Is there a status symbol as powerful as a luxury watch? Maybe, but there’s something about a luxury watch that is more versatile than a statement car or home; namely, that you can take it everywhere with you. With luxury watches on the rise, more and more people are discovering their innate value and investment potential.
Indeed, the industry is booming so much that the Swiss watch industry exported almost $21 million (£16.7 million) of goods in 2014. If you’re thinking of buying yourself an expensive wrist accessory, here are the brands to look out for in 2023.
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What Makes a Watch Iconic?
The quality of a luxury watch is measured by the brand under which it is produced and the craftsmanship that has informed the final product. From famous celebrity ambassadors to film franchises and world leaders, the watch industry leans heavily into celebrity culture and the film industry. Case in point, you can’t think of James Bond without thinking of Rolex.
Another thing that makes luxury watches such a hot commodity is their timelessness. Not ones to follow fleeting trends and pop-culture influences, every brand has carved its own classic design that makes them who they are, meaning that a luxury watch will essentially be fashionable forever.
Rolex:
A world-famous brand that needs no introduction, Rolex is at the forefront of luxury watch design. With a century’s worth of history, they started out with the Oyster model before inventing the world’s first self-winding mechanism that informed the Rolex Oyster Perpetual.
The brand then sought to solve the problem of water damage with the Submariner which could work just as effectively underwater as it did above land. This was a gamechanger and earnt its place in several James Bond films in the late 1900s. And, thanks to their state-of-the-art engineering, pre-owned Rolex watches still offer the same seamless experience without the hefty price tag.
Tag Heuer
When it comes to sports watches, it has to be Tag Heuer every time. Launched in 1969 to mark the Monaco Grand Prix, the brand is innately bound to the motorsport world and appeals to racing enthusiasts all over the world.
It also boasts a unique design. Paving the way for square-cased chronographs, it’s sleek, timeless and modern all at the same time.
Audemars Piguet:
Not ones to follow the crowd, Audemars Piguet rewrote the rulebook with their Royal Oak watch. Released at the height of the quartz crisis in 1972, the brand envisioned a different future for the luxury watch industry with a design made of steel.
And whilst the material might not be as grandiose, it’s the design that marks this brand out from the rest.
