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The recent swoon in cryptocurrency valuations "has directly impacted pricing of luxury watches from brands like Rolex and Patek Philippe," said the company, which is based in Karlsruhe, Germany, and has more than half a million watches listed for sale on its website...
At the same time, Stracke said trading volumes on the platform, which links dealers or private sellers with buyers, have jumped more than 50% in the first half of the year.
The price of a Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711A, which sells for about $35,000 at retail, surged to $240,000 in the first quarter, according to Chrono24. Now the blue-dialed steel sports watch is fetching about $190,000 [...]
But why the soaring demand in the first place? In addition to crypto and stock-market gains, stimulus cash bolstered the secondhand-timepiece market, one segment of the larger luxury-goods market, which includes handbags, designer sneakers and fine jewelry, among other high-cost items. Rampant inflation and the war in Ukraine contributed to their appeal, as buyers sought tangible stores of value.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Thursday August 04 2022, @07:42PM (4 children)
Am I missing something? This makes no sense to me at all. If they have more stock then ever available (half a million watches) how come a clock that used to cost $35k now sell for $190k (peaking at $240k)? If crypto has collapsed is it people selling previously bought luxury items to cover losses? Still shouldn't the price then go down? Are these limited edition type things? Even if you are worried about inflation and want to get tangible things eventually you might want to turn that clock back into cash (or crypt) again and isn't it somewhat unlikely that it will still be worth $190k then?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Barenflimski on Thursday August 04 2022, @08:59PM
None of it makes sense in the eyes of a logical person.
It makes sense when you view it from the perspective of shady marketers. "The Nelk Boys", and "Stevewilldoit" pawn this crap heavily to their young audience. Their audience is almost all young kids who happened to buy crypto and are now crypto-rich. The backers are liqour companies and gambling companies. UFC folks are involved as well, think Dana White and team. Notice every jersey UFC fighters have worn for the last couple of years, and all of the advertisers in the UFC ring.
I am sure there are other "influencers" doing relatively the same. These for-mentioned guys are certainly some of the few at the top level.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday August 04 2022, @11:08PM
Expensive stuff like this is often a "snob good", where the fact that it's ridiculously expensive compared to the value it provides is part of the product you're buying.
A similar concept was the $999 iPhone app that did nothing but display a picture saying "I'm rich!"
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 05 2022, @02:39AM
Maybe the collapse is ongoing. Like the retailers still trying to get rid of the GPUs they bought at over MSRP.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 05 2022, @07:56AM
People who were parking money in crypto now have to park it somewhere else. If you have a shady couple of million you want to move or hide then you buy a bunch rolexes and PP's.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by MIRV888 on Thursday August 04 2022, @09:57PM (25 children)
Fancy or not, who even wears wrist watches at this point?
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday August 04 2022, @10:31PM
The "haves"?
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday August 05 2022, @01:42AM (1 child)
Most people who wear Rolex watches do so to pass money at the airport.
Ironically, evading taxman, passing money and paying for shady things is also exactly what cryptocurrencies are used for.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday August 05 2022, @02:23AM
Hey now! Cryptocurrency is also used to do the equivalent of passing off a cheap "Bolex" as something valuable.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Mykl on Friday August 05 2022, @01:51AM (2 children)
I do.
I like to be able to glance down to check the time rather than pull my phone out. It's also a form of functional jewelry. Others wear necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings etc. I have my watch.
I probably would've bought a smart-watch, however friends of mine bought me a nice watch (_way_ less than $1,000) for a significant birthday a while ago, and I don't want to put it away in a cupboard.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 05 2022, @03:47PM
Me too, it's a Casio calculator (nerd) watch. Big advantage is that it has enough buttons -- want to set an alarm, just type in the time, no cycling through the digits (etc).
Note, I don't carry a cell/smart phone, so a watch is still useful on days that I have a schedule to meet. This has been less frequent since Zooming from home, but does still occur.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2022, @09:30AM
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 05 2022, @02:06AM (5 children)
Good question. Today, everybody has a cell phone, with the time always on display. Those of us who don't carry a cell phone are outliers. Not many people have any reason to wear a watch, unless they need the second hand. Even then, there's probably an app that will install that analog second hand on your phone if you need/want it.
From the days of yore, a $2 Timex was "good enough" for almost anyone who needed a watch. I stayed with that until I got my sports diving license, when I switched over to a Casio electronic diving watch, for ~ $30.
Anyone spending tens or hundreds of thousands on a watch ain't real bright. High quality time pieces are available for hundreds to a mere thousand dollars.
You probably won't find "old money" families sporting such expensive watches. They tend to hoard their money, guarding it jealously. They can buy those expensive watches by the dozen, but they aren't going to.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Friday August 05 2022, @02:28AM (4 children)
We should take a moment to marvel at the fact that you can get a smartwatch with a 64-bit dual-core or quad-core [notebookcheck.net], 1-2 gigabytes of RAM, and 16-32 gigabytes of storage. And there is no barrier to having a "decent" octo-core, 4 (8?) gigabytes of RAM, and 1 TB of storage (largest microSD and UFS package capacity on the market, and a new round of denser 232-layer [anandtech.com] and 238-layer [anandtech.com] NAND dies were just announced).
These specs may be largely useless other than for spying on you, but they will continue to climb over the next decade. Maybe becoming more useful with those holograms.
