EDITOR'S NOTE Good morning. From the White Rabbit's pocketwatch to James Bond's Omega Seamaster, a timepiece can tell you a lot about its wearer. And in the case of the highest-end brands…it tells you they've dropped a lot of cash for wrist bling. Today, we'll be taking a look at the world of watches, from whether collecting luxury editions is a sound investment to how smartwatches measure your health. So, read on, if you've got the time… |
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CULTURE While some Gen Zers are acting like their grandparents by knitting sweaters, others are obsessing over fancy mechanical watches. The centuries-old analog gadgets are thriving with a new generation of consumers despite smartphones and wearables treading on their time-telling turf. Young enthusiasts have been scooping up Rolexes and Cartier watches, as well as more obscure timepieces from a growing number of upstart brands—both as a hobby and as an investment. But young watch enthusiasts often skip boutiques, preferring to shop on a thriving online secondhand market, guided by a cadre of tastemaking social media influencers. Flipper's market During Covid-era lockdowns, many younger people with cash and time on their hands discovered the world of gears and dials. At the same time, legacy brands couldn't keep up with demand for new watch models, fueling a secondhand watch frenzy on online marketplaces like Chronos24 and Watchfinder. Some saw the wristwatch mania as a side hustle opportunity. "A lot of the hype watches," like the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and the Patek Philippe Nautilus, doubled or tripled in price on the secondary market, Virginia-based watch dealer Ethan Falk told Morning Brew. But the horological bubble popped in 2022, according to data from the Chrono24 luxury watch index, which measures the resale prices of 140 luxury models. Falk says the market "has come a little bit back to reality," and now only specific models, like the Rolex Daytona and the Rolex GMT, trade at a significant premium on the secondary market, due to long waitlists to get them new. But those who bought a flashy watch before the pandemic are still likely in the green, according to Chrono24 data. The pandemic boom left the secondhand watch market bigger than it's ever been—with more new watches becoming available for resale to collectors eager to save cash by buying used, watch journalist Chris Hall said. The industry is massive: - In 2023, insiders valued the used-watch market at $27 billion and projected that it would grow as much as 12% per year for the next decade.
- And the youths are driving much of that growth: A 2024 YouGov survey found that 18- to 24-year-olds were almost twice as likely as all other age groups to consider a luxury watch purchase in the next 12 months.
Watchfluencers Many converts to horological fandom have discovered the passion through watch content on Instagram and TikTok (aptly named for watch geeks). Connoisseurs like Ben Clymer, who founded the watch media company Hodinkee, and Tristano Geoffrey Veneto, the influencer known as TGV, are fostering a culture of collecting, not just as a status-chasing activity, but also for the sake of nerding out on the expansive world of movements, dials, and bezels. Online watch fandoms have flattened the learning curve for secondhand watch dealers. "For every model, I swear there is some guy out there who has collected and documented every single minute variation about it and made a website about it," Falk said.—SK Read the full version of this feature story for more on whether or not Rolexes are still considered a good investment. | | |
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LUXURY Are a leather band and round face too basic for your wrist? Are you looking for a modern watch with a retro feel? Perhaps something more environmentally sustainable? There's never been a better time (get it?) to assert your independence from the chronometer crowd with these latest trends. New shapes: Last year at Watches and Wonders, a luxury watch trade show in Geneva, you could be forgiven if you didn't realize you were looking at something that can tell time. Some of the pricey reimagined timepieces resembled a padlock, a bathroom scale, and a panther. Piaget also unveiled a necklace, and Hermès debuted a brooch with the primary function of letting you know it's 5 o'clock somewhere. Turn back the hands of time: Retro is so now. Vintage watches were shown off on the Met Gala and Golden Globes red carpets in 2025, with Hailey Bieber, Jenna Ortega, and Nicole Kidman leading the charge. And they're not just popular with celebrity women—the New York Times reported in October that searches for "vintage luxury watches" on Pinterest grew by 80% year over year among Gen Z men. When wearing an old watch, you could say, "The wrist is history." Sustainability: While some are looking to make statements about taste and money, others are letting the world know they care about the environment through the device on their wrist. Sustainable watches can be made from durable or recycled materials, may include plant-based straps, or are made at factories that focus on energy efficiency. "Sustainable watches don't just tell the time, but they keep us connected to the rest of humanity, too," collector Bill Adler told British GQ. Bold colors: Color is in across the watch spectrum. On the smartwatch side of things, Apple made a push for brighter bands that include neon yellow, neon green, and turmeric. Bloomberg looked back on 2025's analog trends and noted color-focused watches from Piaget, Studio Underd0g, and MB&F that came in wild colors, like avocado and candy pink.—DL | | |
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WORK While it now takes only seconds to vibe-code a digital clock into existence, replacing a part on a mechanical watch can still be a dayslong ordeal. The rise of watch collecting in recent years has exposed a shortage of professionals with steady hands and expertise in handling tiny gears. Waitlists for repairs and maintenance have become a common headache (and a widespread excuse for watch owners to be late everywhere). Several watchmaking schools have closed in recent decades, leaving only nine full-time schools remaining in the US, according to the Horological Society of New York (HSNY). But there are still some heroes amongst us who can fix that faulty knob on the self-winding watch your grandma got you 20 years ago. Gen Z to the rescue The industry is hopeful that screen fatigue and young people's resurgent enthusiasm for analog timepieces will spur more of them to consider the old-timey trade: - The Finnish School of Watchmaking in Espoo, Finland, recently began offering an English-language course for the first time since its founding in 1944, in response to a rise in applications from around the world.
