EXCLUSIVE: Official Rolex Certified Pre-Owned generates almost $600 million in sales

Sales of Rolex CPO on track to eclipse every Swiss watch brand bar Rolex, itself.

Rolex’s official Certified Pre-Owned programme generated sales totalling $594 million in 2025, accounting for over 10% of overall secondary market transactions valued at $5.8 billion for the brand’s watches.

The secondary market total does not include dark market deals between dealers, which are often conducted via messaging apps like WhatsApp, or auction sales, which were worth $214 million last year.

Data has been compiled by EveryWatch, which aggregates and analyses information from all major secondary market sites, Rolex CPO retailers and auctioneers.

EveryWatch will be publishing its report covering the secondary and auction market for the whole of 2025 in the coming weeks, but has shared key findings exclusively with WatchPro in advance.

Rolex CPO

Rolex’s RCPO programme is in its fourth year, after being piloted first with Bucherer in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Watches of Switzerland Group and The 1916 Company joined in Q3 of 2023, taking the total number stores offering the official Rolex CPO watches to around 25, worldwide, and collectively offering around 4,000 fully certified, authenticated and guaranteed watches between them by the end of that year.

Bucherer, WoSG and 1916 expanded their Rolex CPO business throughout 2024, and were joined by a handful of independent Rolex ADs in the UK and Continental Europe.

This built the RCPO network to 107 doors by the end of last year offering close to 7,500 watches, according to research by Morgan Stanley with data from WatchCharts.

Expansion of the programme slowed in the first quarter of 2025 as Rolex took stock of how the business could be improved for clients, retail partners and the mothership, but accelerated again through the back half of last year with growth from the likes of Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons in Dubai .

We are awaiting the publication of WatchChart and Morgan Stanley’s full year 2025 report on the state of the secondary market, which will include an update on its analysis of RCPO, but its most recent paper covering the market up to Q3 2025, estimates that there were 129 retailers operating RCPO programmes, with 246 doors worldwide selling RCPO watches across 19 countries.

More than one-sixth of Rolex’s global retail network was offering RCPO by September 2025, concentrated primarily in Europe and the United States, but with participants in South Africa, UAE, Lebanon, Hong Kong and Japan.

They had around 8,200 used Rolex watches listed for sale at the end of Q3 with a total value of $205 million, WatchCharts and Morgan Stanley estimated.

EveryWatch’s data showing total sales of $594 million, more than 10% the size of the unofficial secondary market, shows both the extraordinary growth of the programme in just three years.

To put the figures in context, it is estimated that 67% of total sales (by value) for used Mercedes cars are generated by directly-owned or franchised Mercedes-Benz dealerships, which shows the potential for RCPO to grow for leading players like Bucherer, Watches of Switzerland Group, The 1916 Company and Seddiqi.

Prices for watches offered by Rolex CPO authorised dealers have been rising as they focus on higher margin watches at the upper end of the market.

Source: EveryWatch.

Rolex CEO Jean-Frédéric Dufour, says CPO is central to the company’s plans to maintain the desirability of its watches.

Speaking at Dubai Watch Week in November 2025, he said he had noticed many years ago that, in some points of sale, the number-two “brand” after Rolex was Rolex second-hand.

“That level of business, without any brand-backed guarantee, was risky,” he recalls.

“You buy a new Rolex, you wear it for many years. Maybe you keep it, maybe you pass it to the next generation – or maybe you want to trade it. That’s why we created Rolex Certified Pre-Owned: to ensure that when customers trade or buy a pre-owned Rolex through authorised channels, they are fully protected. It’s a long-term commitment and a powerful way to build trust,” Mr Dufour describes.

RCPO is both a direct business opportunity for Rolex and its authorised dealers, and also a way to heighten trust in watches that will keep working for decades and can be altered or even faked over their lifetimes.

“There is nothing worse than feeling betrayed after buying something expensive – especially a vintage piece. That can push someone away from our world forever,” Mr Dufour warns.

Rolex chief executive Jean-Frédéric Dufour, Revolution magazine founder Wei Koh and Seddiqi Holdings chairman Abdul Hamied Seddiqi at Dubai Watch Week.

To ensure absolute confidence that watches that had been through the RCPO process and emerged with a new manufacturer-backed two year guarantee, Rolex began by authenticating and refurbishing every watch at its own service centres.

However, the process was seen as slow and expensive by retail partners and their customers.

This led to a recalibration of the way Rolex watches are checked, serviced and refurbished — with accredited watchmakers at authorised dealers taking on more of the workload before Rolex signed-off on their work and issued the guarantee.

The change in how pre-owned watches are handled is designed to shorten the turnaround time for dealers, which is crucial at a time of volatile prices, from around three months to a few weeks.

Another tweak saw Rolex ADs given permission to buy and sell watches that are no less than two years old, down from at least three years-of-age in the early pilots.

Rolex commands close to one-third of the entire secondary and auction market for luxury watches, which is expected to have generated sales of around $20 billion in 2025, according to Chrono24’s ChronoPulse analysis.

A report covering the the first half of 2025 by Chrono24 and Fratello found Rolex by far the largest player, by total value of sales, followed by Omega, Patek Philippe, Cartier and Audemars Piguet.

The top three brands account for half of secondary market sales.

Source: Chrono24 x Fratello H2 2025 secondary market watch report.