figures come from median sales prices from the US Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) database. Lastly, they gathered stock market trends from macrotrends.net (based on Dow Jones Industrial Average) and concluded that Rolex investments offer similar “overall returns” in the last ten years.
Last year, according to Bob’s Watches research, the appreciation of Rolex pieces grew 199.93 percent, stocks up at 181.73 percent, real estate is 71.5 percent, and gold at only 14.25 percent.
However, it might sound baffling that the Rolex piece you bought ten years ago, for its nice hardware, might have been a wiser investment decision than your strategic stock portfolio.
In line with this, Rob Corder, the co-founder and managing editor of WatchPro, wrote about why the data may be misleading.
Misleading information?
In the article, Corder says that although the figures used to compare Rolex watches to gold, real estate, and stocks show that the brand beats the other investments, they used a sweeping statement to explain Rolex’s average pricing. Specifically in the stock market and real estate.
“The reality is there are plenty of stocks within the Dow Jones Industrial Average that have outperformed the average for all Rolex watches. Take Tesla, for example. Its stock has risen by over 15,000% in a decade (almost all of the rise in the past two years),” the watch journalist writes.
“Likewise, there are the unicorn watches within the Rolex range that are distorting the average.” He refers to items like the 1971 Rolex Daytona Reference 6265—which auctioned for $5.9 million.
Corder adds that realistically, a “good stock picker” would have earned more than a Rolex collector “with perfect foresight.” After all, if you’re investing, making a good amount after a decade wouldn’t be unusual.
“By all means, trade those watches if you get bored of some pieces and fall in love with others,” Corder writes his opinion. “But using Rolex as part of your retirement plan would be foolish.”
Banner photo from @bobswatches on Instagram
