THE GOOD LIFE Watches
Chance your arm
Demand and supply are having a dramatic effect on the availability and prices of the most hyped luxury watches – but there are some gems you can pick up instead
Words Timothy Barber
rising popularity of independent makers, the watch market has seen an intriguing new trend emerge in the past 18 months: unavail- ability. Months-long factory closures in 2020 didn’t help, but ballooning global audiences, rapacious hype and plenty of speculation have seen demand outstripping supply in several parts of the market, particularly in the case of the industry’s two biggest cheeses: Rolex and Patek Philippe. Should you have been dreaming and saving for years for a Rolex sports watch, or indeed an entry-level Patek cased in steel, your only option now is to pay several multiples of the official retail price on the secondary market, or try to get on a years-long waiting list – and even that may not be possible unless you’ve previously spent a fortune with a given dealer. Frankly, it’s time to consider alternatives. We should start with the king of Rolex unobtanium: the Cosmograph Daytona. It was the Daytona, a motorsports chronograph launched in the early Sixties, that drove a mighty explosion in the vintage Rolex trade a few years ago, a fervour that spilled over into the contemporary market in 2016 when the modern version was upgraded. Right now, these watches never even reach the shops, they’re so over-subscribed. For a new model priced at £10,500, you’ll be look- ing at spending more than £30,000 on the secondary market.
A
long with green watches (green dials, green straps, green bezels, sometimes green cases), sports- luxe watches on bracelets and the
1. The Rolex Cosmograph Daytona retails at £10,500, but in order to get your hands on one you’ll need more than £30,000
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