Have a pre-owned gold Rolex on your wish list? Now may be the moment to finally pull the trigger on a purchase.
Gold watches on the secondary market have dropped in price since April, according to a new report from the Bloomberg Subdial Index. The database tracks the top 50 most-traded timepieces according to their transaction value; right now, there are 13 gold models on that lineup, the publication reported.
In particular, the Crown’s gold Daytona Oysterflex has seen a 4 percent dip in price, per the index. The 40 mm model is changing hands for around $34,700 (30,399 pounds) as of now; when new, the watch is priced from $42,700, depending on the dial color. Other Rolexes on the list include the Day-Date 40 President and the Day-Date. Overall, the slump in prices of gold models is an about-face from 2025, when those same 13 timepieces saw a 9 percent increase in price.
The price of gold, which soared to record heights in 2025 due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, has influenced the watch market overall, as you may expect. Bullion costs have now dropped by over a fifth since February, when the war with Iran began.
Coveted models from the likes of Rolex and Patek Philippe are still driving the secondary market, though, even as the price of gold continues to waffle. The top 10 timepieces on the Bloomberg Subdial Index have seen an increase of just 2 percent in the pre-owned sector; five of those watches are gold.
“Iconic brands and historic models, with real craft and quality—that’s what is leading the way,” Alexander Nussbacher, head of data for watch retail company Subdial, told Bloomberg.
It’s certainly an interesting moment on the secondary market. The pre-owned sector turned a bit of a corner in the fourth quarter of 2025, marking a new era that followed behind a comedown from the Covid watch boom, according to WatchCharts’s secondary watch market report released earlier this year. Overall, secondary prices grew by 4.9 percent last year, with Rolex, Patek, and Audemars Piguet timepieces leading the charge. Now, with a price decline in gold timepieces, we’ll have to see how the market fares throughout the rest of the year.
