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Introduction
This is an odd one. For an industry so tightly-knit and involved with one another, the watch community is still somewhat shrouded in mystery when it comes to certain issues.
Watch brands aren’t exactly forthcoming with their sales or production rates, leaving us as the consumers and enthusiasts to piece together the most successful pieces/series of all time.
However you want to count them, narrowing down the world’s most popular timepieces requires crunching precise data and taking a lot of educated guesses, so we’ve done our best to deliver the most reliable information possible.
Today’s list will cover some of the most popular watch collections in the world that have sold millions of copies and have paved an illustrious road for themselves. These are brands that rule at the very top and have timelessly produced piece after piece that defy expectations at every turn.
Just to be clear…
This is going to be a list of the most iconic pieces ever made from brands that you will undoubtedly recognize, but just because one piece is more recognizable than the other, doesn’t mean it has sold more units.
Not every piece/series is as easy to estimate as the other. Sales from pieces/series like Casio, G-shock, and Apple are pretty well known, but as we get down the list, the exact numbers become more speculation than anything, so don’t expect to go walking away from this list with any precise details, because, in most cases, no one knows.
Casio F91W
Starting off our list is the single best-selling watch of all time. (Notice I said watch, as in singular, this does not belong to a specific collection.)
With its affordable price, durability, and timeless design, the F91W remains a cultural icon to this day as it is still a very popular choice for both enthusiasts and casual wearers.
First introduced in 1991, the F91W set the standard for durability, and with a simple aesthetic and easy-to-understand functional appeal, it’s no wonder this watch got so popular so fast.
Not to mention the stopwatch, alarm, and backlight, which were revolutionary at the time. As of 2023, it has sold over 100 million units worldwide, dubbing it the king of specific reference piece sales.
Apple Watch Series
Kind of strange to see the Apple Watch on this list, right? Wrong. While I was alarmed at first, it’s kind of a no-brainer that Apple Watches are the most popular watches ever made.
It’s because they don’t just appeal to those in the watch space; they appeal to everyone, or everyone with an iPhone, that is. By the end of 2023, the Apple Watch series had sold around 270 million units.
Apple is the face of convenient, modern-day technology, after all, so it makes sense that they were able to manufacture a watch that doesn’t even feel like a watch anymore, while simultaneously making it the single most profitable piece of wristwear ever. It’s strange, though; I remember when the Apple Watch was first released; time flies.
G-Shock Collection
This Casio-owned brand follows the same design principles that make Casio watches so profitable. The simple design reinforced by strong materials attracts a lot more wearers than you might think.
This series has sold over 100 million units across the board, and that number does not look like it’s going to flatline anytime soon. While I may not get the appeal, I have nothing but tremendous respect for brands like these that focus on the simpler aspects of wristwear.
Casio and G-Shocks are designed to last for a long time, giving you an impressive performance that never seems to age, and as both companies have developed, they have honed their skills to dominate their respective markets. They deserve all the praise.
Seiko 5 Collection
The Seiko 5 series began in 1963 with the release of the Sportsmatic 5. Fast-forward to the modern day: Seiko now produces around five million watches a year, but it’s still the Seiko 5 series that holds the title of most popular collection.
It makes sense, Seikos are relatively cheap, with a simple yet beautiful design. Rumor has it that Seiko 5 has sold tens of millions of units, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were much more because not only does Seiko have a history of producing an absurd amount of watches per year, they also produce 50 million movements.
Take the 4R36, which powers most of the Seiko 5 collection, its simple nature, and easy-to-manufacture style pair great with a watch that already puts up out-of-this-world numbers. They are made to be affordable, mass-produced works, and they have very much succeeded.
Rolex Submariner Series
It was pretty much guaranteed that one of the most iconic Rolex models of all time would find a place on this list. Though they are very private with what they make, the Crown celebrated 70 years of the submariner by giving us some unexpected information.
They ended up counting production figures between 1953 and 2020, adding up every Submariner, Sea-dweller, and Deepsea, which will give us around 4 million watches produced.
It’s still tough to say how many of those units have actually been sold, but when we take into account how much more valuable Rolex pieces get after they are removed from the shelves, it’s safe to say that the Submariner series is worth billions.
MoonSwatch Series
The legendary team-up of these two massive brands is still talked about today as one of the best collabs the industry has ever seen.
As it launched in 2022, most people estimated that the series would sell maybe half a million units, but by November, it had already doubled that estimate and was continuing to grow at an astronomical rate. People simply couldn’t get enough of the MoonSwatch.
The other variants later added would accumulate more growth, and now it’s estimated to have sold four or five million units, truly staggering indeed. It’s even more impressive when you consider that the only way to obtain a MoonSwatch was through an in-person store.
