The quarterly financial update from the public listing of the Swiss watch group is a valuable insight and information on the state of the market, and last week’s investor call suggested that there may be no hope for clients eager for the hottest watches favored by fake Rolex, Audemars Piguet, and Patek Philippe. 
This data comes on top of reports from secondary market players consisting of Chrono24 and Chronext, which have reported that prices have dropped by up to 24% for watches like the replica Rolex GMT Master II Batman, which could be another sign that the market is expecting shortages to stop.
Batman has seen some ups and downs over the last twelve months and is off its highest price on Chrono24 by 24%, even though this is still well above its retail price.
During his investor call, Brian Duffy, CEO of WOSG, made a simple, but potentially important observation when he suggested that the Covid crisis has reduced demand this year faster than supply has dropped with watchmaking factories closed.
“Supply is always our biggest constraining factor,” Mr. Duffy says. “But we are seeing a bigger impact on demand than on supply.” He believes production will be down by around 25% across the luxury watch industry this year.
Even with a slight rebalancing between supply and demand, the hardest to find unicorn watches are certain to remain in short supply.
Mr. Duffy said the group’s waiting list for the replica watches had not changed. “We would not put people on a waiting list if we thought they would have to wait more than three years,” he said. There has been no reduction in waiting lists this year.
