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The Code suffered from 2 things: questionable dial design choices for the first iteration, and even more from the forced bundling by most AP retailers during the COVID sports watch craze, which really devalues the watch.
Furthermore, its design is all about 3D effects and tiny execution details which social media pics just can’t reproduce. Unfortunately many online critics never actually handled, let alone ever wear a Code. Finally, production numbers are still quite low, there are probably only 20 to 30K watches in circulation, you barely ever get to see one in the wild. The only place where I ever saw a Code on somebody else’s wrist was at AP events.
I don’t think the pricing for the Codes is unreasonable if you compare it to the only meaningful benchmarks that are Patek, VC, and Lange (try finding a Chrono for 30K in the Patek catalogue).
Yes they depreciate for all the reasons stated above, the new steel models much less than the old dial layouts, we will see in a year how the new stamped PM releases will perform in the secondary market. But a lot of Calatravas are trading under retail as well, we are simply back to the old normal days of most watches losing some money initially.
Now let’s hope that the Code bashers that show up in every single Code thread finally get something else to complain about.
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