Rolex increases watch prices in UK as gold rallies

London: Rolex has raised the price of some of its precious metal watches in the UK following a surge in interest among investors in gold as a safe haven asset.

The luxury company has added as much as £1,500 the price tag of some of its watches, such as the Daytona chronograph in white gold rose which now costs £38,700, compared with £37,200 previously.

Meanwhile, the price of its Yellow Gold GMT Master has increased from £34,000 to £35,400 according to Bloomberg data.

It comes after gold prices hit a record high this year, rising 14pc over the year so far. Investors have been buying into the precious metal in anticipation of expected cuts to interest rates in the US.

Gold is often seen as a stable investment that becomes more appealing to investors amid times of geopolitical and economic uncertainty, compared with interest-paying assets such as bonds.

Rolex, which produces more than one million watches per year, usually raises its prices once a year. However, swings in currency have spurred it to increase them more frequently over recent years.

Watches of Switzerland, the UK’s biggest luxury timepiece retailer, said last summer that waiting lists for watches were growing longer despite higher selling prices.

Soaring prices have triggered a surge in luxury watch theft, particularly in London. The number of stolen or lost watches has tripled in the last year, according to a recent report by The Watch Register. Of thefts recorded in that period, roughly half took place in London, it said.

According to a Financial Times report earlier this year, Indian chief executives and businessmen have become increasingly concerned about theft when visiting London, raising the issue with shadow foreign secretary David Lammy when he was on a recent trip to New Delhi.

Sales of luxury goods soared during the pandemic and in its immediate aftermath. However, more recently, luxury goods giants have suffered declining sales amid a downturn in China and the removal of VAT shopping for overseas tourists in Britain.