How to afford a luxury watch | (8 Rational Ways)
You don’t necessarily need to be a billionaire or a high-income earner to afford a luxury watch.
With little hard work and dedication, anyone can own a luxury watch.
The watch industry is flexible and secure enough to open up various avenues to ensure anyone can afford a luxury watch.
**Most ways to afford a luxury watch include financing and granting loans, but saving money and spending right can be the best steps to buying your luxury watch.
How much money should you save to buy a luxury watch?
Luxury watches are no small expenditures. Not everyone can afford to buy a fine-looking Luxury watch on impulse.
For some, it takes years of savings and cutting down expenses to afford the bare minimum of some luxury watch brands.
The price of luxury watches varies across brands, retail stores, or whatever means you intend to get one, and many times these watches appreciate, so it is difficult to place a tag on their prices.
Luxury watches cost no less than $2,000.
Sure, these prices can soar as high as $5 million, but the least you can get a brand new luxury watch is $2000.
How can an average income earner afford a luxury watch
Financing Is The Most Common Way To Afford A Luxury Watch
Getting a loan to buy a watch and paying for your watch through financing are two different angles.
For loans, you have to borrow money from somewhere else to make a payment for the watch. Once you pay for the watch, the boutique or vendor has no business with you or where you got the money from.
But for financing, you receive the watch from the shop without making any payment initially, then work out an agreement on how the money will be paid and how long it will take.
If you are going with the option of financing rather than taking a loan, it will help to seek interest-free financing.
Interest-free financing or 0% APR financing helps you afford the watch without paying extra interest fees. Very few luxury watch boutiques offer interest-free financing, mainly covering short intervals. If you can complete your installment payment before this period runs out, then you have purchased your watch with 0% interest.
*Financing a watch is also not recommended for people without a steady job and free income. In the same way, it would cause inconsistency in paying back loans; financing should only be done when there is a constant flow of money to pay.
Get a Loan for a watch
You can apply for a loan if you are not interested in saving money over a long time to buy a luxury watch.
When you receive the loan, you can purchase your watch and pay back the cash at once or in installments.
Buying luxury watches on credit is only recommended if you have a steady job and a free income.
This will help you avoid inconsistencies in making your payments and having to pay extra to compensate.
Without a steady income, not only will it be hard for your loan application to be approved, but paying it back would be tough on you and your finances if you get approved for the loan. Deficits like these affect your credit score and reduce the opportunity to get other loans when essential needs arise.
Set Up a Savings Plan
With a good Savings plan and dedication, you can afford any luxury watch of your choice.
Saving towards a watch means putting money aside over a designated period until the total amount is enough to buy the watch of choice.
Most people buying a luxury watch save money for an entire year or even more.
Different watch brands and watch prices, but folks have different monthly or annual incomes. Not everyone’s plan can be the same. So each savings plan is unique to every individual.
Two significant factors determining how long you are saving are your income and the type of watch you want to purchase.
You can set aside as much as you can afford to do away with after receiving your paycheck.
Anything as small as $50 – $100 is good enough to save towards such a peculiar interest.
Financial experts recommend an individual should spend only a maximum of 30% of his net annual income on hobby budgets. So, try as much as possible to save up to 30% of your annual net income to buy your luxury watch.
Avoid Spending unnecessarily
Reduce unnecessary daily expenses and purchases to Save money.
The little money from chipping off excesses and excessive spending go a long way in raising money to afford luxury watches.
Discount codes, coupons, and vouchers can reduce daily or monthly expenses. Fancy dinners and expensive clothes can be forfeited for the time being while still trying to raise money.
For example, a person who spends $500 weekly but has cut off lousy spending habits and reduced unnecessary spending to save for a luxury watch can reduce monthly expenses to just $420.
That is $80 a week, and at the end of the year, $3,840 has been saved towards an affordable luxury watch.
Little amounts of money realized from this method go a long way in fundraising. This $3,840 gotten from cutting down expenses is added to the 30% saved throughout the year is enough to afford a luxury watch in the middle price range.
Rearrange your Priorities
You have to set forth all your options, weigh them, then decide which is more important.
You are the only one that can determine whether buying a watch is more important to you than buying other expensive stuff such as a new car, taking a vacation, renovating your home, buying fancy clothes, Etc.
When dealing with priorities, there will always be an opportunity cost. Economists define opportunity cost as the item dropped for another thing to be purchased.
Your basic needs should always come before anything else on your priority list. When you’ve determined which is most beneficial to you, you can then make a purchase or save towards it if you haven’t done so already.
This is directed chiefly to high-income earners who can afford to take expensive trips or live a lavish lifestyle but are still interested in owning a status symbol as significant as a luxury watch.
Sell Things to afford your dream watch
Sell something you don’t need to raise funds for a luxury watch. It is a simple and harmless trade-off. It could be an automobile, jewelry, an antique, Etc.
