_Luxury watches investment of choice in Singapore

Watches, jewels, coins – the ultra-rich in Singapore and the rest of Asia-Pacific continue to indulge in investments of passion.

The Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index (KFLII), which tracks the value of 10 investments of passion, rose by a healthy 16% during 2022, comfortably beating inflation and outperforming most mainstream investment classes, including equities and even gold.

Nicholas Keong, Head of Private Office, Singapore, says : “Passion for these luxury goods which were originally collected for pure personal enjoyment has now also evolved into investment-grade assets. It speaks of a very innate human desire to savour and enjoy what is rare and precious.”

In Singapore, ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) named watches, wine and rare whisky as their top investments of passion. 59% of Singapore respondents ranked watches as a top investment of passion to be sought after in 2023, followed by wine and rare whiskey, both with 45% of responses.

Assets outpacing inflation 

The increase in Singapore’s Consumer Price Index over the past 10 years from 2012 to 2022 was about 12.6%; in other words, these popular investments of passion outpaced inflation by quite a fair bit over the long haul, even with the higher-than-normal inflation of 6.1% in 2022.

As “alternative” investments, they have been growing in popularity as Singapore continues to climb the ladder of affluence and create wealth.

Meanwhile, in the Asia-Pacific region, ultra-high-net-worth individuals are also most interested in purchasing watches (48%). This was followed by wine (45%) and jewellery (38%).

Fastest growing investments 

Comparing the investments of passion that will most interest Singaporeans in 2023 with the overall KFLII, watches grew by a cumulative 147% over the last 10 years, or about 18% in 2022.

Wine returned a cumulative 162%, or 10% last year, while rare whisky increased 373% in 10 years, but its value only grew by a moderate 3% in 2022.