Reply With QuoteNot in the UK surely.
I've just read in the Guardian that Rolex sales have plummeted this year
Does this mean the end for inflated prices on Rolex watches ?
Not in the UK surely.
Post Brexit record U.K sales of Swiss watches was reported, on a worldwide whole though mechanical watch sales have been down.
Well that's what I've read!
Sales have been weak in Asia, mainly China and Hong Kong. Main reasons are a weaker economy and the Chinese government's crackdown on corruption. On the other side, the UK has seen a huge boost by a combination of a well-advertised price-hike and the weak pound, which has supported sale of watches to tourists.
I think its a given that Rolex unit sales would be up in the UK, given the strength of the pound etc. and all the Chinese tourists making high end purchases in the UK.
what I am surprised at is the global decline in unit sales, this is the number that Rolex would be interested in, as any transient buyers would even out.
to be fair, I dont think any of the Rolex board will be homeless anytime soon.
Any links to this article?
(I did find this other article: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/artic...ss-watch-sales)
Last edited by Alansmithee; 14th December 2016 at 09:26.
A strong pound does nothing for domestic sales and it is an impediment to tourist sales. In fact, a strong pound is bad for domestic sales as it creates an incentive to import watches from abroad, which are counted as sales in the foreign country rather than the UK.Originally Posted by soundood
But thanks for your contribution.
I was just searching Guardian website and couldn't find the story
Talking of Rolex,
I found a great watch case, the company do them in any number of pockets and personalise the cases with your initials.
I think you may have mis-interpreted Dood's post there Raffe.
I think he meant the current weakness of the pound when referring to its strength. His post makes perfect sense then and recent history (12-18 months) reflects this.
It wasn't too long ago that everyone was jumping on a plane to buy their Rolex cheap in Europe, now it's the reverse!
Posted a link to a business in Licolnshire, comes from Lincolnshire. Now banned and added to spammers blacklist.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
You've gotta love swift justice!
Recent price hike and not so interesting exchange rate now. Two months ago pound was 1,09 vs . Right now is 1.19
Sub 114060 is 5450£ which is around 6500 today. Retail in Eu is 6900 , but you can easily find one in EU for those 6500.
The exchange rate in the summer, between the vote and the Tory party conference was around 1.19 too. The recent recoveries have only undone the effect of the Hard Brexit chat of the early autumn.
Richard Mille seems to be unaffected
https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/ha...-strong-demand
I bet that Rolex sales are doing better than Guardian sales, though...........
Really? That's great! Could you confirm you have no affiliation to the company?
Edit: Beaten to the punch by Eddie. Can't we have fun with them first??
We only beat you by 11 hours!
Perhaps they would sell more if more were available to buy? On a watch forum we have a thread that people let it be known they have seen a non limited edition, bog standard steel model in windows and members fall over themselves to buy them. I wanted one of the new Explorers before the price hike and was put on a waiting list with one AD and told by another the model is on so high demand they're not adding any more names to the waiting list....for an Explorer!! If the Grey markey can sell Daytonas for £5k over what Rolex charge for them surely Roles would sell more damn watches if they weren't held in some mythical status of unavailabilty...
I wish.
As others have said, sales have dropped in some other countries. Not UK.
Absolutely spot on in my opinion.
The (frankly) ridiculous myths that surround this company and the methods it employs to raise the desirability of watches it could already sell ten times over is beyond a joke. I like Rolex. I don't like the fact that so often we, as a community, spend so much time reading into things that are just not there.
It is height of stupidity and cluelessness to think that glutting the market with a product is a viable long term strategy.
^^^
This may be true but surely you can go too far in making the product so hard to obtain? I think there is a balance somewhere between starving a market of the product you try to make a living from producing and ensuring you sell enough of your products to remain a sustainable business.
So Tudor in so many ways.
It would seem that Rolex have found that balance point and have been successfully exploiting that knowledge for quite some time!
"A" grade fake is also a very serious issue.
The market is not straving. Only a couple of models.
Brexit and its effect on GBP made it tough to find sports Rolex in UK for a while but now getting back to normal,it seems.
Last edited by RAJEN; 15th December 2016 at 12:08.
You are right Rajen and I agree as this is a much more plausible and genuine reason for the shortage of certain models in the UK. It is when the shortages are misinterpreted as Rolex witholding models intentionally that I feel that the mythology is beyond credible.
Fake news.
Indeed - and recent reports actually show an increase in the last quarter in the Far East as far as I'm aware.
Whether sales "plummet" or not... new prices certainly won't.
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