TAG Heuer × Porsche, Hamilton Murph, IWC × Mercedes, Tudor: do partnership watches hold their value?

A Formula 1 team, a car maker, a cult film: watch brands keep multiplying partnerships, and each one produces a special edition. The question buyers ask is simple: are these watches worth more than the standard version on resale? Most of the time, the answer is no. But there are exceptions, and they follow fairly readable rules.

Partnership, special edition, limited edition: three different things

Before talking about market value, you need to distinguish three terms that marketing happily blurs.

• A partnership is a visibility contract: a logo on a car, an official timekeeper, a watch on an actor's wrist. On its own, it does not create scarcity.
• A special edition carries the partner's colours or logo, but has no announced production run. It is made for as long as it sells.
• A [limited edition](/glossaire/edition-limitee) has a fixed number of pieces, often engraved. It is the only one of the three that can create real scarcity.

Most partnership watches belong to the second category, which explains how they behave on resale.

The cases studied, in one table

Retail prices are those announced at launch by the brands and reported by the specialist press; they may have changed since. Resale trends come from listings and sales recorded on platforms, with no value as an individual valuation.

TAG Heuer × Porsche: a special edition, not a rare object

TAG Heuer and Porsche have been official partners since 2021, starting with a Carrera Porsche Chronograph Special Edition with an asphalt-inspired grey dial and a Porsche logo on the bezel. Since then, the brand has spun the partnership into several editions, some limited and considerably more expensive, such as a Carrera Chronosprint × Porsche listed at around 24,000 dollars at a US retailer.

The series Carrera Porsche behaves like a Carrera: TAG Heuer produces in volume, also sells through a wide retail network, and discounts. On the secondary market, the Porsche edition therefore depreciates like the rest of the range. The logo adds no value; sometimes it subtracts some, because it narrows the interested audience to fans of the car brand.

Editions limited to a few hundred pieces are another matter: they resell better, but their starting price already factors in the scarcity.

Hamilton Murph: the success of a film, not of a production run

The Khaki Field Murph was born from a prop watch: the one worn by the character Murph in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, released in 2014. Faced with demand from viewers, Hamilton released it in 2019 in 42 mm, then in 38 mm in 2022. The dial carries the word "Eureka" in Morse code on the seconds hand, as in the film.

It is one of the most popular film watches, and yet its market value stays close to its retail price. The reason is arithmetic: it is produced continuously, available from retailers, and its retail price is modest. A watch you can buy new tomorrow cannot resell for much more today. For a buyer, that is good news: a pre-owned Murph in good condition can be bought a little below the new price, and will probably resell at the same level. See our Khaki Field page.

IWC × Mercedes-AMG Petronas: the longest partnership, the most conventional depreciation

IWC has been a partner of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 team since 2013, and the brand regularly draws chronographs from it. The 2022 edition, in titanium, 41 mm, with a mint green dial and the in-house 69385 calibre, was not limited and was first sold online.

On the secondary market, these editions depreciate like series IWC chronographs, often slightly more, because their colours are tied to a team and an era. Truly limited editions, such as a "Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport" version announced at 50 pieces and around €16,700, partly escape this rule, but remain niches.

Tudor: the exception, and why

The Pelagos FXD "Alinghi Red Bull Racing", unveiled in June 2023, is one of the rare partnership watches to resell around its retail price, or even above depending on the period. It celebrates Tudor's partnership with the Swiss sailing team competing in the America's Cup, in a carbon composite case.

Three factors explain this resilience. First, general demand for Tudor is strong, and new supply is often tight. Second, the Pelagos FXD has a real technical identity, beyond the logo. Finally, the retail price remains measured given the specification. Tudor has since extended its partnerships to rugby and Formula 1; it is too early to know whether the resulting editions will behave the same way.

The three criteria of a partnership watch that holds its value

1. Demand for the watch itself. If the standard version already resells at or above retail, the partnership edition has a chance of following. If the standard version depreciates, the logo will not change that.
2. A genuinely limited run, announced and engraved. "Special edition" without a number means continuous production.
3. A lasting link with the partner. A cult film or a historic victory gains value over time; a one-season sponsorship goes out of fashion, and the team colours with it.

Add one criterion that applies to all watches: a complete full set, with the box and the edition's specific accessories, resells better. Our article on the impact of a full set on price puts a figure on the gap.

Practical information

• TAG Heuer, Carrera collection: tagheuer.com
• Hamilton, Khaki Field Murph: hamiltonwatch.com
• Tudor, Pelagos collection: tudorwatch.com
• Before buying a pre-owned partnership edition: compare its price with that of the standard version, not just its retail price.

In short

Most partnership watches resell like their base model, sometimes slightly lower. Those that hold their value combine strong demand for the watch itself, a limited run and a lasting link with the partner. To find out what yours is worth, calculate its market value: the reference, year and condition are enough to get a range based on our price surveys.