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The Most Popular Luxury Watch Brands of 2018

The most popular Rolex brands

Here at Watch and Bullion, we’re true watch enthusiasts, stocking watches from all over the world with different styles, brands and price brackets. Whilst we all have our own personal favourites, we thought it would be great to dive into the stats to see which brand is the most popular and how that popularity varies across different time zones.

With us all spending a lot of our time on the web, we wanted to rank our watch popularity a little differently. We’re going to start by comparing the way we hunt out our timepieces online, comparing search engine results from across the globe to see which of the big brands is truly the king of timekeeping.


The Undisputed No.1

We start off by looking into the big figures, the average number of searches for each brand across five of the biggest watch buying countries in the world; USA, UK, Italy, Germany and France. The scale goes up in 1000’s given the massive search volume across them all per month.

It’s perhaps no surprise that our Top 10 highest search volumes include some of the giant names we all know and love. From the underwater heavyweight of Omega, to some up and comers in popular culture such as Hublot and Audemars, all of the biggest brands take their place at the top of the tree.

Graph 2 WB

The overall winner will come as no surprise to you either. Since their inception and rise through the early 20th century, Rolex not only pioneered the original wristwatch, but continue to blaze the trail of timekeeping today with popular pieces such as the Submariner, GMT Master and one of our personal favourites, the Daytona. If we break down the numbers, Rolex clock in a whopping 2 million searches a month across our 5 countries, with the USA alone breaking down to over 350,000 a month.

Rolex Monthly Search by Country

When we take a deeper look, Rolex leads the way for every single one of our 5 countries also, with its lowest monthly search volume in France, still checking in at a very respectable 73,000.



  
“Rolex lead the global search statistics with over
2,000,000 searches a month worldwide”



Given the brand’s rich history and market dominance, it really comes as no surprise to see them leading the way, with the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation owned company producing over 1 million watches a year, more than enough to keep up with demand.

 

So, Who’s Vying For 2nd and 3rd Place?

With Rolex dominating the top spot, it’s a race for the podium, and this one’s going down to the wire, especially when we break it down by country. Let’s start off across the pond in the USA.

USA

Whilst having the accolade of being the first watch on the moon, we’re sure Omega will be equally pleased to pick up second place in Watch & Bullion’s most popular watch brand competition. Peaking just under 215,000 monthly searches, the swiss brand was known to be a personal favourite of music legend Elvis Presley, with modern day names such as George Clooney and Prince William often seen sporting an Omega piece.  

Graph 3 WB

Whilst Cartier follow behind in 3rd place, their search volume drops down to around 140,000. The luxury French watchmaker is a fan favourite all over the world, but the slightly higher price point may be a factor to their lagging behind two leaders.

UK

Given the relative size of the two countries, the search volumes for the UK front runners drops significantly, but the brand taking second spot doesn’t. With 68,000 monthly searches, Omega retains its dominance over second place as we move across into Europe.  

Graph 4 WB

But 3rd place allows us to add a new name to the list; Tag Heuer. With a strong sporting endorsements with the English Premier League and Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton, Tag’s UK popularity unquestionable, and at 63,000 searches, wasn’t too far away from taking 2nd spot.  

France

A quick jump over to mainland Europe means Cartier get a promotion from 3rd to 2nd which is perhaps no surprise given their strong French roots. As one of the largest brands in French history, Cartier’s HQ remains where it was born in Paris and with over 46,000 monthly searches, it’s no surprise to see the conglomerate posting $6 Billion annual turnover figures in 2017. In third, a familiar name in Omega. Proving that alongside Rolex, the Swiss luxury watchmaker was a truly worldwide appeal.

Graph 5 WB

 

“Omega prove their worldwide appeal with over
1 million monthly Google searches ”

 

Italy

All of the big names stand fast with our Italian search results, with Omega and Cartier taking 2nd and 3rd spot respectively with 41,000 and 26,000 searches each. A notable mention at this stage to Montblanc who just missed out on 3rd place by 3,000 searches, and make their only appearance in any of our Top 5’s.

Graph 6 WB

Germany

We finish off in Germany with Omega again appearing in our Top 3, taking the bronze medal. But our German friends have shot a brand new brand in our list up to second place, Breitling.

Graph 7 WB

 

With Germany renowned for it’s love of precision engineering across the globe, it only seems right that the aviation precision of Breitling makes the cut. With the brand sponsoring a number of aerobatics teams across the globe, over 51,000 Germans a month want to get their hands on their very own piece of military-grade timekeeping.  



So, What Does It All Mean?

Alongside Rolex, Omega has a real penetration in the luxury watch market, both within the USA and Europe. Whilst Rolex have the prestige of being one of the original, most innovative and powerful brands on the planet, as a new watch enthusiast, you may need to spend more to get yourself even the entry level Oyster.

On the other hand, Omega do come in a little cheaper for a brand new piece, with prices for a new watch often creeping below £2,000. This entry level status may be a contributing factor to the high search popularity across the globe.

Aside from Rolex and Omega, we have seen a number of other brands breaking into the Top 5. Cartier consistently appeared in our roundup, with their relative popularity soaring in their homeland of France, as you would probably expect. Tag Heuer also made regular appearances: their low entry point also a potential contributing factor to their cross-continental popularity and they just about tip Cartier as our overall 3rd place.

 

“Swiss heavyweight Tag Heuer receive over
625,000 monthly Google searches.”

 

The Podium


So, it’s a 1,2,3 for Luxury Swiss Watches in our most popular showdown as Rolex takes 1st place, with Omega and Tag Heuer jostling closely between them for 2nd and 3rd respectively. All 3 have great pedigree, fantastic ranges and strong brand recognition across the globe; coming together to clock up a massive 3.6 million searches a month across our 5 surveys countries.  

Fancy getting your hand on your very own piece of Luxury? As always, head over to the Watch & Bullion store to find your next great timepiece.