Within days of Swatch launching its Omega Speedmaster homage, the MoonSwatch, the £207 bioceramic chronograph was being advertised on eBay for up to £3,000.
Those secondary market prices did not last long, and the first MoonSwatches were soon being traded for closer to £500, still more than doubling the money of anybody persistent enough to buy one in the early days.
From those lofty highs, it has been downhill all the way, with the occasional rekindling of hype and prices from the likes of the Snoopy editions.
A new report from Morgan Stanley Research and WatchCharts shows prices are still in freefall for second hand MoonSwatches.
Year-on-year, average prices dropped in Q1 by almost 18%.
And prices have not yet found a floor, with the same research discovering that MoonSwatch prices dropped by 5.5% in the three months since the end of 2023.
A brand new MoonSwatch Mission to the Moon sold this week on eBay for under £290. Other models in the collection have changed hands for under £200.
While this will be welcome news for genuine fans and collectors of the many MoonSwatch models, who are far more likely to be able to walk into a Swatch store today and walk out with a watch, it may be a concern for parent organisation Swatch Group.
Morgan Stanley estimates that the entire Swatch catalogue contributed just under 10% of Swatch Group sales last year, but it accounted for approximately 90% of the group’s rise in turnover.
“Hence, there is a risk that the Swatch brand momentum will turn from tailwind in 2022 and 2023 to headwind in 2024, should demand soften,” a report by the investment bank’s research arm states.
Swatch Group’s share price has declined by 36% in the past year.
Londiny are selling brand new models for around £200 are they legit??
Hardly needs a statistical analysis.
These MoonSwatches may only be £207 but they are pricey for the quality they are – how unusually easily they scratch and how even splashing it while washing your hands is a concern, among other things. Missed opportunity for Swatch to create something of a slightly higher quality. Even the other watches in the Swatch catalog are superior to the MoonSwatch.