Methodology

How we keep the record

Published by the LuxuryPriceIndex editorial team. We are independent: we sell nothing we track and no house pays us. Credibility comes from showing our work, so every number below links to where it came from.

Country price comparison

Source hierarchy. (1) The brand's own country website, read on the date shown, for example rolex.com/fr-fr or cartier.com/en-pt. (2) Reputable press. (3) Market data. (4) Specialist trackers such as PurseBop, used only where a house hides its prices online (Chanel, Hermès) and always labelled with a tier badge. Where the brand publishes nothing for a country and no reliable tracker covers it, we leave the cell empty. We never estimate a list price.
Dating. Each country price carries its own date and URL. We compare prices only when they are current (dated within the last 12 months) and never combine an old price in one country with a new one in another without showing both dates. Brand-site prices in this release were read on 16 Oct 2026.
Exchange rates. Conversions use the European Central Bank euro foreign exchange reference rates, the latest published at the time of collection: 15 Oct 2026 (USD 1.1208, GBP 0.8461, CHF 0.9305, JPY 177.06, BRL 5.6679). Source: ECB eurofxref. Your card or bank rate will differ, typically by 0–3%.
Shelf price. The price as shown by the brand. In the EU, UK, Switzerland and Japan this includes VAT or consumption tax (Portugal 23%, Italy 22%, Spain 21%, France 20%, Germany 19%, UK 20%, Switzerland 8.1%, Japan 10%). US list prices exclude state and local sales tax. Brazilian prices (brand sites in pt-BR, in reais) include local taxes; we assume no tourist refund in Brazil.
Visitor price (an estimate). What a non-resident tourist might pay after tax relief. EU: shelf price minus 10–15%, our labelled estimate of the refund net of refund-operator fees; the exact figure depends on the country, the amount and the operator. UK: no tax-free shopping for visitors since 1 January 2021, so the shelf price applies. Switzerland: minus 4–6% (8.1% VAT, net of fees, minimum purchase applies). Japan: shelf price divided by 1.10 (10% tax-free for eligible visitors; Japan has announced a move to a refund-at-departure system, and fees may then apply). US: list price plus 0% to about 10.25% sales tax depending on the state, with no visitor refund.
Who can claim a refund. VAT refunds are for travellers resident outside the place of purchase. EU residents cannot reclaim VAT on purchases inside the EU. When an EU resident brings goods bought abroad back into the EU above the personal allowance (€430 for air and sea travellers), import VAT and, for some goods, customs duty are due. The visitor price is therefore most relevant to non-EU travellers. We show it next to the shelf price, which is what residents pay.
Bringing it home (calculator). The calculator adds an estimate of what you owe on return. EU residents buying outside the EU: no allowance applies to a single item above €430 (air/sea), so we add customs duty at a typical third-country rate (watches about 4.5%, jewellery about 2.5%, leather bags about 3%; check TARIC for your exact item) and import VAT at your country's rate on price plus duty. Buying in another EU country: you pay the shelf price there, with no refund and nothing due at home. Brazil residents: Receita Federal allows US$1,000 per traveller arriving by air or sea (once every 30 days, not shareable between family members) plus US$1,000 at the arrival duty-free shop; goods above the allowance are taxed at 50% of the excess under the Regime de Tributação Especial, and undeclared goods incur a further 50% fine (gov.br, page updated 27 Jan 2026, read 16 Oct 2026). We convert the allowance at the ECB USD rate; Receita uses the rate on the day of your declaration. For the UK, Switzerland, the US and Japan we do not yet compute home charges and say so in the result. All of this is an estimate, not tax advice.
Cheapest country and saving. The cheapest country is the lowest visitor-price midpoint in euros. The saving is that midpoint against the Portuguese shelf price. Items without a reliable Portuguese price are shown but not ranked.
Update cadence. We re-read the official sites at least monthly, and on the day a price increase is reported. Exchange rates are refreshed on each update. Every change that alters a published number is logged on the corrections page.
Not advice. Availability, waiting lists, allocation and warranty terms differ by country and matter as much as price. Brands may refuse to sell to non-residents or limit quantities.

Price history

A price goes in only if it appears on a public page. We store its date and source URL (raw JSON).
No source, no number. We don't interpolate between known prices and we don't estimate.
Prices are US boutique or list prices before sales tax unless stated. Reference changes (Rolex 116610LN to 126610LN, for example) are noted.
Every source carries a tier label, and we always prefer the highest tier available: (1) Official: the brand's own site, including Wayback Machine snapshots of official price pages (cited by their web.archive.org URL and timestamp); (2) Press: reputable outlets such as Bloomberg, Reuters, the FT, WSJ, Business of Fashion, Vogue Business, Forbes, CNBC, Hodinkee, Monochrome and The Fashion Law; (3) Market data: WatchCharts, Chrono24, Rebag Clair, Sotheby's and Christie's; (4) Blog / Forum: PurseBop, PurseBlog, reseller and dealer blogs, Reddit and forums, used to corroborate only.
A price that rests only on blogs stays on the record but is flagged on its item page. A price that rests only on a forum post is removed unless something else corroborates it. Where sources disagree, the higher tier wins and we note the conflict.
Hermès does not publish Birkin or Kelly prices online, and they are not shown on its website or in its archived pages, so tier 1 isn't possible for them. For those bags we use Sotheby's published US price tables (tier 3), with blogs as corroboration.
Resale figures come from published studies (Rebag Clair Report, Sotheby's). They are not comparable year to year.
Last checked: 2026-10-16. Best source per price point today: 36 official, 4 press, 41 market data, 194 blog only.

All sources (113)

Images

We use only photographs we are licensed to use, with credit beside each one. Where no suitable licensed image exists, we show a plate drawn from that item's own sourced price line rather than a stock substitute. Full list: image credits.