01
Jul
The Financial Times, the world’s most respected business periodical, has taken a hard look at the booming grey market for luxury watches and finds that it is “becoming a powerful force in the watch industry,” one that may soon spiral out of control. As opposed to pre-owned watches, the grey market consists of essentially unauthorized sales of stock that for whatever reason failed to sell on the primary market and is now being offered at a deeply discounted price. The market is “growing massively” according to the FT and now accounts for about 20% of the global market for watches that retail for above $5,000, a 100% increase since the last time the numbers were crunched. Oversupply in Asia, where the bottom fell out of a once-booming luxury watch market two years ago, has certainly fueled the grey market’s rise, the paper reports. While some brands are obviously working with grey market dealers to rid themselves of unwanted stock, others are violently opposed to it. Whatever luxury brands you love it will be affected by the grey market.