$10.5 Billion in Six Months: What the H1 Secondary Market Data Actually Shows

Meta description: EveryWatch's first-half 2026 report puts secondary market transactions at $10.5 billion, up 37.2%. The detail underneath the headline is more interesting than the number.

At the end of July, the market data platform EveryWatch published its report on the first half of 2026, and the headline figure got a lot of attention: $10.5 billion in global secondary market transactions, a 37.2% increase over the same period last year.

Before getting excited about that number, it is worth understanding where it comes from — because the methodology is what makes it useful.

Why this data is worth reading

EveryWatch draws from roughly 650 dealers and around 470 auction houses, and it reports on transacted prices rather than asking prices or auction estimates. That distinction matters enormously in a market where a listing can sit at an aspirational number for eight months before selling for considerably less.

The secondary market remains genuinely opaque. No one can independently verify a dataset of this kind, and it should be treated as a barometer rather than gospel. But a large sample of completed sales is about as close to a real reading as this industry currently produces, and it is a far better instrument than the anecdotes that usually pass for market commentary.

Value grew twice as fast as volume

The single most informative line in the report is the gap between two numbers. Transaction value rose 37.2%. Unit volume rose 18.7%.

Value growing at roughly double the rate of volume means the average watch changing hands is substantially more expensive than it was a year ago. Collectors are trading up. The growth is not coming from more people buying entry-level pieces; it is coming from existing buyers moving further up the price ladder, and from serious money concentrating at the top of the market.

EveryWatch also noted that close to half of everything listed actually sold — and framed that as evidence of genuine liquidity rather than a speculative bubble. That is a defensible read. In a bubble, listings pile up unsold while headline prices climb on thin volume. What this data describes is the opposite: a market where inventory is clearing.

Rolex is still the market

Rolex accounted for 41% of total secondary market value, with $4.29 billion in transactions — up 43.5% year over year. Patek Philippe was second at $1.51 billion. Audemars Piguet third at $983 million.

On the first-half pace, EveryWatch projects Rolex secondary market sales could exceed $10 billion for the full year. That figure covers grey market, traditional pre-owned and official certified pre-owned channels together.

Put in perspective: one brand's resale ecosystem is on track to approach the size of many entire luxury categories. Whatever anyone thinks about Rolex's product strategy, the depth of its aftermarket is the single most important structural fact in this business.

The independents are the story nobody predicted

Independent watchmakers were the fastest-growing segment in the report, collectively generating $633.8 million in the first half — up 89% year over year.

That total exceeded the secondary market value attributed to the entire LVMH watch portfolio, which came in around $617 million. Read that again. A loose collection of small-batch independents outtraded the resale market for a group that includes TAG Heuer, Hublot and Zenith.

F.P. Journe sits in a category of its own. The brand generated $202 million from 608 watches in six months, a rise of 196%. Roughly $88 million of that came through auctions, up 306% year on year. Its median price per watch climbed 82%, to $215,000. The spring auction season's highest result across all brands was a Souscription Chronomètre à Résonance at $13.9 million; another example of the same watch made $6.7 million.

Behind Journe: H. Moser & Cie. at $26 million (up 64%), Parmigiani Fleurier at $21 million (up 60%) and De Bethune at $19 million (up 2%).

EveryWatch's cofounder has compared the current appetite for independents to the early days of a new asset class, pointing to a wave of newer collectors — many from tech — drawn to the craft and the detail. There is an obvious caution buried in that comparison: new asset classes are also where the sharpest corrections happen. Scarce supply supports prices right up until sentiment turns, and a brand producing a few dozen watches a year has very little transactional depth to cushion a change in mood.

North America is the centre of gravity

For anyone selling into the U.S. market, this is the section that matters most.

The U.S. and Canada accounted for roughly $4.5 billion of first-half global secondary sales — about three times the entire Asian total. The median price paid for a pre-owned watch in North America was $8,900, close to double the European median.

That is a meaningfully different buyer. North American pre-owned demand is concentrated further up the price ladder than European demand, which reshapes what inventory is worth stocking. It also suggests real room ahead: per-capita watch spending in the United States still runs at roughly half the European level, which is why some analysts see a credible path toward a substantially larger American market over the coming years.

What to actually take from this

Four things worth holding onto.

The recovery is real, but it is concentrated. Aggregate growth of 37% does not mean every reference is up 37%. Value is clustering in high-end pieces, independents and a handful of dominant names. Mid-tier watches are participating far less.

Liquidity has returned before prices have. Index data from other sources shows only low single-digit price appreciation over the same period. Both readings are correct: more watches are selling, faster, at higher average values, without individual references necessarily reprising sharply. That is a healthier setup than 2021 was.

Trading up is the dominant behaviour. Buyers consolidating three mid-tier watches into one better piece show up in this data as both a sale and a purchase. If you sell, expect more of your customers to be funding purchases with trades.

Auction results are distorting brand-level averages. When a single $13.9 million lot lands, it moves a small brand's median substantially. Read the volume figures alongside the value figures before drawing conclusions about any independent.

The market is more liquid than it has been since 2022. It is not, on this evidence, overheating — but the growth is unevenly distributed enough that "the market is up 37%" is close to useless as a guide to what any particular watch is worth.