Rolex continues to lead the global watch market, but its dominance has narrowed as buyers increasingly explore competing brands and shift toward more traditional watch styles, according to a Sept. 10 report from online watch marketplace Chrono24.
Drawing on completed transactions from 2018 through the second quarter of 2026, Chrono24 found that Rolex remains the largest brand on its platform, accounting for about 31% of dollar sales volume, ahead of Omega at roughly 11% and Patek Philippe at about 6%.
However, the report said the brand has lost market share in every major price segment since 2023 as competitors—including Cartier, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and Vacheron Constantin—gained ground.
According to Chrono24, the premium that developed around Rolex watches during the pandemic has largely disappeared. Its marketplace share, noted the report, has returned to levels closer to those seen before 2019, although prices remain well above pre-pandemic levels.
Chrono24 also found that younger buyers, who were among the biggest drivers of the pandemic watch boom, have reduced the share of their spending devoted to Rolex by about 30% since 2022. The site’s research indicated that buyers under 30 are moving toward dressier models and a wider set of challenger brands.
“Buyers have moved on from chasing a few hyped references. They now spread their money with intent across a wider field,” the Chrono24 report said. “Rolex has not retreated; the field around it has caught up.”
The research also points to changing consumer preferences within the Rolex lineup. For years, sports models such as the Submariner, GMT-Master II, and Daytona dominated demand. But Chrono24 found buyers are increasingly gravitating toward classic dress-oriented models, making the Datejust Rolex’s largest revenue-generating collection at about 28% of sales.
Chrono24 also observed notable differences among buyer groups. For example, women devote a larger share of their watch spending to Rolex than men, while tending to favor the Datejust and Oyster Perpetual collections.
The report also found that North America has become the brand’s strongest regional market. More than 1 in 3 watch sales tracked by Chrono24 in North America (35%) involved a Rolex, up from about 27% in 2018.
“The pandemic premium is unwound,” said Balazs Ferenczi, head of brand engagement at Chrono24. “The clearest signal is generational: Younger buyers drove the boom, and they are the ones now moving to other brands and to classic watches like the Datejust. Rolex still sets the tone, but buyers spread their money across more brands than they did three years ago.”
The JCK News Desk uses AI to help research and produce the first draft of articles. This story was then reviewed by staff writer David Blomquist.
(Photo: © Rolex/Ulysse Frechelin)
- Subscribe to the JCK News Daily
- Subscribe to the JCK Special Report
- Follow JCK on Instagram: @jckmagazine
- Follow JCK on X: @jckmagazine
- Follow JCK on Facebook: @jckmagazine
