Rolex's certified pre-owned programme more than doubles sales

Rolex's Certified Pre-Owned programme, known as RCPO, recorded sales growth of 101% in the first half of 2026, according to EveryWatch's Secondary Market Report as covered by Robb Report. The scheme, launched to bring authorised dealers into the pre-owned market under Rolex's own certification standards, is emerging as one of the most consequential shifts in the watch industry's approach to resale.

For decades, the secondary market for Rolex watches operated largely outside the brand's control, run by independent dealers, auction houses and grey-market resellers who captured much of the premium generated by scarcity and waiting lists. By formalising certified pre-owned sales through its authorised retail network, Rolex is bringing that value back inside its own commercial ecosystem, while also offering buyers a guarantee of authenticity that unofficial channels cannot match.

The scale of the growth suggests the programme has moved well beyond a pilot phase and is becoming a structural part of how Rolex sells watches. It also signals a broader shift across luxury watchmaking, where brands increasingly see certified resale not as a threat to new watch sales but as a way to extend brand control, capture margin and deepen client relationships across a watch's full ownership lifecycle. Other manufacturers with strong secondary markets, including Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet, will be watching closely to see whether Rolex's approach becomes the industry template, and whether it eases the persistent premiums and waiting lists that have defined demand for the brand's most sought-after references.

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