ALT/FNDATA · Market Report
Q2 2025 Report: The Secondary Market for Luxury Watches
Auction-realized prices and the public-market backdrop
The year's strongest quarter, driven by the Geneva May sales: auction value rose year over year and the top lot more than doubled, the high end resilient even as the listed luxury houses de-rated in the spring.
The headline
The correction in three numbers
$166M
Q2 2025 auction value
Across 5,639 sold lots; +7% year over year and +7% like-for-like
$6.6M
Top lot at Phillips Geneva
A Pendule Sympathique; the top more than doubled year over year
60%
Phillips' share of value
$99M of $166M, concentrated in the Geneva May sales
Auction-realized prices: what watches actually sold for at the hammer, not asking prices. · 10M+ auction results · 100+ houses.
Key findings
What the quarter told us
- The year's strongest quarter: Q2 2025 cleared $166M across 5,639 sold lots, up approximately 7% year over year on both a gross and a like-for-like basis, the high end driving a quarter that diverged from the falling equities.
- The Geneva May sales were the quarter. May alone carried roughly $120M of the $166M, and Phillips cleared $99M, about 60% of the total, in its Geneva auctions.
- The top more than doubled. The quarter's high, a Pendule Sympathique at Phillips, realized $6.6M against a $3.0M top a year earlier, as complicated and historic pieces commanded the deepest bids.
- Blue-chip brands carried the value: Patek Philippe ($48M), Rolex ($24M), Cartier ($16M) and Audemars Piguet ($10M) led, the safe-haven references concentrating the capital.
- Christie's ($27M) and Antiquorum ($22M, on the most lots, 1,132) followed Phillips, with a deep mid-market base supplying volume.
- The saleroom diverged from the equities. The spring de-rating sent the listed houses lower (LVMH −22%, Swatch −15%), yet the watch auction market rose 7%, the high end resilient even as the shares fell, while Swiss exports whipsawed on tariff front-loading (April +149%).
Year-over-year
Q2 2024 vs. Q2 2025
Q2 2024 vs. Q2 2025: sold luxury-watch lots at auction (like-for-like = the 25 houses present in both quarters)
| Metric | Q2 2024 | Q2 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sold auction lots | 4,566 | 5,639 | +23% |
| Like-for-like lots | 4,315 | 5,082 | +18% |
| Total value (USD) | $155.8M | $166.0M | +7% |
| Like-for-like value | $154.9M | $165.1M | +7% |
| Top marquee lot | $3.0M | $6.6M | +119% |
The divergence
The watch saleroom diverged from the equities in Q2 2025: as the listed luxury houses de-rated (LVMH −22%, Swatch −15%), the watch auction market rose 7%, the Geneva May sales and the blue-chip top end resilient even as the shares fell.
Source: Yahoo Finance closing prices (31 Mar 2025 to 30 Jun 2025); ALT/FNDATA auction value.
The outlook
Three trends that will define the year
The high end is resilient
Even as the equities de-rated, the top of the watch market strengthened, the Geneva complications and blue-chip Patek commanding deeper bids than a year earlier. Scarcity at the pinnacle held while the equities fell.
Geneva is the quarter
The second quarter is a Geneva quarter, and in 2025 Phillips alone cleared roughly 60% of the value. The marquee May sales, not the broad mid-market, set the result.
Saleroom and equities diverged
The listed luxury houses fell on the spring de-rating while the watch saleroom rose. The auction high end, driven by historic and complicated pieces, traded apart from the equity cycle.
“As the listed luxury houses de-rated through the spring, the watch saleroom did the opposite: the Geneva May sales carried it to the year's high, and the top lot more than doubled.”
Members only
Read the full report
The headline data above is free to cite. The full report is part of ALT/FNDATA Membership, which includes every quarterly market report and the Visual Analytics Hub. Inside this report:
- The full month-by-month auction breakdown (April to June)
- The macro backdrop: the spring de-rating, Swiss exports and tariff front-loading
- The Geneva May sales and the blue-chip ceiling
- Methodology and how to cite the data
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Source: ALT/FNDATA, “Q2 2025 Report: The Secondary Market for Luxury Watches” (June 2026). Based on auction-realized prices for wristwatches and pocket watches cleared at the auction houses ALT/FNDATA tracks, with public-market context from Q2 2025 Swiss watch exports and watch-house equity performance. © 2026 ALT/FNDATA · altfndata.com/reports/luxury-watch-market-report-q2-2025