Rolex raises prices to cope with the gold boom. The Swiss company, number one in the world market, has adjusted its price list upwards driven by record gold prices which at the end of May reached 2,400 dollars an ounce: adjusted for inflation, it almost equaled the all-time record set at the end of the 1970s. Since the beginning of the year, gold has increased by 17%, except for a small drop to 2,332 last week. Silver also flies, and with them more precious jewels and watches.
THE DAYTONA IN WHITE GOLD GROWN BY 19.3% FROM 2022
It’s already the second touch-up since January. The new increases came into force on June 1st and are added to the increases in the catalog of January 1st. Steel watches, however, were spared from the increase. This is what emerges from the findings of WatchPro, a privileged observatory on the sector, which has a long-range tracker on a cross-section of Rolex references. The June 1st price increase was not applied to Rolex Air-King, DateJust, Submariner, GMT Master II or Daytona in Oystersteel. Instead, the price of the 40mm Rolex Yacht Master in rose gold increased by £1,000 to £26,500 (+4%). A 40mm Day-Date in white gold now costs £1,400 more (+3.8%) than it did six months ago. The steel Rolex Submariner remained unchanged, but the price of a white gold model has increased by £1,500, 38,200 (+4.1%). Same story with the Cosmograph Daytona, with the price frozen for the steel-on-steel piece while the white gold model rose by £1,500 (+4%) to £38,700. All things considered, the prices of fine Rolexes have grown by 15% in the last two years. The highest price detected by WatchPro is the Daytona in white gold, which has seen its work multiply by 19.3% since 2022.
DESIRABILITY IS PAID FOR
Desirability has its price, comment Jean-Philippe Bertschy and Tanja Saric, analysts at Vontobel, who every year closely follow Watches&Wonders in Geneva, the main trade fair in the sector. Despite the particularly challenging year, in 2023, the growth of Swiss watch exports was particularly high for premium watches. Although low-priced watches accounted for more than half of all exported units, they generated only 3% of total export value. Over the last 5 years, the average prices of exported watches have increased in all regions: in Asia the average price per watch has even doubled.
GET PREVIEW NEWS FOR FREEINCREASINGLY POLARIZED MARKET
The polarization and divergence between brand performances continues, Vontobel analysts reiterate. Despite global uncertainties and lower discretionary spending power, the winning brands continued their successful trajectory and this has increased the divergence and polarization between the performances of luxury goods companies. Among the top performers are groups such as Hermès and Richemont or specialized watch manufacturers such as Rolex, which not only remains the group with the highest turnover overall, but has extended its leadership even further, comment by Vontobel analysts. A trend destined to continue. In fact, today more than ever, high-end products, strong pricing power, exclusivity and desirability will separate the leaders from the lower performers.
