No chance unless you pay 15K plus grey
Hi, my *ahem* 40th birthday is less than a year away. I currently own a lovely Rolex Sub date, but have been considering a new watch (it will be a replacement rather than addition unfortunately), so was considering selling the sub to put toward a ceramic daytona - I can see that the list price is c£10k but it seems that stock is so limited that 'as new' go fo a lot more than that. Is it realistic to put my name down for one to get within a year? - clearly I could go ask my local dealers but wondered if anyone had done so recently. I'm London based but with easy access to international markets (HK, US, Dubai and around Europe) if that makes a difference.
Thanks in advance for any tips or comments
Jack
No chance unless you pay 15K plus grey
Or your mum happens to be the manageress of the local Goldsmiths
That's what I feared... thanks for confirming!
Unfortunately not, but on that - how much influence does a dealer actually have. Is that just that they get very limited stock and will prioritise their best customers?
Any comments on the international angles also welcome - though I don't suppose it's much different elsewhere.
You’ve picked the hardest Rolex to get. Even if you were a very good customer of an AD I’d imagine it would take a lot longer than a year to get from first enquiring. To get one quickly I’d imagine your have to be almost the best customer of the best customers so to speak - in other words have spent a fortune.
I was reading on forums that the ‘new’ thing seems to be buy a day date 40 for example and we’ll also sell you a Daytona. That’s in the U.S. but wouldn’t surprise me if similar happens here.
There are suggestions on various watch forums that managers decide who gets the Watch and temptation must surely exist. Sell to a complete stranger who just happens to be next on the list or sell to a friend who will turn £10k into £16k within 24 hours and split the profits.
I would love to believe that this doesn't happen.
I paid around 15k from the US in July. The usual UK greys were fast approaching 18K at the time.
I presume I will get my money back or thereabouts in X amount of years if I sell hence didnt mind overpaying. I also made a few grand on my 116520 which helped my decision.
Its a keeper anyway unless a nicer SS Daytona comes out!
Last edited by kultschar; 27th November 2018 at 21:45.
My advice is simple........don’t do it!
You own a nice watch that you like and have some history with. Forget the Daytona at silly money, keep the Sub and buy something nice to go with it.
40 might seem like a milestone, but it passes and fades into insignificance. No need to mark it by making a big fuss and potentially an expensive mistake. Easy for me to say, I’m 61 next and I’ve seen 40th, 50th and 60th come and go. Build a nice collection and play the long game.
Why buy another Rolex sports?.........once you look beyond the hype of the sports models they do some rather nice stuff. keep the Sub and spend a few K on something different........do the same again when you’re 50...and 60!
Paul
In direct answer to the OP’s question. I doubt it. Best bet is get lucky at an airport.
Not a hope based on the buying history you mention.
I tried in London at the weekend and got told all lists were pretty much closed. I also got told by a different AD that if I wanted the new gmt2 red/blue I would need to have spent £100k with them!
Personally if it's going to be a keeper then I'd avoid Rolex, unless you genuinely like the watch there are far more iconic watches to spend your money on, certainly the Speedmaster, El Primero, Navitimer and Chronomat spring to mind as watches with as good if not more history but not the residuals of an ss daytona. Most are half the cost or less and so would probably allow you to keep your sub too.
I thought this was a bit of urban myth but a youngish sales bloke in the AD in Horsham did say exactly that to me around a year ago when I enquired about a BLNR, before I’d found one.
Also said they were only selling to ‘local’ customers. I was tempted to ask if he had any ‘special’ sausages but didn’t..
I bought a Daytona 14 years ago and I had to wait longer than a year then! I think it was nearer 3 years.
If it’s something you really want just find a local AD that’s prepared to accept names, when I went on the list it was a £100 deposit, and just sit back and forget about it, put the cash in a ISA and hope it keeps track of Rolex price increases and wait for the call.
Get on the list and apply to have your DOB changed like the chap in the news recently?
Seriously though I don’t understand the fuss with the Daytona, if it said Timex on the dial and looked identical would everyone be falling over themselves to buy one? I just think the majority of buyers are on the Rolex ‘must have’ hype train. It’s one of the most illegible watches to use too.
Honestly a better place to be is on the platform, feet firmly on the ground browsing through more legible, attainable offerings. Even the speedmaster is so much more classy and usable and you could probably buy 7 of them for friends and family on the used market for the price of a used Daytona.
Hype brewed by the internet and instagram.
I can understand someone that’s always had them and they’re reliable and accurate and buys one at rrp and keeps it forever but that’s not the way of the majority bought these days, just look at the various for sale forums online... full of regret and people that can’t really afford to own these things.
Buy a used Vacheron Overseas. Far nicer watch and take the initial depreciation out by buying a mint used example.
That money will buy you a very nice vintage Heuer chrono which will look much more special. You'll even have cash left over for a decent holiday to mark your 40th.
Alternatively, at the risk of being boring, 10k in your pension now will make a significant different to your standard of living in retirement or retirement date.
Much better watches to spend £10k on, even more so if you spend £15k at a grey. I never understood the Daytona hype. And you could have it for your birthday.
Get yourself on a list for a new Daytona, and you'll probably have it in time for your 50th birthday. In the meanwhile, buy a used 520 to keep you amused. When the 500 finally arrives, pay for it by selling the 520 (and without losing a penny on its ownership)
That doesn't seem such a bad deal, until you realise that there is no such thing as a stainless steel day date 40. :(
Edit: I thought I had a line on a ceramic Daytona a month or so ago, but no go, so I spent my watch money on a better watch for just over half the price.
Last edited by doctorj; 28th November 2018 at 13:17.
Funnily enough, I asked the sales lady at my local AD “what if you wanted to buy a Daytona for your Husband or son?”
She said that she would not be allowed. Even any of the other highly desirable models would require special permission from head office, and she’d only be able to buy 1.
I have both the black dialled ceramic SS Daytona and the white dialled ceramic SS daytona. The black dialled one, I got fairly quickly in July 2016 from an overseas Rolex AD who I have purchased from in the past. It came about as an accident really as I was buying a PP5712 and just happened to mention that I was looking for a SS Ceramic Daytona. One of their other stores had just had one delivered and the manager of the store I buy from managed to get it shipped to me to purchase the next day.
The white dialled one was more difficult to get - it arrived in April this year, I have a good relationship with UK Rolex AD and know the manager and deputy manager very well. They have delivered quite a few hard to get Rolex models over the years. The white dialled SS Ceramic Daytona from them took 2 years from launch date to get.
To the original OP, I would say you have no chance of getting a ceramic SS Daytona in the next year through an AD.
Daytonas are a beautiful watch but I just found it boring to wear. The wife, however, likes wearing it and she doesn't have to bother re setting the date when she puts it on for the first time in a week or two. So it's hers now and not mine.
My favourite watch is surprisingly one of Rolex's worst sellers, the Explorer11 1655 which back in the 1980's you could barely give away. I just find it a lovely watch to wear.
I think the joy of the Daytona appeals more to collectors rather than to wearers. The kick is just owning it, not wearing it. The last time I wore it was for pure posuering purposes. I wore it on a boat in Valencia sipping gin and tonics during a F1 racing event. Daytonas were everywhere.
Always that contradiction with the Daytona, the supposedly most exclusive watch in the world but can be found at every grey/secondhand dealer anywhere in the world and on the wrists of so many.
You can understand why the PP nautilus and aquanaut have risen in demand as wearers start to look for a more exclusive wrist presence in the ocean of Daytonas.
Back to the question....no, it's not a realistic option. Buy something else.
Btw: it's the world's most in demand watch; whether people on the forum like it is irrelevent.