Carat$633.8 million for the independents, more than LVMH's watches
EveryWatch puts the first-half secondary market at $10.5 billion, up 37.2%. Independent makers took $633.8 million of it, up 89%, with F.P. Journe alone at $201.6 million on a median sale price of $215,000.
§1The door is open.
The pre-owned watch market has spent three years as the industry's cold room, and the first half of 2026 says the door is open. EveryWatch, which compiles sold prices from about 650 dealers and roughly 470 auction houses, put global secondary transactions at $10.5 billion for the six months, up 37.2% year on year, in a report published on 30 July and taken up by the trade press this week. The median watch sold for $5,900, up 19%, and took 43 days to sell against 39 a year ago. Value grew faster than volume, which means the money moved up the price ladder rather than across more wrists.
The line that reorders the table sits below the giants. Independent watchmakers sold $633.8 million on the secondary market in the first half, up 89%, and that is more than the entire LVMH watch portfolio, which transacted about $617 million over the same period. A group of workshops that between them build a few thousand watches a year now clears more second-hand value than the owner of Tag Heuer, Hublot, Zenith and Bulgari. Nothing about that says LVMH is shrinking. It says the resale market has stopped treating brand scale as the thing it pays for.
§2One name, almost all the growth.
Almost all of the independent growth has one name on it. F.P. Journe transacted $201.6 million, close to triple the prior year at a reported 196.9% increase, which places the 27-year-old Geneva house seventh among all watch brands by secondary value. Its median sale price rose 82% to $215,000 and its turnover rate ran above 57%, meaning more than half the Journe watches offered found a buyer while the price was climbing. Behind it the field is much smaller: H. Moser and Cie. at $26 million, up 64%, Parmigiani Fleurier at $21 million, up 60%, and De Bethune at $19 million, up 2%.
Independent watchmakers sold $633.8 million on the secondary market in the first half, up 89%, and that is more than the entire LVMH watch portfolio
§3Scale still belongs where it was.
The scale of the market still belongs where it always has. Rolex accounted for $4.29 billion, about 41% of all secondary value, with Patek Philippe at $1.51 billion and Audemars Piguet at $983 million. Rolex certified pre-owned alone did $385 million, more than double the prior year, which is the manufacturer taking margin out of the grey market by joining it. Geography split as sharply as brand did: the United States and Canada transacted $4.5 billion, up 70%, while Asia fell 2.6%. EveryWatch cofounder Giovanni Prigigallo credits "a new wave of collectors, many from tech".
Scarcity that was never manufactured is the only kind the secondary market still pays for. A house that cannot increase output without changing what it is has a supply constraint no marketing department invented, and buyers are now paying an 82% higher median for exactly that quality. The instructive number is not Journe's total but its 57% turnover, because a rising price with a falling clearance rate is speculation and a rising price with a rising clearance rate is demand. Retailers reading this should note where the American 70% went, and that it did not go to the middle of the catalogue.
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