These Daytonas Are Gaining As Secondary Watch Market Continues to Drop
As the secondary watch market is going through a slow period, these Rolex Daytona references defy the odds
Gone are the days when the secondary watch market was experiencing unprecedented growth. Indeed, it might take a hot minute before we reach the levels of late 2021. As our Wristcheck 100 (WC100) Index suggests, the performance of the most traded watches on the secondary market is currently somewhere at the levels of May 2021. The bright side of the ordeal is, of course, that these indicators are nowhere near as low as they were at the start of the pandemic.
The WC100, much like the secondary market in general, is experiencing a declining trend (albeit a rather slow one) and reflects consumer sentiment at large. However, while the watches are indeed being traded more conservatively, some heroes are defying the odds and are being consistently valued higher and higher. No, these aren’t necessarily the models with precious stones or intricate complications. If the Wristcheck Watch Index is to be trusted, the Rolex “Platona” with ice-blue dial and baguette diamonds has dropped 5.1% over the past 90 days, while Vacheron Constantin Overseas Ultra-Thin Perpetual Calendar with skeleton dial in rose gold experienced a fall of 10.5% over the same period.
Some of the models that continue to thrive in otherwise harsh market conditions are Rolex Daytonas:
Daytona Rose Gold Brown Dial 40mm ref. 116505-0013
The brown dial variant of the rose gold Rolex Daytona has experienced unprecedented growth (17.4%) on the secondary market over the past 90 days. What’s even more interesting is, that up until August 12th, 2024, this reference was valued at around US$ 53k before shooting up to nearly US$ 62k, where it stands as of September 2nd. At the moment of writing this article, the ref. 116505-0013 trades with an almost 50% premium on the secondary market.
Daytona Yellow Gold Oysterflex Champagne Dial 40mm ref. 116518LN-0048
As of September 2nd, 2024, Rolex Daytona ref. 116518LN-0048 is valued at almost 1.8 times its retail value on the secondary market. Over the past three months, the champagne-dial Oysterflex variant of the Daytona appreciated by 4.7% in its value, surpassing the mark of US$ 55k (and by doing so, reaching a new six-months high). Currently, the price premium of this watch constitutes 84.14%.
Daytona Yellow Gold Black Dial 40mm ref. 116508-0004
While Rolex ref. 116508-0004 is a gainer (especially if we look at its performance over the past month), its overall performance can hardly be described as “stellar”. See, in the past three months, the yellow gold Daytona with a black dial went up to US$ 47,762 in mid-June and hovered around that level for about two months before dropping 1.2% on August 26th. Now, this model is slowly but surely recovering and we believe it would be reasonable to expect this trend to continue.
Daytona Rose Gold Oysterflex Brown Dial 40mm 116515LN-0041
Rolex Daytona ref. 116515LN-0041 had a good run over the past six months. Starting at US$ 41k on March 2nd, it began climbing around March 23rd and hasn’t stopped since. As it approached the value of US$ 43.5k, this Daytona variant in rose gold with brown dial suffered a dip on August 5th before picking up again and reaching the value of US$ 43,691, which is 38.7% above its retail value.
Daytona White Gold Oysterflex Silver Dial 40mm 116519LN-0027
Over the past 90 days, Rolex Daytona ref. 116519LN-0027 appreciated 12.7% on the secondary watch market, taking it to US$ 40,565, which is 28.78% higher than what you would pay for this model on the primary. In early June this year, the ref. 116519LN-0027 was trading at around US$ 36k before going up in value on June 23rd and stabilizing a month later.