Omega taking "Uncompromising action against grey market dealers"

As previously mentioned, Swatch or Omega can do nothing against the grey market seller. In fact, there was a case that went to the US Supreme Court involving Costco selling grey market watches. For a couple of years, Omegas disappeared from Costco shelves.

Now, they are advertised on Costco's web store. Apparently, they have made peace.

The issue here is who is selling the watches to Costco? IIRC from the old Supreme Court case, Omega tried to argue that non-AD retailers violated Omega's copyright rather than any sort of agreement. The court split 4-4 (one Justice had to recuse -- they were involved in the lower court case before being nominated to the SC), therefore, the 9th Circuit case was upheld, and it became technically illegal for Costco to sell Omegas in that Circuit (west coast of US).

Omega probably has some action to take against the AD who sold the watch to Costco, likely outside the US. We don't know the nature of the agreement that Omega has with AD's, nor do we know whether the law in another country would provide any remedy for Omega against that AD or not. You just can't assume anything here.

With respect to Rolex vs. Omega on the subject of sales volume and distribution, I think that the companies are run very differently due to the nature of their corporate structure. Swatch is a public company, very much interested in keeping their stock price as high as possible. This means that the stock price is going to raise and fall based on sales growth and profitability. More production pushed out to dealers means higher sales numbers in the financial statements, even if it has to be returned (or turned over to the grey market) later on.

See Richemont for what eventually happens when you produce too much and force excess product down your AD's collective throats.

Rolex, on the other hand, is run by a private charitable foundation.I do not believe that Rolex profits after salaries and costs are subject to income tax in Switzerland or anywhere else. I'm sure the company is quite profitable at their current sales volume. So long as the founding family and the employees are happy with their compensation packages, there is no great pressure by the financial markets to grow or not. Management of Rolex is free to make production decisions based on market forces and not on the effect on investors' portfolios.

Again, I don't think there is much Omega can do about the grey market. Even Rolex has to deal with it. Sounds like a lot of saber-rattling to me.
gatorcpa