Investing in Luxury Watches with Zac Castillo

This is Wake Up To Wealth, a podcast dedicated to helping you change the way you think about wealth. And now, here's your host, Brandon Brittingham.
Can you consistently buy, say, a Rolex, and it's going to hold its value or appreciate from an investment standpoint.

You won't make a lot of money with these, but your money won't.

You won't lose any either.

I'm not the cheapest, but I'm the best.

You know, I back my stuff 100%.

That's usually the first question.

What can I buy that'll go up and buy you?

Hey, what's up, everybody?

We are back again.

Another episode of Wake Up to Wealth.

I got my main man, Zach, here today, and we're going to talk about something that I'm super

excited about.

It's the market of luxury watches. Thanks for being here, brother.
Yes, sir. I appreciate the invite.
So what's kind of crazy is a lot of people don't look at luxury watches as an investment, and a lot of people aren't educated on that subject. But man, I've done really well, and I didn't get into it to buy it as an investment.
I just, you know, always wanted a Rolex.

But I've bought, you know, Rolexes and made a ton of money on them.

And it's actually a great storage of wealth.

And it's a great place to invest money.

Like, give us, for someone who's a novice, they don't know anything.

Like, why is that true?

Why is that the case?

I mean, first of all, they're so hard to get from Rolex rolex i mean if you really want to walk in today and buy one they'd want you to spend ten thousand dollars in a whole nother direction just to get the watch that you want they may only be ten thousand dollars so that that's where the demand comes in you leave there you start looking online you find a guy like me that can get it for possibly the same price without buying that jewelry or whatever it was. Yeah.
And you get in your hand. And that's that's where the man stays so solid on the investment side of it.
Yeah. So, you know, just like you've seen it and I've seen it like you don't always know.
But some watches, I mean, I've seen watching double watching double in price right and like what and just for for some of those out there like what models of of rolex specifically do you kind of see just uh you know always hold their value or even appreciate at a crazy crazy rate first at the top be daytona yeah you know you got the stainless steel panda goes for 15 K at the AD flipped for 30,000. As soon as you walk out the door, uh, the platinum Daytona goes for about 70,000 and it'll run about 120,000.
So those are the ones that really the big collectors are building up to grab to either collect or flip, make that money on. Yeah.
So, um So true or false, a lot of ones that I see appreciate, hold their value or appreciate are a lot of the stainless steel models. Yes.
Yes, definitely. I think it's mainly because they're affordable.
Yeah. And.
Well, even when it makes less of them. Less of them.
And even when the market's down in a slump. Yeah.
People still buy so they they choose to buy something say 20 000 or less and not so expensive where they're taking a big gamble because they still want to buy yeah but they know the market's down so it's kind of like those always roll yeah and then you've got on you've got a what do you got on to that this is a 40 millimeter sub so i mean that usually always goes up in values or stays it's solid you won't make a lot of money with these but your money won't you won't lose any either so this is this is a great first you know entry level piece yeah yeah yeah it's been about 10 12 000 but you won't lose hardly a dime on it so it's just you could wear it for a couple of years you take good care of it um and then you go sell, you're probably going to get the same amount of money that you paid. Same amount, maybe a little more, but you're definitely not going to lose.
Right. Yeah.
So we got another one here. It's a stainless steel.
Which one is this? That's actually white gold. That's the date of presidential.
Yeah. So that one was discontinued in 2018, I think.
So there's a separate market for those that are those that are discontinued it takes a real collector though to buy one that's white gold because you really you can't tell that it's white gold like you said it looks stainless stainless well if i grabbed it i realized it yeah so stainless you're looking about 15 grand that watch that one goes for about 40 to 45 so somebody that's going to spend 45 000 they want shine. Like it's actually, you know, they can tell it's a precious metal.
Yeah. So in your opinion, I mean, there's other watch brands out there, you know, AP, Patek is one.
You know, for somebody that's listening, what brand seems to hold their value the most and essentially appreciate? I put all my money in Rolex. Yeah.
Yeah, I think it's most solid. People wake up daily wanting Rolex.
By the time you get into Patek and stuff like that, it takes a guy who's been in it for a long time. He's really going to do his homework.
The Rolex can get in and out of quick if you need it to. Yes.
