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Archer
路路Omega Qualified WatchmakerRolex doesn't need any excuse to raise prices - they just do it and people keep buying. It wasn't all that long ago when I considered picking up a new SD but thinking that $4k was just too much for that watch...how times have changed. 馃檮
If I take a well known AD for many high end brands in Toronto as an example, Rolex is the only brand that requires them to create a little boutique separate from all the other brands they carry, in it's own little room. It has it's own specified d茅cor, and numbers I've heard thrown around for the renovations to create Rolex's required space are anywhere from $500K to $750K and by looking at the finishes they used I can believe those numbers easily.
Keep in mind that the other brands this store carries include watches that put Rolex to shame in just about every way imaginable, so JLC, AP, ALS, Breguet, VC...as well as Omega...
Rolex has similar requirements for watchmakers, although clearly not as extravagant. They require specific square footages, specific counter top materials, etc. along with things like specific equipment that many brands also require to actually do the work.
In both cases they use these elaborate requirements to get both AD's and watchmakers to drop their accounts by not being able to meet their "updated" requirements. One watchmaker recounted an experience his friend had with losing their parts account because his working space was a few square feet short of the latest requirements - we're not talking about a lot of space, but Rolex requirements are completely rigid so close is not enough. The fact that they had been repairing Rolex watches there without issue for decades, and that this extra space would not materially change how the work was done meant absolutely nothing.
To meet the requirement (this was at a Rolex AD in the US by the way) they would have to take away from the jewelry repair area, and that was already so small they couldn't do it. Rolex said tough luck - now the AD sends all repairs to the factory, takes their cut of the service price, and the watchmaker is out of a job...
I don't put much past Rolex - they are the most cut throat brand you could possibly imagine.
Cheers, Al
If I take a well known AD for many high end brands in Toronto as an example, Rolex is the only brand that requires them to create a little boutique separate from all the other brands they carry, in it's own little room. It has it's own specified d茅cor, and numbers I've heard thrown around for the renovations to create Rolex's required space are anywhere from $500K to $750K and by looking at the finishes they used I can believe those numbers easily.
Keep in mind that the other brands this store carries include watches that put Rolex to shame in just about every way imaginable, so JLC, AP, ALS, Breguet, VC...as well as Omega...
Rolex has similar requirements for watchmakers, although clearly not as extravagant. They require specific square footages, specific counter top materials, etc. along with things like specific equipment that many brands also require to actually do the work.
In both cases they use these elaborate requirements to get both AD's and watchmakers to drop their accounts by not being able to meet their "updated" requirements. One watchmaker recounted an experience his friend had with losing their parts account because his working space was a few square feet short of the latest requirements - we're not talking about a lot of space, but Rolex requirements are completely rigid so close is not enough. The fact that they had been repairing Rolex watches there without issue for decades, and that this extra space would not materially change how the work was done meant absolutely nothing.
To meet the requirement (this was at a Rolex AD in the US by the way) they would have to take away from the jewelry repair area, and that was already so small they couldn't do it. Rolex said tough luck - now the AD sends all repairs to the factory, takes their cut of the service price, and the watchmaker is out of a job...
I don't put much past Rolex - they are the most cut throat brand you could possibly imagine.
Cheers, Al
