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