Especially if you're a first-time buyer. You don't want to buy something you don't know you're going to love, you know, invest a whole lot of money in.
So, yeah, I'd always say start with Rolex. Yeah.
And so, you know, kind of one of the things I think that we all know is Rolex kind of keeps a tight supply chain. To your point, you just can't.
People think you can walk to a Rolex store and buy when you can't. Yeah.
Right. So that creates kind of the gray market, which is where you play in a lot.
Right. Right.
Right. So but the other side is, you know, not just from the investment side, you got to buy from people that are reputable that like, no, they're still us.
Exactly. So there's so many corners that can be cut on a bezel, a link, paperwork, a fake box or anything.
So that's where that comes in. I always tell people I'm not the cheapest, but I'm the best.
You know, I back my stuff 100%. That's a big issue in the jewelry watch game is the cutting corners on this and that.
And you just mentioned another thing for, you know, if you're out there and you're new and you don't know anything about this um it's super important that you get the box papers all that talk about that for a second yeah boxing papers is important if you're getting charged for it i mean it's not a huge deal they all cause you know the boxes worth three or four hundred itself the papers not all watches without papers are fake some of them you know some owners will we said, they play the AD game where they buy and flip. They'll keep the card so their name ain't floating around.
Right. And so if you're a first-time buyer, I would always recommend go ahead and get the full set boxed papers to get the full effect.
But if you're buying without boxes and papers, you would definitely get a cheaper price that way. Yeah.
So buy accordingly. So in your opinion, can you consistently buy, say, a Rolex and it's going to hold its value or appreciate? I mean, from an investment standpoint.
Certain ones, yes. Yeah.
That's what I do. I kind of say you call me tomorrow and you're new to the game, want to know what to buy, what to spend.
I'll break it down for you. If you have, you know, a $10,000 price range, I'll show you what's safe, what's not.
Yeah. And you say, hey, but I really like this.
And I'll just tell you, hey, you know, you might lose a couple of Gs wearing this one. Right.
Or, you know, you might, it might bounce a little bit. And there's some that just won't bounce.
Like the subs, they don't really go down. But it's there when I need it, you know? Yeah.
So what do you think in the $10,000 to $15,000 range, what's the safest watch to buy? So good question. You're either a Submariner guy or a Datejust guy.
Yeah. So there's like the Wimbledon that goes for about $14,000.
Yep. Full stainless steel, real nice watch.
I like that one. That's about top tier Datejust.
Yeah. And then the Submariner like this.
Yeah. Stainless steel, black dial.
Yeah. Yeah.
And then if you were, say, you step up a little bit and you go to the $20,000 to $30,000 range, what do you think? Daytona. Daytona.
Black dial, stainless steel. Even though it's about $10,000 over sticker, I think it's going to stay there, if not go up for a while daytona's always they're known to stay solid i mean is it even possible to get a daytona from an ad no i mean not not walking in right i've heard people do it just and it's it's it's more of a principle thing i think with the stuff like that you might have an ad over here that a guy's been begging for for years yeah that's like begging in the wrong manner and you have another guy that's never been in the Rolex store and this ad's like you know what I'd rather just sell to this guy and this guy's been hounding me he ain't bought no jewelry so I've heard of people walking and buying them yeah I had a client last week in uh San Antonio he's bought one day just for like 10 grand second one was a panda yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
You just never know, man. Yeah.
You never know what their supply looks like either. It's hard to gauge.
The other thing too is you never know. I mean, I always tell people like buy the watch that you want and that would usually hold its value.
But also you never know. So I had the bat, you know, I bought the Batman when it first came out.
i had it for eight years and when i sold it i sold it for you know probably at the height i sold it for 23 000 and i paid 8900 for it yeah right i mean that's just insane and i had it for seven years well for seven years yeah so i mean that's some to your point sometimes when things get discontinued or it becomes a hot watch or whatever, I mean, the value just goes insane. Yeah, you never know, man.
People, that's usually the first question. What can I buy that'll go up in value? I can't really answer that.
And then, like, right now, in two days, we have the new models dropping. Certain models will be discontinued.
So, it could be one of these sitting right here in front of you and it's going to go through the roof.

