The luxury watch market has been quite positive in terms of investments as of late.
Along with luxury watches, The Economist has compiled price indices for fine diamonds, classic cars, wine, art, and other rare objects. These items were grouped into a passion index, which is weighted according to the holdings of high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) — defined as people with more than $1 million of investable assets. After a few years of the passion index dropping, it’s been on the rise.
Since 2007, the passion index has increased, on average, 5.9% each year.
As far as luxury watches are concerned, one reason the market has been on the rise is the ability to purchase pre-owned luxury brands. An individual who wants to purchase a pre-owned Submariner Rolex, for example, will likely spend around $6,000 — a much more affordable price.
Also, a popular, new kind of luxury watch now features plates made from other melted-down fine watches.
The FHH Journal reports that Yvan Arpa, founder or ArtyA, is teaming up with e-commerce site QoQa to offer the new melted-down luxury items.
“An extraordinary project,” said Pascal Meyer of QoQa. “A bold idea whereby fire transforms matter into a new creation.”
Though fine watch investments have been on the rise, there are still plenty of drawbacks. The returns on these items could be drastically different after the initial purchase. Also, The Radium Girls shows the dangers of making these watches in the past, especially for women in factories.
Glow-in-the-dark watches were popular in the early 1900s, and entire factories opened up in order to produce these items. Though it was a well-paying job for women at this time in American history, working with the radium was poisoning them.
