Luxury Watch Market Trends of 2024

The luxury watch market, being a product of both fashion and technology, evolves every year. With the epic luxury watch “hype cycle” of 2020-2022 now firmly in the rearview mirror, 2024 watch prices reached a period of relative stability, and luxury watch buyers (hopefully at least) are increasingly making their purchases with their own tastes in mind rather than resale value, and this has led to some interesting developments. Here are the defining trends of the luxury watch market in 2024.

Modern Hyperwatches Over Traditional Grand Complications

Based on social media posts of wealthy watch collectors, as well as Luxury Bazaar’s sales in 2024, I can confidently say that a growing number of ultra-luxe watch buyers are considering modern, avant-garde hyperwatches over traditional grand complications. Patek Philippe minute repeaters and the like will always have a strong market, but they didn’t feel like the “hot thing” in 2024.

Meanwhile Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concepts and Richard Mille watches basically flew off the shelves. But it wasn’t just AP and RM getting the attention of six-figure buyers, which brings us to our next luxury watch trend of 2024.

The Proliferation of High-End Independents

Independent, ultra-high-end watch brands pretty much gained momentum across the board in 2024. The second wristwatch F.P. Journe ever made sold for over $8.3 million at auction, but established top players like Journe didn’t get all the love. Several newer super-exclusive brands have gained the admiration of wealthy watch nerds.

Ever since winning the prestigious Horological Revelation Prize at the 2023 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG), Simon Brette has been insta-selling out his (extremely limited) releases. Akrivia (Rexhep Rexhepi‘s brand), Krayon and Kallinich Claeys have all entered hard-to-get-even-if-you-have-the-money territory as well. And we’re big fans of David Candaux here at Luxury Bazaar.

Not so many years ago, for a $150,000+ watch purchase, there were very few brands collectors seriously considered. Now the game has changed, and there’s a whole landscape of next-level artisans with a level of exclusivity that makes the Rolex waiting list seem trivial.

Two-Tone Sales Remain Strong

I noted early in 2024 that two-tone watches were back in style, and it held true throughout the year. When I first got into watch collecting, two-tone models had a bit of a reputation as “old man” watches. But at this point, people who think two-tones are for old people are the old people, while plenty of 28-year-olds are proudly buying two-tone Rolex Datejusts.

Thinness Wars Continue

One of the most notable luxury watch trends in 2024 was the continued battle to make the thinnest watches in the world. While Piaget and Bulgari are generally the two leaders in ultra-thin watchmaking, Konstantin Chaykin unexpectedly took the title of thinnest mechanical watch with their 1.65mm-thick Joker ThinKing prototype.

Bulgari owns the titles of thinnest certified chronometer and thinnest production mechanical watch, thanks to the 1.70mm-thick Octo Ultra COSC. And Piaget now holds the “thinnest tourbillon” crown with their incredible 2mm Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon.

Platinum Watches Remain Expensive Despite Spot Price

In January 2015, gold and platinum cost roughly the same per ounce. December 2024 spot prices, however, show gold trading for roughly 2.7x the price of platinum. So, you might think that the luxury watch market would eventually reflect that price reality, but there’s a longstanding tradition of platinum watches being priced highest. Plus, platinum models are almost always more scarce than their gold counterparts, which certainly affects market price. A pre-owned previous-generation platinum Rolex Day-Date 36 (ref. 118206) can be found for about $30,000, while an equivalent rose gold Rolex costs about 25% less.

Keep in mind that .950 platinum is both more pure and more dense than 18k gold, so you need about 1.4x more platinum than gold to make the same watch. Plus, platinum is far harder to machine. So although the secondhand prices of some gold and platinum luxury watch prices have reached parity (like the Patek 5960p and 5960r), it may be a while before we see the list prices of gold watches match those of platinum watches. But, notably, Rolex’s 2025 price increase is only 1% for platinum models but at least 7% for gold models (14% for gold Daytonas).

Fashion Brands Doing Haute Horology

One of the under-recognized luxury watch trends in 2024 was the increasing “legit-ification” of the watch lineups of famous fashion brands. Names that used to appear on mall-tier quartz watches are getting into the haute horlogerie game in a big way. In particular, Louis Vuitton’s watch game has been heating up ever since they acquired top-tier movement maker La Fabriques du Temps in 2011, and their most impressive release yet came in 2024: the Tambour Moon Flying Tourbillon Poinçon De Genève Sapphire, a collaboration with Frank Gehry.

Chanel was the first brand to ever make a watch with a full sapphire bracelet with the J12 X-Ray in 2020, and they released a pink version for 2024. Sapphire case luxury watches in general continued to be hot in 2024.

Ralph Lauren unveiled a line of “rodeo-inspired watches” with painstakingly engraved cases and list prices above $24,000. Hermès threw down the gauntlet with the Arceau Duc Attelé, a minute repeater watch with a central triple-axis tourbillon. And you may not have noticed that Gucci released their first-ever minute repeater. It’s part of their “Gucci High Watchmaking” line which launched in 2021 and also includes tourbillon models. Hardcore watch nerds used to completely overlook these brands, but now they only…mostly overlook them.

Year-Round Release Schedule

Almost all of the world’s top luxury watch brands used to, for the most part, release all of their new watches annually at a major industry convention. Tons of new watches were released at 2024’s Watches & Wonders and Geneva Watch Days events, to be sure, but in today’s luxury watch world, on any given day you might wake up and find out that Omega, Tudor or Breitling randomly released a new watch. Breitling’s 32 NFL team-themed watches, for instance, were released right before the NFL season in September.

Artist Collaborations

The trend of luxury watch brands collaborating with contemporary artists shows no sign of letting up. In 2024 alone, for instance, Hublot collaborated with Daniel Arsham, Richard Orlinski, Takashi Murakami, and Samuel Ross. And 25 unique high-end artist collaborations were sold at the second-ever TimeForArt watch auction. Plus there’s the Louis Vuitton x Frank Gehry collab I mentioned earlier.

But probably the most-hyped luxury watch artist collab of 2024 was the AP x KAWS Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon “Companion”. It was arguably one of the most notable 2024 Audemars Piguet releases of all.

Regionally Limited Editions

The last luxury watch trend of 2024 that I’ll mention is the growing tendency for brands to release geographically-specific limited editions. It’s not exactly a new phenomenon, but it does seem more prevalent than ever. Grand Seiko released an Asia-Pacific-only model (SBGJ285) and two USA-only models (SBGA507 and SBGA509), as well as one only available at their Singapore boutique (SBGW315).

Meanwhile Hublot released a Grand Cayman-only lineup of watches called Paradise Found, Tudor released a new Black Bay Harrod’s Edition, and a burgundy Patek Philippe appeared exclusively at an Austrian boutique.

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Time will tell which of these 2024 luxury watch market trends will continue and which ones will inevitably swing back the other way. But for now, it seems like a healthy number of luxury watch brands are reaching their niches in their own way.