New resale data and expert insight show how Cartier has gained ground alongside Rolex in the pre-owned watch market, reflecting shifts in buyer behavior, pricing stability, and demand for smaller, more versatile designs.
If you have been scrolling pre-owned watch listings recently — maybe looking for a holiday gift, maybe circling a purchase you have been putting off — the mix likely looks a good bit different than it did a few years ago.
What once felt like a near-monopoly of steel sports watches now looks more varied. Rectangular cases appear with regularity. Case diameters skew smaller. Gold and two-tone watches are easier to find. Cartier models — particularly the Tank, Santos-Dumont, and Panthère — show up consistently across resale platforms, often within price ranges that sit well below the category’s most speculative tiers.
Gen Z loves Cartier
Chrono24’s long-running analysis of secondary-market transactions provides the clearest view of the shift. In a joint report with Fratello Watches examining seven years of activity, Chrono24 found that Cartier’s share of purchases among Gen Z buyers increased from 1.7 percent in 2018 to 6.8 percent in 2023. Over the same period, purchases of dress watches by Gen Z rose 44 percent, compared with 29 percent among other age groups. Dress watches now represent the largest share of Gen Z purchases on the platform.
Balazs Ferenczi, head of brand engagement at Chrono24, has described the trend as structural rather than cyclical. “The unyielding demand for the Tank and Santos fuels desire for the brand, with the hard-to-get factor driving lots of newcomers to the secondary market – many of those skewing younger, enticed by a more accessible way to reach luxury,” he said in an interview with Business Insider.
Cartier’s strength in the resale market is tied to product structure. The brand’s most widely traded designs have changed incrementally over decades. A Tank produced in the 1990s is visually close to one produced today. Santos-Dumont models retain consistent proportions. Panthère watches function as bracelet watches first and timepieces second.
“[M]ore feminine, cocktail-style watches are really having a moment,” Brynn Wallner, founder of Dimepiece, told Vogue last spring.
Rolex remains the anchor
Despite Cartier’s growth, Rolex remains the dominant force on the secondary market by transaction value and brand recognition. Chrono24 data shows Rolex accounting for roughly one-third of total resale transaction value globally, far ahead of any competitor. Rolex also continues to outperform most brands on value retention. Rebag’s 2025 resale report found Rolex retained an average of 104 percent of retail value, maintaining its “unicorn” status in the resale market.
After years of rapid appreciation driven by scarcity and speculation, prices for many steel sports models have stabilized. Chrono24 has described Rolex as “anchoring the market,” reflecting reduced volatility rather than renewed acceleration.
A ChronoPulse index tracking quarterly resale performance illustrates the distinction. In the second quarter of 2024, Cartier recorded a 6.14 percent increase in average resale value, while Rolex watches experienced an average decline of 1.74 percent over the same period. So while Rolex remains the benchmark, Cartier increasingly occupies the space where decisions are made more quickly.
Smaller watches and jewelry logic
One of the clearest shifts on the resale market is toward smaller and jewelry-forward watches. This is particularly evident among women buyers, but it is not limited to them. Rectangular cases, bracelet watches, and designs under 36 millimeters are being searched and sold more frequently across platforms.
Julia Rabinowitsch, founder of The Millennial Decorator, told Vogue she has seen “a rapid — and massive — growth in interest around watches, especially among women,” noting a move away from oversized sports watches toward smaller, more delicate designs. She added that her most frequent sourcing requests are for Cartier models.
This demand aligns with broader secondhand growth. A Boston Consulting Group report co-authored with Vestiaire Collective estimated the global secondhand market would reach $320 billion to $360 billion by 2030, growing three times faster than the firsthand luxury market. Watches fit this ecosystem particularly well. They can be authenticated, serviced, and resold repeatedly without functional degradation. As secondhand shopping becomes normalized across luxury categories, watches increasingly follow the same browsing and comparison behavior as fashion.
For buyers navigating resale today, the most significant shift is not which brand is “winning,” but how watches are being used. They are no longer purchased solely as markers of expertise or status. Increasingly, they are bought the way other luxury items are bought: for wear, longevity, and fit within daily life. “For most women, wearing a huge watch isn’t practical,” Wallner said. “You want something more dainty and jewelry-forward because it’s [more likely] to be stacked and goes with almost any outfit.”
Jalil Johnson, founder of the Substack Consider Yourself Cultured, described the appeal of jewelry-like watches in a way that reads like modern dressing, not modern collecting: “But today, I’d argue the cocktail watch feels incredibly modern when worn during the day. It’s a smart way to dress up your look without going over the top.”
“The million-dollar question for any collector or potential collector is why a certain model holds its value,” Aaron Voyles wrote for Chrono24. He says for Cartier, it’s the high recognition value for models like the Panthère, links to Cartier’s heritage in high-end watchmaking, like the CPCP, and their ability to speak to the broader market’s desires, like the Santos de Cartier. But, he notes, “no one has a crystal ball,” and the watch market’s wants or needs might quickly shift focus in the near future. His advice is practical no matter what you’re buying: “The best thing you can do is do your research in advance, buy the watch you want at a price you deem reasonable, and hope that your bet pays off.”
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