That’s right; upon launch, it was impossible to place an online order, which makes me wonder what the sales would have looked like if people had also ordered them from home.
Rolex Datejust Series
No one knows the precise number of Datejust models floating around, but everyone can agree on one thing: they are Rolex’s best-selling pieces ever, and it’s not really much of a contest.
There are no exact numbers, no sales sheets, but with an 8-year headstart on the Submariner, most agree that it is the best-selling luxury watch in history.
After all, this watch is what put Rolex on the map, it’s the staple of their brand, and, in turn, (since Rolex is the face of luxury watches), the staple of the entire industry as well. To put it into perspective, the Lady Datejust model (the most popular Datejust) comes in almost 500 iterations.
That is an enormous amount of room to rake in the money, so it’s safe to say that even though we don’t have an exact count, the Datejust series has created its very own economy.
Tag Heuer Carrera Series
Inspired by the Carrera Panamericana race, the Tag Heuer Carrera has established one of the most beautiful connections between the car-racing world and the watch world. Jack Heuer created the Heuer Carrera to match the high-octane demands of motorsports.
The design was focused on legibility and functionality, placing a heavy amount of emphasis on that “built for everyone” style choice.
Even though the Carrera was discontinued in 1984, the love that both the racing community and the watch community held for this piece remained strong even through the years it was absent, and when it made its valiant return to the market in 1996 after Heuer was sold to TAG Heuer, the sales seemed to pick right back up from where they left off. Nowadays, it’s estimated that the collection has sold over 3 million units.
Patek Philippe Nautilus Series
Since 1976, the Nautilus has been the staple of Patek Philippe, with many arguing that this series is the one that put them on the map. After all, after the Nautilus, stainless steel watches were forever viewed differently, as they are now considered one of the most prestigious luxury materials.
But exactly how profitable has the Nautilus been in terms of sales? As you may have guessed, no one really knows. Patek Philippe is estimated to manufacture around 60,000 pieces per year, and of those 60,000, the Nautilus is estimated to make up 2,000 or 4,000.
So it’s reasonable to estimate (assuming that Patek Philippe has kept those same numbers since 1976) that the Nautilus has sold around 100,000 units in its lifespan, and considering the average price of a brand new Nautilus is roughly 30 or 40 thousand dollars, I would say that is a huge profit margin.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Series
While we’re on the topic of the stainless steel revolution, it would only make sense to mention the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, the first ever watch that was manufactured using stainless steel. For a brief time, there was an exact count of Royal Oaks sold, making the estimation process ever so easier.
Between 1972 and 1989, 1,937 A-series watches were sold, but now sales are unclear, with estimated manufacturing counts ranging between 45,000 and 50,000 annually.
If I had to guess, I would say that the number of units sold is well into the hundreds of thousands, perhaps even more than the Nautilus.
Just think about how iconic stainless steel watches are now; wouldn’t the watch that started it all be among the best financially performing pieces? Whatever the case, the Piguet Royal Oak’s legacy and impact on the industry are arguably more important than the number of pieces it has sold, as it has safely gone down as one of the most important watches ever made.
Omega Speedmaster Series
Introduced in 1957, the Speedmaster series was an instant success, eventually leading to the iconic moment that Omega is known for today: Neil Armstrong wearing a Speedmaster on the moon’s surface.
Omega has become notorious around the watch industry for its truly baffling production numbers, and you better believe that the Speedmaster series is no different.
In 2020, Omega was rumored to produce half a million watches in total, and that was on top of the underlying Covid-19 effects that were undoubtedly being felt. Just imagine their production rate when there isn’t a virus terrorizing the globe.
As far as sales numbers, though, that’s much tougher to estimate. It’s rumored that Omega makes up to 20,000 or 30,000 Speedmaster watches yearly, and when you do the math on that number alone (since 1957), that’s hundreds of thousands of sales.
A popular thread on the Omega forums website revolves around the brand’s most successful year of production, 1973.
During that year (according to the forum online), Omega supposedly sold 13.5 million pieces in total (across the board, not just Speedmaster), so if you take that as a trustworthy source, you can imagine how successful the Speedmaster series truly is.
Conclusion
So there you have it, not exactly the easiest information to relay since the majority is simple speculation, but I hope you have a better understanding of how big of a title these brands truly carry.
Often, the most revolutionary or the most historically significant pieces are the ones that perform the best, and for the most part, this list follows that logic. The watch world isn’t like other industries.
When something groundbreaking makes its way to the market, the sales will usually reflect that, especially these days when the industry revolves so much around the fascinating advancement of technology.
Regardless of how these pieces perform from a financial standpoint, they have made irreversible impacts on the industry, which is why (even if the sales information is inaccurate), these are some of the most important pieces ever.
