The luxury resale market hit $16.7 billion in watches alone in 2025. Fashion resale added another $43 billion globally, with projections pushing toward $74 billion by 2029. For luxury brands, the secondary market is no longer something that happens after the sale. It is the market that shapes whether the primary sale happens at all. This post breaks down how luxury brands should think about resale, what the leaders are doing, and where most brands are getting it wrong.
A buyer considering a Rolex Submariner checks Chrono24 before walking into a boutique. If the watch trades above retail on the secondary market, that signals scarcity, desirability, and value retention. It validates the purchase. If it trades at 30% below retail, the buyer questions whether the retail price is justified and whether they should just buy pre-owned instead.
This dynamic applies across luxury categories. Hermès Birkin bags trade at 2x to 3x retail on the secondary market. That price premium is the single strongest demand signal the brand has. It reinforces the perception that a Birkin is an investment, which drives primary demand even higher. On the other end, brands whose products consistently lose 40-50% of their value on resale platforms face a compounding credibility problem. Buyers learn that the retail price was never the real price.
The secondary market has become the pricing truth layer for luxury. Chrono24 has 9 million monthly users checking watch prices. The RealReal processes over 30 million items and publishes resale value data that buyers reference before purchasing new. Vestiaire Collective serves 23 million members across 80 countries. These platforms set the value benchmark that determines how buyers perceive every luxury brand.
| Category | Secondary Market Size (2025) | Growth Rate | Key Platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luxury watches | $16.7 billion | +36.4% YoY | Chrono24 (9M monthly users) |
| Luxury fashion (global) | ~$43 billion | Projected $74B by 2029 | The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective |
| Luxury handbags | Fastest-growing resale segment | Hermès Birkin: 2-3x retail | Rebag, Fashionphile, Vestiaire |
| Luxury jewellery | Growing, less structured | Cartier secondary share up 56% since 2019 | Chrono24, 1stDibs, auction houses |
The numbers tell a consistent story across categories. Resale is growing faster than primary retail in nearly every luxury segment. Buyers, particularly Gen Z and millennials, treat pre-owned as a default rather than a compromise. 54% of Gen Z luxury watch buyers increased their spending since 2021, and they disproportionately buy pre-owned. In fashion, 70% of resale buyers say they consider the resale value of an item before purchasing it new. The secondary market has changed how people think about luxury purchases at the point of decision.
Rolex launched its Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) programme through authorised dealers. In 2025, the programme generated approximately $590 million in sales, a 204% increase year-on-year. It operates across 227 points of sale with roughly 8,500 watches available at any time. Rolex understood something most brands have not accepted: if the secondary market is going to exist regardless, you either participate in it or you let third parties control the narrative about your products.
The CPO programme does several things simultaneously. It gives buyers confidence in authenticity (a persistent concern in pre-owned luxury). It keeps the transaction within the brand ecosystem. It allows Rolex to maintain price discipline across secondary channels. And it creates a new revenue stream from watches that would otherwise generate zero value for the brand after the initial sale.
Hermès has never launched a formal resale programme. It does not need to. The brand's controlled distribution and production limits create a secondary market premium that functions as the most powerful brand signal in luxury. A Birkin 25 retails for roughly $10,000 to $12,000 and resells for $20,000 to $40,000 depending on material, colour, and condition. That premium does more marketing than any campaign could.
Hermès's approach works because the brand has genuine scarcity (production constraints are real, not manufactured) and because the product retains its physical quality over decades. Most brands cannot replicate this model. But the principle underneath it applies broadly: if your products hold value on the secondary market, that value retention becomes your strongest marketing asset.
Audemars Piguet has been buying back pre-owned Royal Oaks directly from clients. The brand reportedly offers above-market prices to prevent watches from reaching unauthorised secondary dealers. This approach gives AP control over supply in the secondary market but at a significant cost. It is essentially paying to manage a market it did not create.
Cartier has taken a different approach. Its secondary market share grew from 5.7% to 8.9% between 2019 and 2025, driven largely by Gen Z buyers gravitating toward the Tank and Santos. Cartier has not launched a CPO programme, but it has invested heavily in digital and community channels where secondary market discussions happen. The brand is winning the conversation around its resale value without directly participating in the resale transaction. For more on how Cartier is winning across the purchase journey, see our luxury watch purchase journey study.
