Soaring gold prices sent vintage luxury watches to the melting furnace

Gold prices reportedly hit a high of $5,600 an ounce in January as global risks and trade worries triggered investors towards defensive assets.

Watches can contain anything from silver or gold to more than 200 grams of precious metal, which specifically means that recovery value can run into tens of thousands of dollars. 

The intense pressure to dismantle some watches will continue with gold expected to reach between $5,400 and $6,3oo an ounce this year. It is difficult for resellers to compete, as they must cover marketing costs and the expense of providing a warranty. 

It has been observed that gold now hovers around $4,200 per ounce which is nearly twice its 2024 average.

“I've seen a lot of totally mediocre watches get melted down," said Lamdin. "There's a lot of unsold overstocks in the Swiss market. And those watches are basically brand new, unworn, and they're just getting stripped down... they made too many of them.”

According to three experts, models like Omega’s Speedmaster often plummet once sold, making them initial targets for scrapping. 

It is pertinent to mention that higher gold prices motivated New York engineer Mitchell Talisman to sell gold watches and a chain last December of yielding a combined 35 grams of gold at 58% of purity for $2,660 in cash.