Luxury watch revival brings bulky Panerai timepieces no relief
2 min readPanerai stands out in Richemont’s stable of watches – for all the wrong reasons.
As the secondary market for timepieces shows a strong rebound, Cartier is grabbing buyer attention and there’s renewed enthusiasm around Vacheron Constantin, throwing the lack of interest in Panerai into stark contrast.
The Italian-born brand famed for its big and bulky World War II-era watches is emerging as an outlier on the secondhand market, with both prices and sales volumes lagging Richemont-owned peers.
Panerai’s volume performance is by far the weakest among the major Richemont watch brands tracked by Subdial, a platform for buying and selling watches.
With the secondary watch market posting the best gains since 2022 this year, according to the Bloomberg Subdial Watch Index, several of Richemont’s brands saw a meaningful increase in trading activity. But Panerai’s volumes are almost unchanged from the start of 2024.
“It really is quite a stark outlier, and at some point surely a problem for Richemont,” said Alexander Nussbacher, head of data at London-based Subdial.
Richemont did not respond to a request for comments on its plans for Panerai.
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Read: How Richemont keeps growing despite global luxury slump
According to EveryWatch’s secondary market watch market report, the secondhand market posted its sharpest half year jump on record in July, driven by a strong surge in demand in the US, with the total value of watches sold jumping by just over 37% to $10.5 billion.
Still, data from Subdial shows Panerai watches were selling on average for about 8% less in April 2026 than in January 2024.
In contrast, Piaget’s secondary-market price is up more than 30% over the period, Jaeger-LeCoultre is roughly 24% higher, while Vacheron Constantin has gained about 13%. Cartier and IWC have also moved higher.
The numbers reflect a broader market shift. Panerai’s success was built around big, highly recognisable watches with a military pedigree. The Luminor and Radiomir helped turn oversized watches into a defining part of the luxury-watch boom of the late 1990s and 2000s.
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But the market has moved on, with smaller cases and more jewellery-like watches gaining ground.
Richemont emerged from the luxury-watch downturn of the past few years well ahead of peers, with its shares recently reaching all-time highs. Sales at its specialist watchmakers unit expanded by 8% in the company’s latest report, with Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre and A. Lange & Söhne standout performers.
The Swiss company recently began reshaping its watch business, agreeing to sell Baume & Mercier to Italy’s Damiani Group. Now, Panerai’s woes raise questions about whether the brand still fits Richemont’s portfolio.
Read: Richemont sells its Baume & Mercier brand to Italy’s Damiani
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