My take on the "so called"current Rolex shortage or supply/demand phenomenon is summed up as follows: Rolex is still producing watches like they always have. They have a business model and their year-end results has to show that they are a healthy Co. There has been no indication other wise. So whats happening to all these watches being produced? The answer is simply 2 fold in nature. 1) They look after their biggest markets first. China, Middle East and others are big black holes that swallow up the biggest and best Rolex can produce and the rest of the market lives off the crumbs. some of you have commented that they have seen stock in fair amount when travelling abroad to these money pits, and we only have to walk into our own AD's to see what the situation is. The american gun market works the same. There is such demand in the US, that many other countries get limited/late supply once the Americans had their fill, I have experienced this first hand in Africa /Australia. 2) As you know the flipper market is huge, and these traders buy up stock when ever its available before the regular guy even gets a chance to look at something worthwhile. At least they leave us the unpopular/polarizing models which is what you see when you walk past your AD's 20 foot window and see this lonesome little gold/diamond encrusted model sitting there with nothing else in sight. They have the money and they can take 2 to 3 items at a time. This mob has one purpose only ... fuel the fires of shortage and impatience and sell these items at a premium to those who have enough money and just have to have that sports model NOW. No need to elaborate on this ... you all know what those sought after models sell for. Sometimes double the retail price. And you know where they are sold because we all scan those markets every evening when we get home from work. With the HH fiasco and all the pitfalls that go with buying a $20k item on line ... ill be surprised if there is not a significant down turn in going this route with sensible buyers opting out of this online pitfall. The big white elephant in the room is simply this: THERE ARE 1000's OF HIGH QUALITY FAKES ALREADY IN CIRCULATION AND MANY DONT EVEN KNOW THEY HAVE ONE... and will either keep their head in the sands of denial or wait a while for the dust to settle and try move it on to you. Which brings me to the this new Rolex model "The Holiday" recently released, which is the the only foolproof sensible model to buy if i was you ... and this is how you can get one of your own... Book a 2 week holiday to a big market country where there is stock aplenty waiting for rich bored people to buy them like you and I would buy lunch. Buy yourself a 100% authentic Rolex from an AD where you can actually touch and feel what your getting. Lay on the beach enjoying pina coladas and admiring your new watch in total peace of mind.. dont forget to claim your tourist tax to offset your plane ticket ... and send me a postcard
Maybe he's referring to the Maspalomas Rolex AD. I saw a new steel Datejust 36 there on stock. Not a black though, nor any 41mm's , only a blue one. Maybe that counts as "stocked" nowadays. ...and I didn't even get a Pina Colada.
Hear Wuhan is cheap at the moment....... 1) Their year end doesn’t need to be healthy as they are not a public company 2) These black holes don’t exist as there is no SS sports watches in Dubai or the UAE and China is Gold and Two Tone DateJust Heaven with even less SS sports watches. As I have said before, their plan is to sell the millions of DateJusts that they were stuck with when the China gifts rules changed and the economy in China slumped a few years ago at the same time. ( why else would you need to buy 3 to get a SS sports watch )
Just more silly conjecture. The only firm fact is no AD has any desirable SS models in stock. Glad to see a guy with a handful of posts has it all figured out.
@Porker thinking rules for publicly held companies apply to private trusts.... your cute. Ohh and everything you stated is completely wrong.
I don’t understand why people are making the HH scam the example reason to suddenly not buy on the online grey market — these types of scams have always existed and you should always be weary of doing business with someone you’ve never met. The run on excuses and unusually quick reply times during the initial phase of the sale are the indicators for me from past experiences (was scammed on eBay), but maybe it’s just that, you don’t really know until you’ve experienced it... in retrospect it’s easy to pick out the moments where something didn’t feel right. OP, any proof that these magic ADs in money pit land actually exist or you just trying to poke at the fire with this post?
I travel internationally as many here do. I make a point to stop in every airport Rolex/Omega/etc shop when I have time. My experience has been the same everywhere around the world, all Rolex stores are very barren and empty. It reminds me of stories I hear of communist situations where people cannot buy anything due to lack of available inventory. There is something very strange going on, and I highly doubt any of us 2-finger-keyboard-clicking-internet-warriors has a real clue what it's really all about. Fun to speculate and read the conspiracy theorists...
Every time I stop into a boutique and ask about ss sport watches, the employee just starts laughing and pointing at me, and calling their friends over...
Start a thread and then not follow up on comments? Bizarre behaviour, unless....................... You're a troll
When I lived in Melbourne, Australia from 1996 to 2001 I used to visit The Hour Glass on Collins St at least once a week.....the right hand window was the Rolex display and they ALWAYS had steel Subs and GMTs on display for sale. (But even back then I never remember seeing any steel Daytona's on display and I don't think they were holding them back, either. They were in short supply even then). Of course I never bought any of the steel sport Rolex's, I should have been buying them and just tucking them away for a rainy 2020 day. And the bonus was the exchange rate was at 1 AUD = 50 US cents around the year 2000. Screaming bargains. But today, zip, nada, zero in any AD's display case anywhere in the world. I need a time machine.
The local AD for time machines advised me that they are clean out of stock - all sold to Rolex collectors.
ah don't feel bad. Maybe it's gonna eventually end sorta like the beanie babies craze where entire collections are now worth zilch
