Have you ever seen a multi-millionaire cry over $30,000!? I have.
That man was Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank who had to wipe tears from his face when he finally got the Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711 he had been waiting for for years!
Perhaps it was the glory of owning one of the most coveted timepieces ever made. Or, perhaps it was the fact he got it at retail ($30,600), and it’s now worth over $100,000 on the secondary market. He did after all say that luxury timepieces are the best asset class he’s held in the past 5 years.
That’s quite the statement from someone with the financial prowess of Mr. Wonderful. And I couldn’t agree with him more!
When I got into them years ago, I never imagined luxury timepieces could be the best asset class investments. You actually probably would have caught me talking about real estate and stocks. But now that my eyes are open, and I’ve seen firsthand the insane benefits that come with investing, I can’t go back! You’re going to want to pay attention, because I promise you, if you miss this train, 5 years from now you’ll be kicking yourself in the ass.
I’ll help you understand what kind of returns and timelines are realistically experienced. For me, returns are anywhere from 30 – 150% in as little as a day, or more likely 2-6 months if I’m parking money and letting market appreciation do the work. Typical investors are making 30-80% returns in an average of 2-8 months time. You may still be questioning the context here and comparing the option to other investments you’re more familiar with. So, here’s 3 prime reasons timepieces are the best asset class over every other investment I’ve experienced to date to give you clarity:
Mobility of Money – There is no better way to move money around than in and out of timepieces. What do I mean by that? If you have cash sitting around, it’s very easy to buy a watch off the books. This is why people with extra personal cash and cash businesses love timepieces. When you park that into something like a Rolex, Patek Philippe, or Audemars Piguet, your money is consolidated into one unit, and you can wear it on your wrist. Not only does it make the transport easier, but the asset itself (the watch) is appreciating in value over time at 10-100X what a normal bank account’s interest yields. This means you’re basically inventorying your own bankroll, and paying yourself back whenever you want to cash out or trade into another watch.
The ease of which you can carry the asset around is a huge benefit. Unlike real estate, you don’t have to leave it behind, and the time to liquidate on a timepiece is usually 3 days, not weeks-months. If you ever had to flee your country, or wanted to go on a vacation, you could simply take a watch roll, throw 3 pieces in it, and travel with 150K worth of watches for example. The liquidity and demand across the world are relatively consistent especially with well-known brands like Rolex, and you can even take advantage of exchange rates if you wanted to sell one abroad. There are also benefits to buying while traveling. Timepieces can be sourced in many places where they can’t be found as easily in your home country. There is then the ability to get VAT (value added tax) removed when traveling back out of the country you’re visiting. This gives you another 10-18% off so if/when you want to resell the watch when home, you can make a handsome profit and pay for your entire trip with 1 deal.
Regulation Free – With most asset classes, there’s some kind of paperwork, yellow tape, and/or regulations involved to get deals done. Real estate comes with the headache of contractors, buyer agreements, and zoning. With stocks and cryptocurrency, you have to worry about the SEC and other commodities’ governors. With larger assets like commercial trucks, you have maintenance and licenses needed. But with timepieces, there are little to NO regulations. No paperwork, contractors, agreement contracts, exchange rules, closing fees, construction delays, and processing time to liquidate. You can literally take the watch to a dealer, or sell it online to a buyer and get paid the same day. Buying the asset is equally as easy. The ability to park money into a watch and then sell it the same week for a $12,000 profit feels amazing .
Network – What I’ve learned over a decade doing this, and seeing it happen for 5,000+ people, is the network you connect into while wearing a luxury timepiece is unrivaled. Some of the most interesting people in the world from all backgrounds enjoy badass watches. I’ve been able to become friends with fortune 100 CEO’s, celebrity athletes, tv stars, and overall amazing regular people by sharing the mutual passion of this asset class. If you’re going to invest in something, it should be fun and you should get value from it beyond just the returns.
I know plenty of people who have formed new ventures and done 7 figure deals they never would have had access to before due to the fact that they connected over the shared interest of timepieces. It’s an old saying “your network is your net worth”, and it really shows when you start to get involved. You’ll see that watches are like a legal drug, and when you become a dealer for those around you, they can’t get enough. People who see timepieces as investments range from CEOs Jamie Dimon, top tier investors like Kevin O’Leary, rappers like Jay-Z, MMA fighters like Conor McGreggor, and Formula 1 Race Car drivers like Juan Pablo Montoya. Your access to the elite rich who appreciate the assets as wealth preservers, and works of art is wide open.
If you think you need to be wealthy to start investing in luxury timepieces, think again! Getting started has a low barrier to entry. You just need to know the right models to invest in, and the right prices to buy them at. Getting skilled at this is much easier than it was years ago. With communities and educational platforms like Watch Trading Academy, almost anyone can get into this asset class with a computer, access to FedEx, and $1,500. Crazy right!?
I hope if you’re already enjoying this asset class, you continue to improve your returns and look at luxury timepieces in a portfolio strategy like I’ve taught so many to do. And if you haven’t yet gotten involved in the asset class but want to, I would love to see you in the community of thousands of normal people who are making money in this investment already.