Rolex and Tudor: 5 Pre-Owned Picks With Real Value

Pre-owned prices have cooled significantly from their mid-pandemic highs, and that opens the door to some great watches that had been sitting out of reach. According to ChronoPulse, the five watches below have all dropped double-digit percentages over the past three years, and they represent real opportunities for collectors who want substance without chasing hype.

Tudor Black Bay GMT 79830RB

The Black Bay GMT launched in 2018 at $3,900 and now retails for $4,675 on bracelet. Solid pre-owned examples are trading well under $3,000, with plenty around $2,600. ChronoPulse shows the model down 18.4% over the past three years. That’s right around what you’d pay for a last-gen Black Bay 58—but here you’re getting a Tudor MT5652 movement complete with a jumping local hour hand.

Curved-End Rubber Strap For Tudor Black Bay GMT

It’s a 41 mm watch, just under 15 mm thick, with a Pepsi-style aluminum bezel and 200 meters of water resistance. The thickness is the most common complaint, but I’d encourage people to try one on before writing it off. I wore mine on a NATO with a suit during our Watches & Wonders this year—including my first meeting with Tudor—and never once had trouble with it catching on a cuff. The black dial is the bargain play, while the opaline dial version introduced in 2023 carries a premium.

Rolex Air-King 116900

Image Source: Time & Tide

The outgoing Air-King (2016–2022) is easy to spot: the “5” at the 1 o’clock index instead of “05.” It also packs a little-known technical feature—an anti-magnetic soft iron shield borrowed from the Milgauss. Under the hood is Rolex’s calibre 3131, tucked into a 40 mm case with a dial unlike anything else in the lineup.

ChronoPulse has it down 28.4% over the past three years, now back near pre-pandemic levels. You can find these under $8,000 all day, often closer to $7,000, which is essentially retail. The dial itself is what makes it so distinctive: the mix of bold minute markers, the green “ROLEX” text, the matching green seconds hand, and a yellow coronet. That yellow crown on the dial is categorically rare in Rolex design history. For a current-model Rolex that stands apart, this is an underrated option.

Rolex Explorer II 16570

Image Source: Newport Watch Club

If I had a dollar for every time I included the 16570 on one of these lists, I’d almost have enough to buy one outright. But the prices just keep trending downward, and the watch keeps making sense. Over its long production run from 1989 to 2011, the Explorer II 16570 evolved in meaningful ways: tritium to LumiNova to Super-LumiNova, drilled lugs to no-holes cases, hollow to solid end links, and eventually a movement change from the 3185 to the 3186 with Parachrom hairspring.

Curved End Leather Strap For Rolex Explorer II 16570

ChronoPulse has the black dial version down 17.1% over the past three years, with examples hovering around $6,500. The white “Polar” is down 18.9% and carries a modest premium. Both remain findable under $7,000, which is remarkable for a 40 mm Rolex with an independently adjustable 12-hour hand. Whether you prefer the charm of earlier tritium dials or the sturdier feel of late-run solid-end-link cases, the 16570 gives you options.

Tudor Black Bay Chrono 79360N

Image Source: Second Movement

This one surprises a lot of people: the Black Bay Chrono in black dial is down 31.9% over the past three years, with clean examples trading under $4,000. For that money, you’re getting a 41 mm chronograph with 200 meters of water resistance and the MT5813 movement—a column-wheel, vertical-clutch chronometer calibre co-developed with Breitling. It even has a silicon balance spring and a 70-hour power reserve.

Dial and bracelet variations (white, pink, flamingo blue, five-link bracelet) can command far more, sometimes hitting five figures. But if you’re after everyday wearability and serious movement chops without chasing hype, the black dial on bracelet is the sweet spot. In today’s market, this is a lot of watch for the money.

Rolex Day-Date 18238

Image Source: Fratello

The Day-Date has always been Rolex’s most prestigious model, but that doesn’t mean it’s off-limits. The ref. 18238, built from the late 1980s through 2000, introduced calibre 3155 with a double quickset—meaning you can set day and date independently. It’s a feature that matters if you plan to rotate watches instead of wearing the President daily.

Image Source: Bulang & Sons

ChronoPulse shows the 18238 down 14.9% over the past three years. Today, you can find full yellow-gold examples with President bracelets for under $20,000. For me, the sweet spot is a champagne dial with stick indices and a Roman numeral minute track, and I recently spotted one at $17,900. That’s an awful lot of gold, history, and complication for the money.

Closing Thoughts

Not every watch that’s dropped in price is a value, but these five models feel durable. They have proven calibres, long production runs, and daily-wear appeal. If you’ve had the Black Bay GMT or Explorer II on your radar, the market finally makes them easier to justify. And if you’ve dreamed of owning a gold Rolex President, the 18238 is proof you don’t need peak-pandemic pricing to step into the icon.