8 Takeaways for Luxury Jewelry & Watch Collectors from Goldman Sachs
A recent Goldman Sachs article, Beyond the Sparkle: A Guide to Buying and Collecting Luxury Jewelry and Watches, explores what collectors should consider when buying, protecting, valuing, and ultimately passing down important jewelry and timepieces.
As one of the leading luxury PR agencies working across jewelry, art, design, and high-craft brands, Pietra Communications closely follows the forces shaping how consumers collect, experience, and assign value to luxury. Pietra Communications CEO Olga González is also a proud alumna of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program.
Here are some of the article’s biggest takeaways:
1. Start with why you’re buying.
Before purchasing a luxury jewelry piece or watch, Goldman Sachs recommends first understanding your objective. Are you looking for something to wear every day, mark an important personal or professional milestone, begin or expand a collection, purchase with potential investment value in mind, or eventually pass down to the next generation? The answer can shape everything from the type of piece you select to how much research and due diligence is appropriate. For collectors, being intentional at the beginning of the process can also help distinguish between a piece that is simply desirable and one that truly fits into a broader collecting strategy.
2. Women are increasingly buying luxury jewelry for themselves.
One of the most notable shifts highlighted in the article is the growing influence of women purchasing fine jewelry for themselves. Rather than jewelry being centered primarily around gifting or bridal occasions, women are increasingly using luxury jewelry to commemorate career accomplishments, personal milestones, or simply to build collections that reflect their individual style. Goldman Sachs notes that non-bridal purchases now represent 75% of diamond demand value, illustrating how significantly the traditional jewelry customer has evolved. This shift also speaks to a broader change in luxury, where consumers are increasingly purchasing meaningful objects as expressions of identity, independence, and personal achievement.
3. A famous brand name does not automatically make something investment-grade.
While jewelry from heritage maisons and watches from established luxury brands often attract collector interest, Goldman Sachs cautions against assuming that prestige alone guarantees long-term value. A recognizable name may contribute to desirability, but each individual piece still needs to be assessed on its own merits. In fact, the article notes that clients can sometimes be surprised to learn that a very expensive piece from a prestigious brand is not necessarily considered an investment-grade collectible. For buyers, that distinction is important: luxury pricing, collector desirability, and investment potential are related concepts, but they are not interchangeable.
4. Look at rarity, history, craftsmanship, condition, and authenticity.
Goldman Sachs identifies several factors that can help determine whether a jewelry piece or watch has the potential to maintain meaningful collector interest over time. Rarity is one consideration, particularly if a piece is one-of-a-kind or was produced in very limited numbers. Historical significance and provenance can also add importance, especially when there is a compelling story connected to a piece. Exceptional craftsmanship, strong condition, and reliable documentation confirming authenticity are equally significant. Together, these characteristics help create a fuller picture of why one item may become highly collectible while another, even at a similar retail price, may not.
5. The secondary market can offer opportunity, but it requires more diligence.
The resale market can give collectors access to rare, vintage, discontinued, or otherwise difficult-to-find jewelry and watches, but Goldman Sachs emphasizes that these purchases require particularly careful research. Buyers should investigate authenticity, condition, provenance, documentation, prior ownership, and appropriate market pricing before making a significant acquisition. With watches, details such as service history, original components, reference numbers, box, and papers may matter. For jewelry, gemological reports, treatment disclosures, appraisals, invoices, and ownership history can provide important context. For higher-value purchases, working with an independent specialist can help buyers evaluate the piece beyond the information supplied by the seller.
6. Documentation is part of the asset.
Collectors should think of paperwork as an important component of ownership rather than an afterthought. Original invoices, certificates of origin, gemological reports, appraisal records, authentication documents, and other supporting materials may become important when establishing authenticity or ownership history. Goldman Sachs also points out that documentation can be useful for resale, tracking tax basis, obtaining insurance, and completing future appraisals. Maintaining an organized inventory of a collection can therefore make the long-term management of jewelry and watches substantially easier, particularly as a collection grows or begins to form part of a broader estate or wealth plan.
7. Insurance, appraisals, storage, and maintenance all help protect value.
Owning an important piece does not end with the purchase. Goldman Sachs highlights the need for collectors to understand how their jewelry and watches are insured, stored, maintained, and periodically valued. Standard homeowner’s insurance may not provide sufficient coverage for high-value pieces, making a scheduled rider or specialized jewelry and watch policy worth discussing with an insurance professional. Appraisals should also remain current because market values can change over time. Proper storage and servicing are equally important: jewelry should be protected from unnecessary scratching and damage, while collectors of watches should be mindful that replacing certain original components during servicing can potentially affect collector value.
8. Jewelry and watches belong in the larger wealth and estate-planning conversation.
For collectors with meaningful pieces or larger collections, Goldman Sachs encourages thinking beyond acquisition and considering how those assets fit into long-term wealth and estate planning. Jewelry and watches can have both significant financial value and tremendous emotional importance, which can complicate decisions about inheritance and succession. Families may want to discuss whether particular heirs have an interest in specific pieces, who would manage a future sale, and which specialists should be contacted if pieces eventually need to be appraised or sold. Tax considerations, insurance, liquidity, cross-border ownership, and estate planning can all become increasingly relevant as the value and complexity of a collection grows.
The larger message is an important one: luxury jewelry and watches can carry emotional, aesthetic, historical, and financial significance simultaneously. The most thoughtful collectors are not simply acquiring beautiful objects; they are understanding what they own, preserving its history and documentation, protecting its condition, and making informed decisions about how those pieces will be cared for over time and across generations.