Millennials and Gen Z are boosting the used watch market

Younger buyers will drive the growth of the pre-owned luxury watch market by 75% by the end of the decade.

Millennials and Gen Z are making the market for used watches grow quickly.

A report says that the market for used luxury watches will grow by 75% by the end of this decade, making up nearly half of the whole market. Younger buyers are driving this trend.

In an industry report, consulting firm Deloitte said that second-hand watch sales will rise from 20 billion Swiss francs ($20 billion) a year now to 35 billion Swiss francs ($35 billion) a year by 2030.

Richemont bought Watchfinder to grow its business in the high-end used timepieces market, which has grown rapidly in recent years. Deloitte thinks that more brands will start their own channels for selling on the secondary market to get a bigger share of the market and buy back their own stock to control supply. The Deloitte report also says that well-known sites for selling used watches, such as Chrono24, Subdial, Watchbox, and Hodinkee, will continue to grow.

The head of consumer, fashion, and luxury at Deloitte Switzerland, Karine Szegedi, said that the used market has a huge amount of room to grow.

The study also predicts that the current trends that are shaping the Swiss industry and the luxury watch market around the world will speed up. It says that more watches will be sold online than in traditional stores, that brands will continue to move toward more expensive products, and that younger people who see luxury watches as an investment will drive the market.

During the pandemic, people who were stuck at home and had extra money because they couldn't travel or eat out started looking at fancy watches online. Prices for used Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet watches rose to all-time highs before dropping sharply in April as the value of cryptocurrencies and the stock market fell.

The value of the 50 most traded luxury watches on the global market, as measured by the Subdial50 Index, has dropped by 18% in the last six months. Still, Deloitte says that the drop in prices doesn't mean that the secondary market is getting smaller.

The report says that younger buyers from the Millennial and Gen Z generations are more likely to buy used watches because they are more used to buying used things online and want to save money. Almost half of Millennials said they were likely to buy a used watch in the next year. Only 12% of Baby Boomers said they would do the same.

Ben Clymer, who started the online watch news and shopping site Hodinkee, said in the report, "Our audience is so different from what you might think of as a traditional watch buyer. They're a lot younger, they buy and sell watches more often, and they care about used ones."