Looking at the 2016 price lists next to those of 2026 causes a curious feeling. The models are the same, the names have not changed, the references seem familiar, and yet the prices tell a different story. In many cases the increases far exceed European inflation for the same period, reaching +70 percent, +80 percent, sometimes more.
The immediate temptation is to look for an economic explanation. More expensive raw materials, increased production costs, more complex logistics. All real elements, certainly, but insufficient on their own to explain such a wide gap. To really understand what has happened we need to shift our gaze, from the product to the cultural context in which the luxury watch exists today.
The role of the clock
Over the past decade, the mechanical watch has changed its role.
It is no longer just a tool, nor is it simply a technical “exercise” or expression of high craftsmanship. It has become a symbol, a collective “code container.”
This slow but steady shift has also transformed the way we perceive price. When you buy an iconic watch today, you are not just valuing the movement, the finish, or the build quality. You are buying a set of meanings layered over time: brand history, collective imagination, cultural presence, and not least social recognition.
It is in this intangible space that price has begun to move faster than inflation.
In parallel, the secondary market played a key role. Between 2019 and 2023, many steel sports models reached unexpected valuations, often double or triple the official listings. This phenomenon profoundly affected the perception of value. Even those who were not directly participating in that market began to internalize a new parameter: if you say it is “worth” 30,000, even a 15,000 listing begins to seem low, almost inconsistent.
Over time, official listings gradually moved closer to that new perception. Not to chase speculation, but because the symbolic value of the object, in the eyes of the public, had objectively shifted higher.
The price and “value” of a watch
Then there is another, more subtle aspect. Iconic watches increasingly function as desirable objects precisely because they are hard to obtain. The high price is not just a consequence of prestige, it has become an integral part of it. If a Nautilus, Royal Oak, or Daytona cost half as much, they would probably lose a portion of their appeal. Not because the quality would change, but because their cultural role would change.
And here emerges one of the most interesting transformations in contemporary watchmaking: value no longer resides only in the object, but in the narrative surrounding it. In historical continuity, in aesthetic coherence, in recognizability, in perceived rarity. It is a slow construction, taking decades, but once established it becomes extremely powerful.
Prices will probably continue to rise, perhaps at different rates, perhaps with some stabilization phases, but the real question is another: to what extent will this balance between object, desire, and symbolic value remain harmonious?
Because the watch, in the end, remains an intimate object. It lives on the wrist, accompanies the days, tells something about the wearer. What if the price strays too far from the emotional experience it offers?
And perhaps that is the lesson of the current moment in history. We are observing in real time the evolution of watchmaking not only as an industry, but as a cultural phenomenon. Numbers tell a story, but behind those numbers is something more complex, namely a change in attaching value to objects, time and symbols.
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