Swiss watch execs say the market is 'slowing down' — but that just means waitlists for new Rolexes or Patek Philippes are a little less long

• The frenzy for new Swiss luxury watches is softening from its pandemic peak, when exports hit $27.6 billion.
• "The market is a little bit slower than before," Patek Philippe chairman Thierry Stern told Bloomberg.
• That doesn't mean watches from top brands are suddenly available to buy — it just means waitlists are slightly shorter.

The all-out global frenzy for Swiss luxury watches is coming down from its pandemic-era peak, according to executives at leading brands, including Patek Philippe.

"I see in the past two months, the market is a little bit slower than before," chairman Thierry Stern told Bloomberg.

"I don't say that it's very bad — not at all. But I just see that it's slowing down," he added.

Oris Co-CEO Rolf Studer similarly told the outlet that dealers have been clearing inventories, though his company is seeing slightly lower restocking orders.

Patek — maker of the highly coveted Nautilus steel sports watch — manufactures 60,000 to 70,000 watches per year, which sell for $30,000 and up.

Swiss exports boomed during the pandemic to a record 25 billion Swiss francs ($27.6 billion), but even with the recent softening, Stern told Bloomberg demand still vastly outstrips supply.

"It's not so bad if we see a certain slowdown," he said.

And even though Rolex reportedly produces more than ten times as many watches as Patek does, waitlists for some models can stretch out to months or even years.

In other words, just because the line to buy a top brand like Patek, Rolex, or Audemars Piguet is perhaps getting slightly shorter, that doesn't mean would-be buyers can simply walk into their local dealer and buy a new watch.

The executives' comments follow almost one year after the secondary market peaked and entered a long slide that has taken much of the froth out of "unsustainable" price appreciation.

With the secondary market appearing to be leveling out, the news out of Switzerland suggests the popularity of top-tier watches is still quite high, even if it may not return to the extremes of recent years.