Also, we have been stuck at 18 gigabytes of RAM (the China special) in smartphones for a while. It's high time for 24 gigabytes. For reasons.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 05 2022, @04:37AM (2 children)
"Smart" watches are a great big throwback.. You gotta "wind" (charge) it every day.. How.. um.. quaint!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday August 05 2022, @07:00AM (1 child)
Take it off your wrist before you sleep, place it onto a wireless charger.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 06 2022, @03:27AM
Yeah, something else you gotta drag to the Notel Motel every weekend.
Now the watch requires two pieces
The most advanced watch in the world is self winding, and solar, they're pretty cool
(Score: 2) by turgid on Friday August 05 2022, @07:44PM
It'll happen with time. Luckily there are people with more money than they know what to do with who drive the market for these things so eventually the technology becomes a commodity and the rest of us can afford it. We just need to keep inventing the toys for these people to buy.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday August 05 2022, @02:07AM
I will wear smartwatches once they can spew holograms. Also, a human-level artificial intelligence assistant and a few hundred terabytes of knowledge locally stored in a smartwatch would be nice.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by EvilJim on Friday August 05 2022, @03:30AM
yep, I discovered my first phone had a clock back in the early 2000's and I never wanted a watch again. I used to wear a crap casio with multiple repairs as I was a builder at the time, I kept smashing it off my wrist while carrying stuff through door frames. I ended up with a strap of elastic instead of a proper watch strap, that was a genius move, the multiple layers of glue which formed the strap mounts didn't break after that mod and the paperclip pins didn't need replacing again. then I bought a cellphone and my wrist felt naked for some time.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by janrinok on Friday August 05 2022, @05:53AM (5 children)
More people than you obviously think, and I am one of them. It is far easier to look at a wristwatch than to get the phone out of my pocket - and looking at a wristwatch is not illegal when you are driving a car.
Having a phone in your hand while driving is illegal in many countries. You should be controlling the car, not using your phone. Excuses such as 'I was using the GPS', 'I was switching it off', and 'it rang and might be my boss' are all unacceptable. It is either 'hands free' or it isn't.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by stretch611 on Friday August 05 2022, @07:52AM (2 children)
I tend to agree with you...
Getting my phone out of my pocket is nearly impossible while sitting down... add a seatbelt and the confines of a car and I can't even do it as a passenger. Plus, as you mentioned driving illegally.
BUT, let me ask you a question... What car do you own that does not have a clock on display? Every car I have ever owned... including one car that was older than me all had a clock. (admittedly, it did not work in 2 of the classic cars I owned, but it was actually working in a 1971 Cadillac I used to own.) Pretty much every modern car has a clock integrated into the audio system. If you have a car with spy tech like Onstar, they have clocks integrated with that too... and set them automatically as well.
You also mentioned GPS, which always has clocks on it, and can be set by the GPS satellites themselves. (Admittedly on this point, it might only display the estimated arrival time for your destination instead of the current time.) Not to mention people who buy handsfree systems can get mounts so they can see their phone even if they are not legally able to touch them.
Using a watch may be your personnel preference in a car, but I doubt it is a requirement to know what time it is.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Friday August 05 2022, @10:42AM (1 child)
I can display the time, but I prefer to have my display set to show me the current fuel consumption and how far I can go before expecting to refuel. That way I can make sensible decisions regarding where to stop to refuel. Fuel being sold in the middle of nowhere is far more expensive than that being sold in a town supermarket - but knowing whether I have the option to wait until the next supermarket is a valuable piece of information.
Unfortunately, the clock is only 1 of 6 possible display modes, and changing them is just as distracting as using a cell phone. My watch is on my wrist and usually positioned on the steering wheel where I can easily see it.
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Friday August 05 2022, @05:17PM
fair point.
My radio/audio/media center in my car always displays the clock when it is on. Constantly in the bottom corner (Except in dvd playback mode which can not operate if the car is not in park.) Now, if the radio/media center is off, I do have an option for the clock to remain on in the center of the display which is the default.
My prior cars all had the clock in the middle of the dash so it was not optional at all.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2022, @10:26AM (1 child)
Most of the cars I've driven have a clock.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday August 07 2022, @10:46AM
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday August 05 2022, @06:41AM
When I am on my bike, or out running, a watch is convenient. When I am giving a presentation or dashing between meetings (most days), a watch is convenient. I'm not enough of a gear freak to want a smart watch or a heart rate monitor or any of that junk.
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Friday August 05 2022, @07:23AM
I do. It's not even a smart watch. There are no menus. I can click through the options faster than an phone -- and I can even start the stop watch function without looking at it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by istartedi on Friday August 05 2022, @04:52PM (1 child)
This may be a somewhat dated observation since it's been a while since I was out there in the work world, but in a word: Salesmen.
Probably not just salesmen, but people to whom they pitch--the C-suite, and those who fancy themselves being there some day. It's obviously not about telling time. It's about status.
This is based almost entirely of my observation of interactions involving a sales guy in our office, and the occasional people of a similar ilk who'd come by. They don't *all* play the watch game, but for those who do it's a conversation starter and a way of sizing up the wealth and/or status of the wearer.
Also, some performers, usually rappers who want to project an air of wealth but that's a different vibe.
I'm not saying I like the idea of people sizing each other up based on such things. I'm just saying it happens, and I'm probably a hypocrite for subconsciously sizing people up based on something else I'm not even aware of. I think it's human nature.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Sunday August 07 2022, @05:32AM
Agree.
These over-the-top watches are for those who need other people to know that they're wealthy. The truly rich don't need to buy into that, and are unlikely to drop tens of thousands of dollars on a wristwatch.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Friday August 05 2022, @07:38PM
I've got a solar powered Casio watch which synchronises to a radio signal every 24 hours so it's always very accurate. For years I used to use my phone to check the time but it was tedious.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].