APPRECIATING DEPRECIATION

Like new cars, most new watches soon lose value – so there are pre-owned bargains to be had if you’re patient

FOR THOSE happy to forego the Champagne, the plush carpet and the polished display cases, the depreciation on new watches means there’ll be some cracking bargains if you wait a bit. It’s all about knowing what to look for – and where.

The sweetspot for a ‘new’ model is usually at about three years old. It’s still contemporary, if that bothers you, but most of the depreciation is done. Generally, quartz depreciates faster than mechanical, fashion brands fall more quickly than established watchmaking names, and used Smart watches sink faster than an old discount-era Citroën.

Take a classic like the mechanical TAG Heuer Vintage Monaco, pictured below. These are remakes of the original Heuer Monaco 1133B that Steve McQueen wore in Your local plush, high-street jeweller will pour you a glass or two, sit you in a comfy chair and sell you one for £4750. Within a year, the same watch would appear quietly in his secondhand window for around £4150, a drop of 13%.

It gets better. A little patience, and a twoyear-old Monaco is down to £3950. Four years could see it as low as £2950. In 48 months, some kind soul has taken a near-as-dammit 40% hit for you. Trawl the watch forums and you could be looking at as little as £2200 for the same watch – and most established forum sellers are pretty honourable, so you’re unlikely to get kippered. And even if you factor in a generous £300 for an independent service, you’ve saved almost enough to cover the cost of a new window regulator for your Bentley.

The titanium-cased, snappily named, quartz controlled Breitling Aerospace E7936310 will not just time your breakfast egg to a tenth of a second, it’ll wake you up first and let you know when it’s lunchtime in Singapore. The plateglass and poshness new-watch experience will see you handing over £3260, but an identical used model, made last August, sold for £2343. That’s a saving of 30% on the new list price. A slightly older Aerospace has just sold on the TZ-UK forum for £1450 – under half list price.

Not every new watch depreciates, though. The tectonically long waiting list for some Rolexes means you could stroll out of your dealer with your £9500 stainless-steel Cosmograph Daytona on Monday morning and sell it the same afternoon for £19,950. Sometimes, Watchworld makes no sense at all.