The liquidity league table: how fast luxury watch brands actually sell in 2026
Tudor sells through 89% of listings in 90 days. Audemars Piguet manages 33%. We break down Q1 2026 liquidity data across 14 brands and what it means for anyone who may one day want to sell.
Quick answer
Tudor is the most liquid luxury watch brand in the 2026 secondary market, selling through 89.4% of listings in the first quarter, according to Loupe. Grand Seiko (83.1%), Cartier (76.7%), and Omega (69.6%) follow. Rolex sells through 43.4% but dominates by volume and value, while Patek Philippe (36.9%), Audemars Piguet (32.5%), and Hublot (22.1%) are the slowest to sell.
Key takeaways
- Tudor, Grand Seiko, and Cartier sell through fastest. Tudor converted 89.4% of listings in Loupe’s 90-day window.
- Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet, the two most expensive brands tracked, sat at 36.9% and 32.5%. Higher prices mean fewer buyers at any moment.
- Days on market barely vary, from 14 to 19 days. Watches that are priced right sell in two to three weeks. The real difference between brands is how many listings are priced right.
- Liquidity and value retention are different things. A brand can be easy to sell and still lose money for its owners.
In this article
- The league table
- Pattern one: price is the biggest predictor
- Pattern two: once priced right, everything sells fast
- Pattern three: Rolex is the market’s centre of gravity
- Follow the money: where the dollar volume is
- What liquidity means for your exit price
- Liquidity is not the same as value retention
- What this means for buyers
- Method and caveats
- Frequently asked questions
Most buying advice talks about which watches “hold value”. Far less of it talks about the other half of the equation: how quickly, and how reliably, you can turn a watch back into money. That is liquidity, and in 2026 we finally have decent public data on it.
This analysis uses Loupe’s Q1 2026 market report, which draws on more than 222,000 Chrono24 sales, 44,000 completed eBay auctions, around 4,000 forum transactions, and 20,000 dealer listings. Sell-through rates and days on market come from Chrono24 listing data over the 90 days to March 2026.
The league table
Sell-through is the clearest single measure of liquidity here. It reflects how much of what was listed actually sold in the window. A high number means buyers are absorbing supply. A low number means listings are piling up at prices buyers will not pay.
Sell-through rate by brand, Q1 2026
Share of Chrono24 listings that sold, 90 days to March 2026. Higher is more liquid.
Source: Loupe, Q1 2026 Market Report, based on Chrono24 listing data. Blancpain not reported.
| Brand | Sell-through | Days on market | Avg. market value | 1-year change | 90-day sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tudor | 89.4% | 16.0 | $3,512 | +1.5% | 10,017 |
| Grand Seiko | 83.1% | 18.2 | $4,622 | +0.5% | 2,555 |
| Cartier | 76.7% | 14.6 | $9,120 | +1.5% | 14,612 |
| Omega | 69.6% | 16.8 | $5,481 | +1.2% | 27,325 |
| Seiko | 61.0% | 18.7 | $1,259 | +9.7% | 5,070 |
| IWC | 57.8% | 16.7 | $7,714 | -6.0% | 7,704 |
| Panerai | 54.0% | 15.3 | $7,558 | -2.4% | 3,393 |
| TAG Heuer | 44.4% | 14.5 | $3,024 | +0.6% | 6,025 |
| Breitling | 43.8% | 14.8 | $5,325 | +0.6% | 9,146 |
| Rolex | 43.4% | 16.0 | $26,828 | +6.2% | 40,528 |
| Patek Philippe | 36.9% | 19.4 | $64,429 | -0.4% | 5,067 |
| Audemars Piguet | 32.5% | 17.9 | $66,706 | -3.3% | 4,110 |
| Hublot | 22.1% | 14.0 | $14,389 | -5.9% | 1,934 |
Pattern one: price is the biggest predictor
Sort the table by average market value and the shape is obvious. The four brands with average values under about $5,500 that are widely collected (Tudor, Grand Seiko, Omega, and Seiko) all sell through above 60%. Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet, with average market values of $64,429 and $66,706, sit near the bottom.
That is not a verdict on quality. It is arithmetic. At any given moment there are far more people able to spend $3,500 on a watch than $65,000. Fewer buyers means each listing has to wait for the right one, and sellers who will not cut their price simply do not sell.
Pattern two: once priced right, everything sells fast
The most surprising number in the table is the narrow spread of days on market. Every brand falls between 14 and 19.4 days. Hublot, with the weakest sell-through of all, has one of the shortest times on market at 14 days.
Our read: days on market only measures the watches that sold, and those were the ones priced at or near what buyers would pay. The listings that never sold do not drag the average up, they just lower the sell-through rate. So the honest summary is that a correctly priced watch from almost any major brand sells in two to three weeks. The question is how far below the asking price “correctly priced” turns out to be.
Pattern three: Rolex is the market’s centre of gravity
Rolex’s 43.4% sell-through looks middling until you see the volume. Its 40,528 sales in 90 days are more than Omega, Cartier, and Tudor combined, and about a quarter of every transaction tracked. No other brand comes close to that depth of buyers.
That depth is why Rolex prices are so transparent, and why a Rolex is usually the easiest luxury watch to sell for a predictable amount, even if the share of listings that sell is unremarkable.
