Thousands of hectares of spruce plantations were established in the eastern Tibetan Plateau of China after the deforestation of primary conifer forests. However, the water-holding capacity of soils in these plantations remains unclear. Here, we investigated how soil water-holding capacity varied across a chronosequence of spruce plantations (20 a, 30 a, 40 a, 70 a) in the western region of Sichuan Province and determined the differences between artificial forests (spruce plantations) and mixed broadleaf-conifer forests, which naturally developed on the cutovers. We further analyzed how the fine root biomass, litter stock, soil organic carbon, and soil physical structure affected soil water-holding capacity. Our results showed that across spruce plantations, the maximum water-holding capacity of 0-40 cm soil depth linearly, but not significantly, decreased with increasing stand age, from 2200 t/hm² in the 20-year-old spruce plantations to 2138 t/hm² in the 70-year-old spruce plantations, and the average annual rate of decline was 1.24 t/hm². In contrast, soil maximum water-holding capacity in the natural secondary forest varied nonlinearly with the increasing stand age, from 2142 t/hm² for 20 a to 2565 t/hm² for 40 a and 2302 t/hm² for 70 a. The correlation analysis revealed that differences in soil organic carbon, litter stock, and fine root biomass, which would affect soil physical structure, were the main factors leading to differences in soil water-holding capacity between spruce plantations and natural secondary forests. Overall, our results indicated that we should avoid establishing dense monoculture plantations on cutover land for restoration. Instead, afforestation of mixed broadleaf-conifer forests would be better for the improvement of soil structure and water-holding capacity.