You never know.

Yeah.

Some people, like the Bluesy, for instance, that one's been out so long,

and there's kind of some rumors going around it being discontinued.

So it's kind of keeping it solid.

The Pepsi right now is supposed to be discontinued.

That one's going up daily.

Yeah.

And it could not go that way.

You never know.

Yeah, 100%.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's a fun game to play, though. What's your grill watch? What's the one you really want? Man, I like the – I've had four or five watches in play at a time.
This is Old Faithful, of course, so I'd hold this one tight. But I'd walk in – if I could walk in the AD and buy the black stainless steel Daytona, that would be the one I'd take'd take i mean i like flashy stuff but i'm pretty simple you know i wear a small chain stainless watch so it wouldn't be too much um what is that you've had in your possession before what's the one that is appreciated the most that you've actually had whether you owned it to sell it or you owned it yourself probably the john mayor yeah that one and it bounced quick and it came back down so that one was like right now where we're at that was everybody knew it was going to be discontinued so as soon as it did it went from 70 to about 100 grand yeah and it lasted for about a month then it went right back down so that's about 30 30 to $30,000 pop right there.
Right. That is appreciated.
Yeah, that appreciated that. But you have some that I haven't had in possession that I've sold that some people made, you know, beaucoup of money on.
Yeah, I had a white gold Pepsi and it had the, I don't know what you call it, but it had kind of like the marble face. Meteorite.
Meteorite. Yeah.
And in COVID, I paid $48,000 for it. I sold it for $110,000.
Yeah. At the height.
Yeah. So, yeah, I forgot about that.
So that's probably the biggest watch. Yeah.
That one went up and down 50 grand. Yeah.
Yeah. And I also had the Daytona that was all rose gold that had the sunburst rose gold face that they discontinued.

Right.

And that one went up a lot too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The Meteorite, man, those are real special.

All the Daytonas are discontinued that had Meteorite.

Yeah.

And they're said to do it to the rest of the watches.

And man, some of those Meteorite Daytonas go for $85,000, $90,000 when they you know yeah that meteorite is something special so someone who's listening to this they've never owned a rolex before oh i'm my assumption is if you're going to tell somebody to buy if you're looking at the investment side you're going to tell them buy a rolex right oh yeah yeah definitely and they've never owned one before um and they're just starting

now which one do you think you know what's what's the one you can't go wrong with submariner yep you can find you know an entry level something even more solid than this model like a 2005 2008 model for about 8500 and man it's hard to even go anything less than that if you ever try to sell it. Yeah.
Yeah. Now, someone, let's just say, has a bigger budget, and they want to buy, you know, we call it the investment piece, right? Right.
What's the investment piece to go after? So there's tons. You go to AP, Patek, riding that.
If you were to pick a Rolex one, what would you think? Rolex, I like the Olive Doll, Rose Gold Day-Date. I think you had the chocolate.
That's the Presidential, right? Yeah, Presidential. That one's pretty solid.
It's about $10,000, $15,000 over MSRP, but that's in the $50,000, $55,000 range 000 range i think that's about the next step the problem is when you're getting like 20 000 watches people they don't shine enough for you know like the daytonas and all that they don't shine enough to to do them justice to spend that much so it's either low 20 000 or under or real high high-end watches the middle was a kind of struggle so you can find good deals in that

area. Got it.
Yeah.