It may be of equal value to the watch or less, and it might be a collection of sold items. Either way, it is a means to raise money to afford your dream watch.
You could organize a yard sale to sell things off or market them online to create awareness. If you prefer to avoid the stress of selling your item, you can pawn it to a broker in return for a pre-owned luxury watch, except if you are determined to buy a brand-new watch.
Start a side gig
Take on a side gig or start a little business by the side to afford a luxury watch. If it is profitable enough, the profit realized from this business could be enough to buy a luxury watch for its owner after a speculated period.
When businesses like this are set up just for one thing, it is easier to achieve the goal and do so within a shorter time because the money is not being directed anywhere else.
Go for a low-price range of luxury watch brands
Another way to afford a luxury watch is to shift your focus from premium luxury watches and focus on low-price or entry-level luxury watch brands.
Examples of such brands are Tissot, Longines, Tag Heuer, etc. Sure they may have a few models in the same price range as premium luxury watches, but 70% of their watch models are scattered in the low-price field.
These brands do not require you to finance the watch or take huge loans, some folks can save money for less than a year, and it would be enough to afford a luxury watch.
Where can one afford to get a luxury watch?
Luxury watches are not over-the-counter watches that are found in every shop.
Usually, to get a brand new luxury watch, you have to be recommended to join a waitlist while these watches are produced.
This period could take up to 2-3 years and more, but here are a few ways to cut down on that timeframe.
1. Pawn Shops are great to get a luxury watch at an affordable price
Try finding a bargain in pawn shops to afford a luxury watch. Pawn shops loan money to people and accept their valuables as collateral. A luxury watch, having so much value, is primarily accepted as collateral in pawn shops.
If the owner cannot repay the loan, the watch becomes property of the pawn shop, which it can sell to anyone interested. The price of a watch from a pawn store is negotiable because the store got the watch for less than the original cost value.
2. Yard Sales
Many people have yard sales to get rid of stuff that is no longer useful or will fetch them a reasonable sum of money.
Try to get a luxury watch at a yard sale where these watches are sold for mouth-watering prices. More often than not, these watches may need a little bit of maintenance or repairs to keep them going, but by the time all expenses on the watch are calculated, it wouldn’t be close to what a brand new luxury watch costs.
3. Pre-owned Watches
Buy a used luxury watch from preowned watch vendors.
Pre-owned watch vendors provide watches that were previously owned by someone else. Most of these watches are in excellent condition, while some are old and whose production might no longer be available.
Pre-owned watch vendors offer various vintage watches and watches the previous owner has properly handled. If there is any original deficit, the store would most likely have taken care of the repairs.
You can buy a pre-owned watch if you are not interested in being a part of the seemingly endless waitlist with luxury watches.
4. Auctions/Sales
Get a luxury watch at a sale or auction.
During sales, luxury watches are sold at discounted prices, but during auctions, the luxury watches are sold to the highest bidder.
Auctions were traditionally carried out in physical centers, but due to technological advancements can now be carried out over the internet, providing the opportunity for bidders all over the world to participate.
5. Gifts and Prizes
Many luxury watch owners got it as or as a prize, or were gifted one.
It could be an anniversary gift or a birthday gift, or a gift passed through generations as an inheritance.
While for some lucky set of people, they were opportune to win a luxury watch. Avenues that offer such opportunities include WatchLotto, WatchBox, LuxWatchMania, etc.
It is vital to receive the official papers of the watch regardless of where it was purchased because these papers are proof of authenticity and genuine ownership.
Most popular luxury watch brands
For so long, luxury has been misunderstood by popular opinion. This is because they are some names repeatedly heard in the luxury watch industry, and these brands are:
1. Omega
2. Vacheron Constantine
3. Blanc pain
4. Jaeger le-Couture
5. A.Lange and Sohne
6. Roger Dubius
7. Piaget
9. Audemars Piguet
10. Rolex
Truth be told, these are just expensive luxury watches, and they are worn by people of high status, thereby reflecting to the average person as the only type of luxury.
Entry-level luxury watch brands
The general perception of luxury watches is that they are way too expensive. Entry-level watch brands present the opportunity to venture into the luxury watch collection without breaking the bank.
Premium luxury watch brands may be too expensive to start a watch collection. Still, there are cheaper and more affordable brands that one could begin with while building resources to buy more expensive luxury watches.
Here are a few examples of entry-level luxury watch brands:
1. Tudor
2. Panerai
3. Chopard
4. Cartier
5. Tag Heuer
6. Longines
7. Tissot
8. Grand Seiko
9. Timex
10. Raymond Well
Conclusion
Luxury watches are a considerable expense, do it wisely and take responsibility for your financial state and how buying a luxury watch affects your lifestyle.
As explained, there are several ways an average man can afford a luxury watch (all being legal ways) and flexible enough to accommodate any income.
