(Data: WatchCharts.com)
The WatchCharts Rolex Market Index, which is an indicator of the secondary-market performance of Rolex watches, is composed of the top 30 models within the brand, sorted and weighted by transaction value.
Now that the Rolex pre-owned market has reversed its decline in 2025 and continued to climb into 2026, the most recent data on pre-owned Rolex prices tell an interesting story. When prices are extrapolated back to 2017, today’s market sits almost exactly where it is expected to be, and the surge between late 2020 and 2024 stands out as a clear outlier.
For most of Rolex pre-owned market’s history, prices have moved slowly and predictably, rising by only a few percentage points a year. That pattern was established well before 2017, when the WatchCharts index began, and it held in the years leading up to Covid.
From 2017 through early 2020, the trajectory shows a steady, almost linear climb. Extend that pre-Covid trend forward to 2026 and the market would be roughly where it is today. The boom and bust of the pandemic years did not permanently reprice Rolex watches.