May Geneva auctions: neither bargain nor fireworks
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History highlighted that prices of second hand watches took off when interest rates started decreasing in 2015 and should logically reverse their course if and when interest rates were to rise especially the real rates. Well, here we are and yet nothing. Part of the explanation is that the key driver of the take-off back then was that the “discrete” money parked in Switzerland had to find another home and a way to reach it. This is where “real assets” started to make sense for eventually bad reasons. However on the positive side of things it also allowed to grow the community of collectors and the market is now simply more mature, more robust and more stable as it is well spreaded instead of being concentrated in the hands of a few big dealers. The better knowledge and access to it and the higher prices transformed the watch market as being an eligible one for family offices, some private banks and wealthy individuals attracted by the anticorrelation they offer in a portfolio. No need to buy 100 watches to invest 10m€ anymore. Probably a real hassle for non collecting investors. They can now do that with 1 to 5 important watches. A game changer.