Rolex doesn't own and operate any boutiques. They, currently, work through partners like Torneau, Bucherer, WoS, Seddiqi, etc.
Thanks for posting. Great video with great advice, and it echoes what a lot of people are feeling now.
It's funny but I immediately thought the same thing when he mentioned that his friend was unable to get a blue dial OP: just get a Seamaster AT instead. It was as if he read my mind.
Don't get me wrong, I think Rolex makes some beautiful watches and has some iconic designs which were innovative in their day, but I just don't have the time or inclination to play those sorts of games just to get one. And it's stories like this that are beginning to turn me off Rolex as a brand.
1 1956Well I wasn’t far off the mark about China. Just viewed a YouTube channel called Uptick Watch Reviews. It’s a French watch collector living in Honkers who tours around all the after-market watch shops there. You gotta see it. Hundreds of Rolex (and every other brand) spanning new Subs, Daytona’s, GMT’s OP’s, (lots of Patek sports too). He shows new Rolex being delivered to AD’s then taken across the road, literally wheeled across the road on a warehouse trolly boxes unopened, to a grey-market store where they are offered at the new marked up price. In a video from early 2021 he records the grey-market sales person saying the watches came straight from that AD business as usual Chinese style.
I find it hard to believe Rolex SA doesn’t know this is happening! Also many of the second hand subs are way cheaper than say on Chrono24. e.g. 2017 Sub no-date 70,000 HKD, thousands of US $ cheaper than watches on that same site with H.K. dealer locations.
So finally (for me anyways) an answer to why our AD’s don’t have stock, why there are so many new Rolex on the grey sites and why ppl have to pay $15k plus for a watch I bought in 2006 for $3k which is just sick!
1 1956Yep too true.
I was talking to a Patek watchmaker, who does the official servicing here, about dive watches and he said that Rolex was a better made watch than Omega ten years ago but not now. Omega has really stepped up and I’d be as well off with a Planet Ocean as a Submariner for what I want it for which is surfing and reef snorting/spear fishing. Many don’t realise that 300m+ water resist is need for use in breaking wave environments which really narrows down the field.
I respectfully disagree with your assessment of water ratings.
Sure no problem just repeating what the watchmaker told me and thought it made sense as I’ve already had two SEIKO divers pop in the surf one was 100m rated the other 200m oh and a tag but that was seaweed pulling the bracelet off. AnywaysI’m still getting the Planet Ocean with a nice safe nato.😀
1 1956Well I wasn’t far off the mark about China. Just viewed a YouTube channel called Uptick Watch Reviews. It’s a French watch collector living in Honkers who tours around all the after-market watch shops there. You gotta see it. Hundreds of Rolex (and every other brand) spanning new Subs, Daytona’s, GMT’s OP’s, (lots of Patek sports too). He shows new Rolex being delivered to AD’s then taken across the road, literally wheeled across the road on a warehouse trolly boxes unopened, to a grey-market store where they are offered at the new marked up price. In a video from early 2021 he records the grey-market sales person saying the watches came straight from that AD business as usual Chinese style.
I find it hard to believe Rolex SA doesn’t know this is happening! Also many of the second hand subs are way cheaper than say on Chrono24. e.g. 2017 Sub no-date 70,000 HKD, thousands of US $ cheaper than watches on that same site with H.K. dealer locations.
So finally (for me anyways) an answer to why our AD’s don’t have stock, why there are so many new Rolex on the grey sites and why ppl have to pay $15k plus for a watch I bought in 2006 for $3k which is just sick!
Then there's the pseudo-sophisticated tortoise-paced mouth-breathing-onto-the-microphone creeps. Or the channels with meatheads that rip people off flaunting it to the very people they are ripping off. No wonder rolex needs to turn away most of the worms that crawl into their shops.
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It may just take a while and you're not the center of the universe. The less you get angry and stomp your feet the faster you're likely to get the watch.
Travelling through Schiphol airport in Amsterdam today and with time on my hands I popped into the AD here. Those little 'display only' signs were everywhere. I spoke to the sales guy and they had 1 yes only one, watch for sale, a 31mm datejust.
I am truly amazed that an AD in one of the busiest airports in Europe had effectively zero stock.
This echos last week where I visited the AD in my closest city, a jewelers where I purchased my wife's engagement ring and eternity ring and where my parents were long time customers, he had nothing he could sell me either, didn't even have a 'list' he could put me on, couldn't even place an order for me, so he said, although he then said he had a reseller who had ordered 2 full sets of the new coloured OP's, 16 watches in total🙁, that fairly put me in my box, a low-key single watch customer.
Both sales guys were polite, apologetic and advised me to 'keep trying'.
I genuinely would like an 36mm non date OP but as I am completely unwilling to pay the grey premium it certainly won't be happening anytime soon, or maybe ever, it left a bit of a bad taste.
Travelling through Schiphol airport in Amsterdam today and with time on my hands I popped into the AD here. Those little 'display only' signs were everywhere. I spoke to the sales guy and they had 1 yes only one, watch for sale, a 31mm datejust.
I am truly amazed that an AD in one of the busiest airports in Europe had effectively zero stock.
This echos last week where I visited the AD in my closest city, a jewelers where I purchased my wife's engagement ring and eternity ring and where my parents were long time customers, he had nothing he could sell me either, didn't even have a 'list' he could put me on, couldn't even place an order for me, so he said, although he then said he had a customer who had ordered 2 full sets of the new coloured OP's, 16 watches in total🙁, that fairly put me in my box, a low-key single watch customer.
Both sales guys were polite, apologetic and advised me to 'keep trying'.
I genuinely would like an 36mm non date OP but as I am completely unwilling to pay the grey premium it certainly won't be happening anytime soon, or maybe ever, it left a bit of a bad taste.
I had a very similar experience. One AD near me outright acknowledged that while they don't participate in the practice 🙄 other ADs sell to known resellers in exchange for a certain percentage of grey market profits.