Awesome man. So

you know

what if someone

wanted to not just the

love of watches and watches

but do you think there's a play

that could be had where you could actually

consistently invest

in them as like an investment? as in multiple watches or one watch yeah yeah yeah definitely you could come up with a lot there's so many watches out there moving man and there's it's said to be like 85 90 percent of the watches are in dealers hands yeah so it's like there's the guy how these watches get here there's higher ups that you never even hear of see yeah and they supply these lower guys in the middle than the lower guys like me yeah and that's what keeps the whole thing running so if you could you know kind of do something in the middle somewhere there's definitely there's definitely there yeah so the name of the game is if you can get if you can get a a rare one from an ad which is an authorized dealer that's the play. Yes.
If you somehow get a rare one from an AD, which is an authorized dealer, that's the play. Yes.
If you somehow get lucky and get one that is going to be discontinued, right? But sometimes we don't always know that. You can hear rivers of it.
That's the other play. And then I just think what I've seen over time is the stainless steel ones just never go down.
And a lot of times they go up. Then if you get super lucky and you get a stainless steel, they discontinue.
You're probably in real good shape. Very lucky.
Yes. And a lot of people came into the watch game during COVID.
Yeah. Because you couldn't get one.
No. And it was climbing daily.
So everybody automatically thought like, man, I need to get in. And they did.
A lot of people got in. Yeah.
But now that's the conversation now. Like, hey, what's going to be going up? And that's not the case unless something major like that comes about again.
I'll tell you another thing to look at this from a different standpoint, a nice Rolex, a nice AP or even a paddock. You know, also for me, it's been an investment from a standpoint is it's always been a conversation starter.
And a lot of times someone who recognizes like this one, the one that you got me, you know, you got to know what this is. Yeah.
Right. Yeah.
And for instance, a paddock as an example or an AP, if you have one of those on, someone knows it. They're usually somebody of influence and have wealth.
and you're being judged by you know people 24 7 so they might see this watch and they give me a certain level you know especially if it's a paddock guy or something yeah he sees that watch he gives you a certain level you know and that's the same thing if he sees you with that patek and he's like whoa you know he gives you that much because you know you said it i remember when i brought that watch here last time we sat right over there and he was like man you saw that patek I had and you were like, whoa, you know, he gives you that much. Because, you know, you said it.
I remember when I brought that watch here last time, we sat right over there. And he was like, man, you saw that Pateka and you were like, that's a billionaire's watch.
Yeah, heard out. You looked at me dead serious.
I still remember that. Well, yeah, it is, man.
It's up there. Those guys with those watches, you never even know it.
Right. You know what I mean? When they come to do stuff like this, they'll have this on or this on.
And they just, they're in in the safe they're out there yeah it's it's amazing um i love watches and what's been cool is you know this one i know will always hold its value i didn't buy this one for the investment side i bought it because i always wanted it right but it was paid for by a bunch of watches that i bought that were investments that appreciate it right i think's the brilliance of it. Right.
And you know, like with you buying your bustown full of diamonds, you know that that's not the best investment. It'll cost you a little bit to wear that.
Yeah. The investments in some of these smaller ones and you covered your bases with that to buy that other shiny stuff, you know? Absolutely.
So that's the deal. You got to know what, you know, what the end play is.
What are are you trying to get to because you can start with a thousand dollar watch and work up to the fifty thousand dollar watches whatever you want to do so someone's listening to this and they want to get into the watch game or they want to buy their first rolex or whatever how do they get in touch with you look me up on instagram facebook uh what's your answer right there watchadicto under slash llc um facebook zach castillo and i have a website also watchadicto.llc.com you check me out there so uh i ask everybody this when we end the show we call this show waking up to wealth. So it can be whatever version it is for you.
But what is what waking up to wealth mean to you? Freedom. I mean, doing this is fun to me.
I've I've sold tired for 23 years, man. It feels like six days a week.
Yeah. And I still put in a lot of hours doing this, but it's fun.
They like it. So freedom, you know, I got three kids, beautiful wife at home.

So freedom, time, time is very valuable now.

But that's pretty much it, man.

Just doing this daily, having fun.

It's like I never worked.

Absolutely.

Yes, sir.

Well, brother, I appreciate you for coming here, educating us on the wide game.

I appreciate you spending time with us today.

No problem, bro. I appreciate you having me.
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