Luxury watches: Analysis of The Watch Register database, which holds £1.5 billion ($1.86 billion USD) worth of lost and stolen watches, shows that there has been a 36% increase over the last year in the number of checks on luxury watches undertaken by pawnbrokers. The increase in searches indicates that the cost of living crisis is driving some luxury watch owners to pawn their timepieces in order to obtain a short-term inflow of cash.
Luxury watches are one of the first assets that people will liquidate in a financial crisis. Consumer research from The Watch Register finds that 22% of luxury watch owners have sold a watch or watches over the past two years. Of those who had sold a watch or watches, four in 10 (37%) said they had done so as a result of the cost of living crisis and needed the money.
Second-hand luxury watches can fetch thousands of pounds, with the findings revealing that the highest proportion (19%) of luxury watches sold in the past two years were worth between £6,000 ($7,460 USD) and £9,999 ($12,400 USD), followed by 17% worth between £4,000 ($4,970 USD) and £4,999 ($6,200 USD) and 15% worth between £5,000 ($6,200 USD) and £5,999 ($7,450 USD).
