Back in the day, as in pre-2020 (which, let’s be honest, still feels like it was a year ago), collecting was so much simpler. You bought a watch simply because you liked the dial or the way it glittered on your wrist. You bought a pair of sneakers because you thought they made you look like your favorite athlete. Or, maybe there was satisfaction in knowing they might be worth more someday (though we’re still waiting on all those Beanie Babies to go up in price too). Then came 2020, and we all know what happened then.
When the world shut down, people found themselves with too much time on their hands, more disposable income since there was nowhere to spend money, and a collectibles boom erupted forth like a volcano. Watches and sneakers were no longer just hobbies; they were actual markets. Rolex prices jumped up to outrageous heights, and then later fell like a lead balloon. The frenzy became so intense that, after peaking in April 2022, an index of popular Rolex models tracked by WatchCharts would later fall 21%, according to Morgan Stanley.
As for sneakers? StockX reported more than $2.5 billion in gross merchandise value during the pandemic-era boom, proving how quickly sneaker collecting evolved into a large-scale secondary market. The platform also reported that 3.5 million pairs of Air Jordans have been sold since it began, with 1 million of those authenticated in just 6 months during the pandemic boom. It was clearly a cultural moment, as sales of Air Jordans rose more than 40% during ESPN’s The Last Dance documentary, turning Michael Jordan nostalgia into a measurable market event.
This frenzy has largely passed, with Rolex prices having cooled from their pandemic highs, while sneaker resale doesn’t dominate headlines the way it did in 2021. Most of the speculators who entered this market looking to turn a quick buck have moved on to bigger and better things. However, something important is still lurking.
The Boom May Be Over, but the Mindset Remains
The surprising connection between luxury watches and sneakers isn’t just that both became expensive; it’s that they both took on the same infrastructure. Authentication sales took over for handshake deals, price trackers replaced people’s intuition, and resale value became an actual selling point. In both of these things that used to be nice little hobbies, collectors suddenly turned into serious investors.
If you take a quick glance at a luxury watch and a pair of sneakers, they don’t seem to have much in common. One is rooted in centuries of craftsmanship and complicated mechanical engineering, while the other is used for sports and streetwear. But, over the last decade or so, both of these have evolved in super similar ways. For example, they’re both getting more and more dependent on authentication, they’ve developed secondary markets with real-time pricing data, and both have encouraged owners to really think differently about what they own. Pay attention to that last change, because it might be the most important of all.
How Watches and Sneakers Became Financial Assets
The global secondary watch market reached around $16.7 billion in 2025, with Rolex alone accounting for approximately $5.7 billion in sales activity.
At one point in time, this niche space reserved only for enthusiasts became a massive ecosystem complete with marketplaces, professional dealers, pricing data, and authentication programs. Rolex’s Certified Pre-Owned program generated approximately $594 million in sales during 2025, which accounted for more than 10% of the brand’s secondary market.
While programs like this have obviously made collecting safer and given counterfeiters a harder time, this transparency has changed behavior. If you spend any time in a watch forum these days, you’ll see how quickly conversations turn to value retention. Discussions about Rolex Submariners or GMT-Master II’s drift toward production numbers and future appreciation most of the time. Collectors who at one time debated dial variations in an old-school way now find themselves talking about pricing charts.
The same thing has happened in sneakers.
Before platforms like StockX became mainstream, sneaker collecting was a highly personal endeavor. Releases still had the air of excitement and competition, and the culture was driven by taste and community. In TL;DR terms, you bought a shoe because you wanted to wear it!
StockX completely flipped this dynamic on its head, giving this hobby culture an air of transparency. Every sale was visible, and sneakers no longer had just a price; they had market value. During the great pandemic boom, the company was openly describing itself as the “Stock Market of Things,” and in many ways, StockX did for sneakers what the modern secondary watch market did for luxury watches. Both collectibles suddenly became assets, like a real estate portfolio.
The Rise of Authentication Culture
Now, let me be very clear: I don’t consider this a bad thing. Authentication services have made collecting both watches and sneakers much safer. Counterfeits are obviously a big issue for both, and verification systems have made it far harder for criminals to thrive.
More transparency has also helped collectors understand what they’re buying and what it might be worth. But a side effect of this is that everyone knows the market value of something. This means a shift from “Do I want this?” to “Is it worth it?” and those are not the same.
For longtime collectors, this has changed the fun of the hobby. There was excitement in discovering an overlooked watch reference or stumbling across a pair of Air Jordans at a yard sale; it’s now become overly analytical.
Every time you buy something, it comes with immediate market context. With the click of a button, you can see all the historical pricing, recent sales, and projections about the future demand. The treasure hunt still exists, but it just feels, well, different.
Can Collecting Become Fun Again?
The money may have become less extreme, but the mindset is still there, which is why the cooling of the collectibles market hasn’t created a corresponding return to old-school collecting culture. The financialization of collecting has far outlasted the boom the originally created it.
In some ways, it was always going to be like that. Price-tracking platforms are here to stay, as are authentication services, and secondary marketplaces. However, there is a big difference between having access to market data and allowing it to influence all of your decisions.
The collectors I’ve encountered in both the sneaker and timepiece worlds with the healthiest mindsets understand the distinction. Of course they know what their watches are worth, but that has nothing to do with why they bought them. They may understand the resale values of sneakers, but they still choose to wear the ones they love. Thus, they treat market information as a tool rather than a purpose, and perhaps that’s where ultimately both hobbies land in the end.
The real value of collecting has never been found in a price chart. It’s found in the stories, the obsessions, and the knowledge of finding something that feels like it was made for you. So, the question now is whether collectors can rediscover why they fell in love with watches and sneakers in the first place. Maybe a little couples therapy is in order?