Follow the money: where the dollar volume is
Sell-through tells you how quickly listings sell. It does not tell you where the money goes. Multiplying each brand’s average market value by its 90-day sales gives a rough estimate of the dollar value that changed hands. The result is the most concentrated picture in the data.
Estimated value of watches sold in 90 days, Q1 2026
Average market value multiplied by 90-day sales, US dollars. Our calculation from Loupe data.
Source: The Dial Report calculation from the Loupe Q1 2026 Market Report. Approximate, since averages and sales counts are rounded.
| Brand | Share of watches sold | Share of estimated value |
|---|---|---|
| Rolex | 29.5% | 49.3% |
| Patek Philippe | 3.7% | 14.8% |
| Audemars Piguet | 3.0% | 12.4% |
| Omega | 19.9% | 6.8% |
| Cartier | 10.6% | 6.0% |
| Tudor | 7.3% | 1.6% |
| All other brands in the table | 26.0% | 9.1% |
Rolex accounts for roughly three in ten watches sold and about half of the value. Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet together sell fewer than 7% of the watches but account for over a quarter of the value. Omega is the mirror image: one in five watches sold, but less than 7% of the money. The practical point for buyers is that the market for a Rolex is not only fast, it is deep, with many buyers at every price level.
What liquidity means for your exit price
Liquidity shows up in the price you get when you sell. Dealers pay less for watches they expect to hold for longer, because stock that sits costs money. Hilco Global cites roughly 80 to 85% of market value for a trusted client. In our Deal Analyzer, we place each reference within a wider 70 to 85% range according to how liquid its market is.
| Liquidity of the reference | Dealer buy rate in our model | Typical examples |
|---|---|---|
| Very high | 85% | Steel Rolex sports models |
| High | 83% | Core Omega, Tudor, and Cartier references |
| Good | 80% | Most mainstream luxury references |
| Moderate | 77% | Less popular variants and some precious-metal models |
| Low | 74% | Niche references with few buyers |
| Thin | 70% | Rare or very expensive references with a small buyer pool |
On a €10,000 watch, the difference between a very liquid and a thin market is €1,500 at the moment you sell. That is why we weight liquidity in the Dial Report Score and why it is worth checking before you buy anything expensive or unusual.
Liquidity is not the same as value retention
The second half of the story is what happened to prices. Over the past year, Rolex average market values rose 6.2% and Seiko 9.7%, while IWC fell 6.0%, Hublot 5.9%, and Blancpain 10.2%.
One-year change in average market value, by brand
Change to March 2026. Gold bars rose, blue bars fell.
Source: Loupe, Q1 2026 Market Report.
Put the two charts side by side and the brands fall into rough groups. Tudor and Cartier are liquid and stable. Rolex combines enormous volume with rising prices. Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet are slow to sell and roughly flat to slightly down over the year. Hublot and IWC are both slower to sell and falling.
What this means for buyers
- If you might need to sell within a few years, favour brands and references with deep, fast markets. The cost of an illiquid watch shows up as the discount you accept to sell it.
- Price your exit, not just your entry. Days on market tells you that the right price clears quickly. Use completed sales, not listings, to find that price before you buy.
- At the very top of the market, plan for patience. With roughly a third of listings selling in 90 days, a Patek Philippe or Audemars Piguet can take a long time to sell at the price you want.
- Do not confuse liquid with safe. A watch that sells instantly at a loss is liquid. It has not held its value.
Method and caveats
All figures are as published by Loupe for Q1 2026. A few details in Loupe’s commentary text differ from its own data table. Where they differ we use the table. Sell-through rates depend on how many listings are priced unrealistically high, so they partly measure seller behaviour as well as buyer demand. Brand averages hide large differences between individual references.
Free tool
See how liquid your watch is before you buy. The Deal Analyzer sets the dealer buy rate from the reference’s liquidity and shows your Bottom Cash Value.
Open the Deal AnalyzerFrequently asked questions
Which watch brand is easiest to sell?
In the first quarter of 2026, Tudor had the highest sell-through rate at 89.4%, followed by Grand Seiko at 83.1% and Cartier at 76.7%, according to Loupe. Rolex had the largest number of sales by far.
What is sell-through rate?
The share of listings that actually sold in a given period. A high rate means buyers are absorbing supply at listed prices. A low rate means listings are piling up at prices buyers will not pay.
Why do Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet sell more slowly?
Mainly price. With average market values above $64,000, the pool of buyers is much smaller than for a $3,500 Tudor. It is a measure of market depth, not of quality.
Does a liquid brand hold its value better?
Not necessarily. Liquidity means you can sell quickly at the market price. Value retention depends on whether that market price holds up. Tudor is very liquid, but its watches cost less and typically trade below retail.
How much will a dealer pay for my watch?
Hilco Global cites roughly 80 to 85% of market value for a trusted client. Expect less for slow-selling references, incomplete sets, or watches that need a service.
Sources
- Loupe, Q1 2026 Market Report (March 2026).
- Hilco Global, Collateral in question: a mid-2026 assessment of the luxury watch segment (dealer buy rates).
This article is educational and is not financial advice.
