Rolex & Patek Philippe 2026 Price Increase | There Is More To It Than You Think

It is that time of the year where Rolex, Patek Philippe and other major brands usually introduce their new price lists. A good time for existing watch owners and not so good for the one looking to buy their first watch. The general trend of course is that watch manufacturers will raise their prices by 8-15%. This is to be expected from them as you can easily see the trend over the last few years however I still remember the times where we do did not see a single price increase for an extended period of time in the UK in comparison to the likes of Europe and Dubai. That was back when the British Pound was very strong, around 1.42 against the Euro. In fact, we have seen Rolex have more than one price increase in one year in certain regions of the world while having no increase in the UK.

What does that tell you?

This shows that there are multiple external factors that affect Rolex pricing and its not simply updating prices with inflation. There are 2 main factors that I would like to discuss with you that I think will be the major reason for an exceptionally large price increase or multiple smaller increases that will happen in the UK over 2026. Before we continue, please understand that these are only my predictions so take it with a pinch of salt.

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What are the 2 current main external Factors?

     1. Swiss Franc (CHF) vs USD VS EUR vs GBP:

The Swiss Franc has been performing exceptionally well against both the US Dollar and British Pounds and as Rolex and Patek are based in Switzerland their base currency and main price list is going to be in Francs (CHF). This means whilst they will raise their prices in CHF, they have to convert currencies for foreign countries and they will still want the same amount in Francs regardless of where they are selling and as you can see over the last year the CHF has gone up 15% against USD and 6% against GBP and you will see that Rolex and Patek will raise their prices in CHF and correct accordingly for the UK & US and of course this doesn't include the tariff issues with the US. In simple terms, Rolex will have to adjust for the CHF gains against any country it is exporting to in this case we are discussing the UK and touching up on the US.

      2. Price Of Gold

Lets use Rolex as an example. Gold has gone up by 50% over the last year since the last price increase by Rolex, meaning their cost of raw material has gone up by 50% on their precious metal range. If Rolex were to sustain the same margin it only makes sense that they need to compensate for the increase in the production cost. The way I see it, I believe if Rolex raise the price of the gold Daytona, they will need to also raise the price of the steel Daytona to keep their pricing proportional. So this will affect all their models and not just their precious metal range.

To conclude, I think the year 2026 will see an unprecedented increase in retail prices from the likes of not only Rolex but also Patek Philippe, Cartier, Piaget, Audemars Piguet and the list goes on. The question is, will be done in one go or would it be multiple announcements over the year?

Of course a lot more goes into pricing however these were the 2 factors that I thought will have a huge influence on the new prices from these major watch manufacturers.

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