- Rolex launched a new full-time watchmaking program in Dallas in 2024 to train a new generation of craftspeople certified to repair and maintain its artisanal timepieces.
The job, which requires fine motor skills and a passion for tedium, might appeal to young people as an alternative to careers associated with pricey four-year degrees that have seen slower enrollment growth than professional programs in recent years. In addition to offering clear career prospects, watchmaker training takes less time and requires fewer financial resources than a bachelor's degree. For instance, Rolex's 18-month program is not only tuition-free, but also comes with a monthly stipend of $1,800. Some are trying it at home. The watchmaking subreddit, where hobbyists brag about their watch repair feats, boasts 26,000 weekly visitors. HSNY Deputy Director Carolina Navarro told Morning Brew that its watchmaking classes for amateur enthusiasts sometimes sell out within a day.—SK | | |
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ENTREPRENEURSHIP When it comes to luxury watches, time is money. Long-established brands like Rolex, Cartier, Omega, and Patek Philippe all have stellar reputations for craftsmanship, style, and precision, but those pedigrees often come with steep price tags. And that has left space for cheaper, smaller-scale microbrands to build their own followings, tick by tick. The horological hustle: Legacy brands often charge thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars for their timepieces. And prices have been getting higher: Rolex's retail prices jumped 18% in the past two years, according to pre-owned watch marketplace Bob's Watches. Meanwhile, independent microbrand companies—like Baltic, Serica, Formex, and Traska—tend to price their watches in the hundreds and low thousands. It's not just about the price tag Bigger watch companies typically stick to variations on classic designs that made them a success. But microbrands have more freedom to get a little weirder and explore what a luxury watch can really look like: Legacy brands still have a big advantage: Their time-tested watches can be highly collectible, whereas microbrands have a steeper uphill climb in that area. But industry analysts expect the microbrand watch market to grow 25% over the next five years, according to Illinois-based Sangamon Watches.—BC | | |
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HEALTH TECH Like that couch from Friends, smartwatches are in the midst of a pivot. A sector that was originally all about activity tracking and taking phone calls like a spy has refocused over the past decade, with players in the wearable tech space now competing to be the best in health monitoring. Fitbit opened the floodgates. The first popular name in fitness wearables sold tens of millions of devices that tracked steps, calories, sleep, and heart rate between 2009 and 2016. Then, Big Tech got involved: - Apple quickly made strides in wellness after debuting the Apple Watch as a general-purpose smartwatch. It added an ECG feature in 2018 that made it the first mainstream wearable to detect signs of an irregular heartbeat.
- That same year, Samsung rebranded its largely unpopular smartwatch series under the Galaxy moniker and leaned harder into health with stress tracking and upgraded sleep monitoring.
- Google bought Fitbit in 2021 and launched the Pixel Watch in 2022 with most of these features. The following year, it added blood oxygen reading, which by then was industry-standard.
And now...though the Apple Watch has a "not a medical device" disclaimer, it's wading deeper into healthcare. Over the past year and a half, Apple has added sleep apnea notifications and alerts for hypertension warning signs. Diabetes management is the next frontier No smartwatch can measure blood sugar levels—yet. Whichever company cracks that first could flip the glucose monitoring industry on its head, affecting ~40 million Americans with diabetes and possibly spelling trouble for the makers of diabetic patches that use microneedles to detect rising glucose. Apple has spent hundreds of millions of dollars working on no-prick tech, but—as of last year—it's still "many years away" from being ready, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Samsung's noninvasive glucose sensor is also in the works, but no delivery date has been announced. Meanwhile, the device that looks best positioned to break through first is a wearable breath monitor from PreEvnt called Isaac that wowed at CES this month and is currently in clinical trials. Counterpoint: Smartwatches may be more optimized for health-tracking than ever…but that can carry privacy concerns. There's no federal law barring wearable tech companies from selling your data, and HIPAA largely doesn't apply to the devices either, according to Healthcare Brew.—ML | | |
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