The most common mistake. Most luxury brands treat the secondary market as irrelevant to their strategy, or worse, as something that cheapens the brand. Meanwhile, Chrono24, The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective, and Rebag are setting the value narrative for those brands' products. Buyers check resale value before purchasing. If a brand is absent from these conversations, it has no control over how its value is perceived.
Some brands have tried to restrict or penalise resale activity. Chanel, for instance, has raised prices repeatedly (some models increased over 60% since 2019) in part to maintain exclusivity and discourage flipping. The result has been mixed. Price increases drove some buyers to the secondary market instead of boutiques, because the pre-owned price gap widened with every increase. Fighting the secondary market often accelerates the behaviour brands are trying to prevent.
Authentication is the single biggest friction point in luxury resale. Buyers worry about counterfeits. Sellers worry about returns and disputes. Brands that provide authentication infrastructure (digital product passports, blockchain certificates, verified resale channels) remove this friction and build trust in the secondary market for their products. Brands that leave authentication to third parties are trusting platforms with varying quality standards to protect their reputation.
The right approach depends on the brand's position, price point, and category. There is no single model that works for everyone. But there are questions every luxury brand should be answering.
What is your secondary market position today? Track how your products trade on Chrono24, The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective, eBay, and category-specific platforms. If your products consistently trade below retail, that is a brand perception problem that needs addressing. If they trade at or above retail, you have an asset to protect and amplify.
Should you launch a certified pre-owned programme? A CPO programme makes sense if you have sufficient volume in the secondary market, if authentication concerns are high, and if you want to keep the resale transaction within your ecosystem. Rolex proved the model works at scale. For smaller brands or those with lower secondary market volume, partnerships with established platforms may be more practical than building proprietary infrastructure.
How do you handle pricing? The gap between new and pre-owned prices is a strategic variable. When brands raise retail prices aggressively, the gap widens and more buyers shift to pre-owned. When brands hold prices steady while quality and demand grow, secondary market premiums increase, reinforcing desirability. Price strategy and resale strategy are the same conversation.
What role does authentication play? Digital product passports (now required under EU regulations starting in 2027 for textiles) will become standard across luxury categories. Brands that invest in authentication infrastructure early will own the trust layer in resale. Brands that wait will be forced to comply with standards set by regulators and platforms rather than designing their own.
Gen Z does not view pre-owned luxury as a compromise. They view it as smart buying. 54% of Gen Z luxury watch buyers increased spending since 2021, with a strong preference for pre-owned. In fashion, Gen Z drives the fastest-growing segment of resale platform usage. Sustainability plays a role in this (Gen Z cites environmental impact as a factor), but the primary driver is value. A pre-owned Cartier Tank at 30% below retail is the same watch. Gen Z buyers know that. For a deeper look at how this generation is reshaping luxury, see our post on Gen Z and luxury brands.
Brands that build for Gen Z's purchase journey need a resale position. If your brand has no presence on the platforms where Gen Z researches and buys luxury (Chrono24, Vestiaire Collective, The RealReal), you are invisible to a generation that will drive the next decade of luxury growth. Visibility on these platforms is as important as visibility on Instagram or TikTok. For more on building a full luxury digital strategy, see our luxury digital strategy guide.
The secondary market is a marketing channel. It shapes perception, validates pricing, and determines whether new buyers see a brand as worth the investment. The brands that treat resale as a strategic priority (Rolex, Hermès, increasingly Cartier) are winning at a structural level. The brands that ignore it are losing control of their value narrative to platforms and third-party sellers who have no obligation to protect the brand.
Start by understanding your current secondary market position. Track resale prices, monitor platform presence, and survey recent buyers about whether and how the secondary market influenced their decision. The data will tell you whether you need a CPO programme, a platform partnership, or simply a better pricing strategy. Whatever the answer, doing nothing is the most expensive option.
Sources: Chrono24 Secondary Watch Market Report H1 2025, Morgan Stanley Swiss Watch Industry Report 2025, BCG Luxury Market Survey 2025, The RealReal Luxury Resale Report 2025, ThredUp Resale Market Report 2025, Bain & Company Luxury Market Study 2025, Deus Marketing Watch Purchase Journey Study 2026.
