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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.