Market healthy but Breitling struggling in latest WatchCharts report

Data-driven market research platform WatchCharts has published its report for February 2026, which it has revealed to Watch Insider.

The company’s head of growth & marketing, Mark Xu, runs through his findings below.

What happened in February 2026?

The WatchCharts Overall Market Index appreciated by +0.6% in February 2026. Prices for Rolex (+0.6%), Patek Philippe (+0.7%), and Audemars Piguet (+0.6%) posted similar gains. Notably, Patek prices have been in the positive territory for twelve straight months, while Rolex and Audemars Piguet have also trended upwards since late 2025.

Performance by Brand in February 2026

In February 2026, five mid-tier brands – Cartier (+1.6%), Omega (+1.3%), Tudor (+1.3%), Panerai (+1.0%), and Zenith (+1.0%) – have gained at least one percentage point. The Big Three of Rolex (+0.6%), Patek Philippe (+0.7%), and Audemars Piguet (+0.7%) were also in the positive territory. In comparison, Breitling prices, the worst performer of the month, lost -1.1%.

Over the past year, Patek has appreciated by +16.2% thanks to remarkable momentum of the Aquanaut and the Nautilus, while Rolex and Audemars Piguet grew by +7.9% and +3.4%, respectively. Interestingly, the only other brand to have grown by double digits from February 2025 to February 2026 is Tudor (+11.4%).

Why is the watch market heating up?

Secondary watch prices have been gradually rising over the past year, signaling improving momentum across the market. Led by the Big Three, the WatchCharts Overall Market Index is up +8.2% over the past year. However, this trend also extends beyond the most hyped brands, with 21 out of 27 brands with an average price over $3,000 showing positive index performance over the last 6 months. In our recent monthly reports (including our full year update), we attributed the recent growth to a combination of several macro factors, including rising gold prices, tariff uncertainties, and increasingly frequent retail price hikes. In this update, we shed more light on this topic through the analysis of secondary market supply and demand.

Secondary demand reached record highs in 2025

First, the recovery is taking place alongside a notable expansion in market demand. We observed that secondary transaction value for many brands reached record levels in 2025. Compared with the year prior, brands including Patek Philippe, Omega, Cartier, Vacheron Constantin, and Tudor all saw the size of their secondary market grow by more than 20% in 2025. In other words, the recent improvement in prices is occurring alongside a meaningful expansion in demand.

Secondary demand has outpaced supply for sought-after models

This pattern can be seen across several key collections, particularly within the two most desirable brnads which have led the recent market rise – Rolex and Patek Philippe. Most notable are Patek’s Aquanaut and Nautilus collections, which saw supply volume decline significantly in mid-2025. For Rolex, the latest four generations of stainless steel Daytona (Refs. 16520, 116520, 116500, and 126500) collectively have seen supply levels drop over the past year. When demand continues to grow while supply remains relatively fixed or even declines, prices tend to adjust upward accordingly. That intuition agrees with what we are seeing today.

The recent demand has been more organic than speculative

The last time we saw a noted uptick in secondary pricing (in the early 2020s), demand was fueled by an influx of speculative buyers driven by low interest rates, crypto gains, and increased luxury interest. Watches were seen as strong alternative investments which outperformed traditional asset classes, and supply levels became constrained as competition became frenzied for both retail allocations and secondary inventory. Ultimately, interest rate adjustments and geopolitical uncertainties led to a mass sell-off in the second quarter of 2022, resulting in secondary inventory for many hyped models increased by several multiples.

This time around, the demand feels more organic in nature – though markets for brands such as Rolex, Patek, and AP are never void of opportunists. In fact, we are seeing a sharp uptick in Rolex Pepsi prices due to renewed rumors surrounding its possible discontinuation. However, given the volatility of the watch market in recent memory and shifts in macroeconomic conditions, we are not seeing the same patterns of rampant speculation as we did earlier this decade.

In summary, we are cautiously optimistic about the health of the secondary market

Taken together, these dynamics suggest that the recent rise in secondary watch prices reflects a healthier market environment than the speculative boom several years ago. Demand has continued to grow as the global collector base expands and consumers increasingly consider pre-owned as a viable purchase avenue, while supply of many highly sought-after references has remained limited. Overall, we are cautiously optimistic about the outlook for the secondary watch market. At the same time, the picture in the primary market is less clear. In the long run, the secondary market alone cannot sustain broad consumer interest in luxury watches. Collectors have been focusing on an increasingly smaller group of highly desirable brands and references, with premiumization and consolidation remaining long-term trends.