It’s Not as Simple as People Think

I want to be honest about something. It’s not as simple as saying, hey, we had this watch before, and now people are just lining up to sell them to you. You still have to show you can securely transport a watch like this from the customer to us, market it the right way, and actually have the reach to find a buyer willing to pay a fair market price. And you have to do all of that in a way that makes everyone feel comfortable through the whole process.

What Makes This One So Special

The one we got today is, to my eyes, one of the coolest dials Kari’s ever made. The outside is black, and the inside opens up into this vibrant green. If you’re familiar with Kari’s dials, he has some of the best finishing that exists in the world, and that’s a huge part of what draws people into his watches in the first place. Take a moment and just look at this thing bouncing around in the light. It’s a special look. This one’s a 2026 full set, cased in platinum.

Getting on the List Isn’t Even the Hard Part

Supposedly, if you want one of his watches, first you need a real in with him. Once you basically win the lottery and get that in, he’s going to charge you a 50% deposit up front, with a delivery date about ten years later. So say you’re buying a watch that’s going to cost $150,000. You hand over $75,000 today, and ten years later when he finally finishes it, you pay the balance and get your watch. The hype around the brand is people wanting to skip that ten-year wait. But most people aren’t even getting on the wait list to begin with. There’s probably one out of a million people who even get the honor of waiting ten years for one of these.

Why the Prices Keep Going Up

Part of why prices on these have gone absolutely ballistic is the auction results. Just in the past few months, several have well exceeded a million dollars at final hammer price. These aren’t made-up numbers. Voutilainens are very rarely put on the market, and as soon as they are, they get snapped up, and collectors tend to put them away and never bring them back out.

Why Sell to Us Instead of an Auction House

You might ask why someone would sell a watch like this to us instead of an auction house, and there are real pros and cons on both sides. We typically charge around an 8% consignment fee. An auction house is going to charge the buyer around a 25 to 30% premium and charge the seller another 7% or so, so fees on a watch like this usually run past 30% total. Auction houses do tend to land the highest prices, since their customer pool is the highest net worth collectors in the world, all bidding against each other in the same room. But the seller typically nets about 30% less than the final sale price, and payout usually takes around 45 days. Sell through us, and the moment the buyer pays and takes the watch, you’re paid immediately. Auctions also run without a reserve most of the time, so the final number could land way above what you expected, or way under it. There’s a real level of risk either way, and it comes down to what matters more to you.

This watch is in stock and available now. Take a look at our current watch inventory, and if you’ve got a piece like this you’re thinking about parting with, here’s how our watch exchange works.

Rolex: The Floor That Holds

Rolex remains the most liquid brand in the secondary market by a distance, and the reasons are structural rather than trend-dependent. The buyer pool for a Rolex Submariner, GMT-Master II, or Daytona is genuinely global. Collectors and first-time buyers in Philadelphia, London, Tokyo, and Dubai are looking at the same references on the same platforms simultaneously. That demand depth means well-priced Rolex pieces in desirable references and good condition rarely need to wait.

The references that move fastest at TNS right now are the Submariner in both the no-date and date configurations, the GMT-Master II Pepsi and Batman variants, and the Datejust 41 in cleaner dial and bracelet combinations. Full set — box and papers — continues to command a meaningful premium and moves faster than paperless examples at equivalent pricing. Vintage Rolex has its own lane entirely: WWII-era references, tropical dials, and early Submariners attract a collector audience willing to move quickly for the right piece, which is why Austin’s haul of WWII-era Rolexes generated the response it did.

What Rolex has that most brands do not is price floor confidence. Buyers know roughly what a given reference is worth and feel comfortable transacting without extended negotiation. That confidence compresses deal timelines significantly.

Cartier: The Crossover That Keeps Growing

Cartier has been one of the more interesting stories in the pre-owned market over the past two years. The Santos in particular has built a buyer base that crosses collector and fashion audiences in a way that most watch brands never achieve. It is genuinely worn by people who have deep watch knowledge and by people who simply want a beautiful object on their wrist, and both groups are active in the secondary market.

The Santos Large in steel — particularly the WSSA0009 and WSSA0061 with the interchangeable bracelet and strap system — is among the fastest moving pieces we handle. The Tank Française and Tank Louis remain perennially in demand, especially in yellow gold and two-tone configurations. The Ballon Bleu has a loyal following that tends to transact quickly when a clean example surfaces at a fair price.

What makes Cartier particularly interesting from a liquidity standpoint is that the brand’s appeal is not reference-dependent the way Rolex is. A buyer who wants a Cartier is often open to multiple models, which means a larger portion of the inventory has potential buyers actively looking at any given time.

Audemars Piguet: The Royal Oak Effect

The AP Royal Oak changed what a steel sports watch could be when it launched in 1972, and it has not stopped moving since. In the secondary market, the Royal Oak Selfwinding 15500ST remains one of the most actively traded references across the industry — buyers know it, trust it, and want it, which means well-priced examples have very short windows before they sell.

The Offshore has its own deep collector base, particularly in larger case sizes and limited edition configurations. The Royal Oak Chronograph moves well across most references, though full set examples command the clearest premium. What the AP Royal Oak shares with the best Rolex references is recognition that extends beyond the collector community — it is a watch that serious buyers and aspirational buyers both want, which sustains demand across market conditions.

The caveat worth noting is that AP pricing has been more volatile than Rolex over the past two years. The premiums that existed at the height of the market have normalized, which has actually improved transaction velocity in some respects — buyers who had been priced out are back in the conversation, and sellers with realistic expectations are closing deals faster.

What This Means If You Are Buying Or Selling

The watches that move fastest share a few common traits: broad brand recognition, established reference benchmarks, active global buyer pools, and condition standards that are well understood. If you are selling, pricing relative to those benchmarks rather than against optimistic comparable sales is what drives speed. If you are buying, understanding why a specific reference moves quickly — or does not — is as important as knowing what it costs.

At TNS, we see both sides of these transactions daily. The watches that sit longest are almost always priced above where the market has settled, regardless of brand. The ones that move fastest are priced honestly by sellers who understand what they have and are ready to deal with buyers who are ready to buy.

Browse our current inventory of Rolex, Cartier, Audemars Piguet, and more at tnsdiamonds.com/watches. If you are thinking about selling, reach out to our team — we will give you an honest read on what your piece is worth in the current market and what to expect in terms of timeline.