There has been a lot of buzz lately about the idea that renting watches from companies like Eleven James is the smarter way to enjoy high end timepieces without losing your hard earned dollars…
But reality is that it’s the complete opposite.
While the majority of people may think that buying watches from their local jewelers is a bad idea as they always depreciate, real watch aficionados who know how to buy watches (like my students at Watch Conspiracy), know that buying the right watches from the right people mean they appreciate rather than depreciate.
In the simplest of contexts, let’s compare the idea of a owning a $20,000 Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore, a watch that very few are privileged enough to be able to afford.
If you rented such a watch for even $150 a month, by the end of the year, you would have spent a total of $1,800 and would own nothing.
This also goes without mentioning that you would need to give a deposit of least roughly $2,000.
I am using conservative numbers here simply because I want to show you that even in the best case scenario, renting a time piece never makes sense.
Using the Watch Conspiracy method of buying, trading and selling watches, you can acquire that very same Audemars Piguet Royal Oak offshore that cost $20,000 for $13,000.
This immediate $7,000 savings accounts for the core depreciation that the watch will undertake at any given time based on its condition in its lifetime.
Look on eBay or any watch forum and you will see that the pricing for these watches hasn’t changed in the past five years on the used market.
This stability in its bottom cost has led to an incredible secondary market of resellers selling the same brand new watch you buy for $20,000 for $15,000 brand new as well.
Imagine this, if you actually paid $13,000 for a watch and after one year, sold that same watch for $13,500, which is only $500 above wholesale and still $1,500 below what most resellers sell it for, then you would have technically been paid $50 a month to wear it rather than paid $150 to rent it.
Watches will always have long lasting value if they are the correct brands and models, but renting an appreciating asset simply makes no sense.
It only makes sense if you are in position to not being able to afford it.
In most cases, people think they cannot afford the watch of their dreams because they compare pricing at the local mall or watch boutiques, but fail to realize that jewelers everywhere have high profit margins built into all jewelry and that they are always willing to negotiate.
The point is the average buyer sees a Hublot Big Bang for $14,000 at the local store, and I buy that same watch for $5,000.
The Rolex Submariner you see brand new for $8,000, I can buy 35% off retail brand new from that same store.
You have to start understanding how simple it is to get some of the best deals out there by simply understanding how the game works.
If you are in the market for a watch, do not rent it, do not buy a new one from your local mall, join this 1 hour free training so you can learn to negotiate as much as 80% off your next watch. Sign up here for our next free training.