Cartier and Vacheron Constantin bounce back on buoyant secondary market

Chono24’s ‘ChronoPulse Index,’ which tracks price developments across 13 major luxury watch brands based on its platform’s real transaction data, has recorded a jump of 1.5% in its monthly index in May.

The index records average transaction prices month-over-month, and in May the biggest winners were Vacheron Constantin (+3.3%) and Cartier (+2.8%). Key context is that these two brands had suffered the most in April (-5.4% and -5.8% respectively). 

Only Omega (-0.6%) and Jaeger-LeCoultre (-0.4%) saw a dip compared with the month of April.

Over six months, the ChronoPulse index is up a steady 4.7%, with Cartier (+6.6%), TAG Heuer (+6.3%), and Patek Philippe (+5.4%) leading the field.

Chrono24 believes that the discontinuation of the Rolex ‘Pepsi’ GMT-Master II at Watches & Wonders created a surge in interest in the secondary market — demand has stayed elevated since.

“The April dip didn’t last,” said Balazs Ferenczi, head of brand engagement at Chrono24. “Almost every brand we track gained in May, and over six months the index is positive nearly across the board. 

“The breadth of the move — gains across nearly every brand — points to broad-based demand rather than a narrow speculative spike,” he concluded.