Reply With QuoteCan I ask from where you learned this?
Has anybody else heard this? I mean, not that it matters as they only seem to sell unicorns anyway for the most part, but apparently 25x licenses including some Goldsmiths have been revoked. Is your local store going?
I guess if true, it’s part of a move to boutique dealerships and attempting to make the brand more exclusive again.
Personally, I’d rather they increased prices and doubled production. Demand would still massively outstrip supply, but the balance would be better.
Can I ask from where you learned this?
I actually read it on a Facebook group BUT then spoke to somebody in the industry, and they suggested they’d heard similar.Originally Posted by Halitosis
The Patek AD I'm on a list at has lost their status and moved me to a different store's list within the same group. Apparently they're sick and tired of lots of ADs with no stock so are consolidating to make sure the stores left have semi decent stock levels.
Same store has bought the shop next door and is doubling down on Rolex so I would imagine Rolex are doing the same. Commit to us and keep your status etc. Makes sense.
It would make sense and has been on the cards for a while, streamlining your distribution web and reducing the administration by having say ’50’ select locations not only makes accounting easier all round with invoices etc but also allows a more exclusive flow to clients.
Rolex won’t be high street in 3-5 years it will be like a Rolls Royce showroom, only appearing in the right places as they gently implement the transition to ultra exclusive
RIAC
I went to a Rolex event last month and during the pre dinner speech the guy from Rolex stressed they have some very good partnerships with there chosen dealers and Rolex have no intention of becoming a dealer
Using an AD network Rolex distance themselves from supply constraints.
I saw that post on the FB group yesterday. It’s slightly old news though as I’ve been reading about this for at least a year. Initially it was being claimed that they were closing the ‘town’ AD’s and concentrating on ‘city’ locations but it seems that ‘city’ ones are going as well. It’s happening all over the America as well so no doubt it’s a worldwide thing. I asked a couple of AD owners a while back about this and they were quite open about it being true.
Makes sense to consolidate a little bit though - London for example is mad with 2-3 dealers on one street in several areas
I think it’s more likely that 25% of ADs tell Rolex where to go because they’re fed up running expensive shops with nothing to sell.
I have been hearing rumours that Rolex are about to cull their ADs ever since the internet got up and running. Just like there is going to be a price increase sometime next week. 99% of it is just hot air.
Well goldsmith's in Leeds has gone now. Preston's is becoming a boutique. Bell brothers in Doncaster is going as seem a letter at my mates house.
Was told by manager at Goldsmiths Rolex are cutting the shops down and making one Rolex boutique in the cities. Not sure about London like.
So the allocation for Goldsmiths in Leeds was suppose to go to Sheffield but they not seen a sausage he seems to think it's gone Watches of Switzerland when I was in other day. So totally screwed now as that was who I had the relationship with.
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My local AD has just extended the Rolex side of the store, they have an enforced revamp of the Rolex side every few years.
Goldsmiths and WoS both owned by Aurum Group, so maybe not all is lostWell goldsmith's in Leeds has gone now. Preston's is becoming a boutique. Bell brothers in Doncaster is going as seem a letter at my mates house.
Was told by manager at Goldsmiths Rolex are cutting the shops down and making one Rolex boutique in the cities. Not sure about London like.
So the allocation for Goldsmiths in Leeds was suppose to go to Sheffield but they not seen a sausage he seems to think it's gone Watches of Switzerland when I was in other day. So totally screwed now as that was who I had the relationship with.
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Cambridge by any chance?
Very large unit in the new Victoria quarter in Leeds being developed by Preston's . Every window displaying large Rolex publicity posters
Yes I know they are, but what he was saying Sheffield not seen one watch from the Leeds allocation since the Goldsmiths Rolex AD went west.
So he assumes it has gone to London
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Last edited by bokbok; 3rd August 2019 at 11:25.
Apparently still got the same allocation Preston's so just folk coming pestering for sports models with Goldsmiths gone
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One near me has gone and now have a few in the window as”new but registered” at discount prices, another has downsized their window display, Edinburgh still seems to be as usual but not much available to walk in and buy.
Fair enough. I wonder if the writing is on the wall for HL Brown then in Sheffield and Doncaster?
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No idea saw a letter to mate was from bell brothers saying as loyal customer, Rolex are cutting ADs national and that one would be closing in Doncaster
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What does this do for wait lists then? Presumably if you have an expression of interest with either Goldsmiths or WoS you're chances of getting hold of a unicorn piece improves as more stock flows through these chains?
Nothing been screwed right over. I was on the expressed list at Leeds Goldsmiths and got purchase history. He said the card with your details goes to Sheffield but they will already have plenty on the list and no more allocation so what's chance of getting a call zero
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Doncaster no longer sell Rolex only Sheffield now, spoke to them on Thursday.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens on Glasgow then, because the WoS store is supposed to be going through the “Rolex boutique” transition over the next few months, which makes me wonder where that will leave Laing’s, who are the others Rolex AD in the city.
I guess could be part of the Rolex master plan.
Sounds like a good place, if you want to buy Rolex posters....
Yes, think the revamped showroom will be later in the year, not completely sure, need to pop in.
I know Rolex have made AD’s spend substantial money on shop refits/displays and in cases insisted on having the window display entirely dedicated to them - presumably there is some agreement in place r0 protect recent investments like this, so one would assume that these AD’s are safe for the moment.
Rolex have removed AD status from some long standing retiring AD’s which kind of makes sense when a business is sold, they’ve used that as an opportunity to not pass the agency to the new owner. However what that has done has made the business practically unsaleable so they’ve lost out another way.
Who knows maybe in :
2 years city locations only
4 years boutiques only
6 years internet only
8 years what’s a watch?
sounds about right from Preston's
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How will people ever sleep,,,
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
That's bizarre. Surely it is up to the manufacturer to make sure that their ADs are able to have plenty of stock! Let's remember that the manufacturers haven't had ADs forced on them: They have chosen each and every AD willingly, so if ADs have a lack of stock then it means that (a) the ADs are successfully selling whatever they can get and (b) the fault lies with the manufacturer for not fully supplying them properly.
Cutting down on the number of ADs (when the manufacturer has willingly signed them up and they are successfully selling all that they are able to) to solve this problem of lack of supply is a very, very strange way to go about it.
Sounds like a business in trouble to me
Hmm... I wonder if Rolex are preparing for a future in which they just sell far fewer watches (not necessarily at massively higher price points than at present).
In other words, have they concluded that their market is diminishing (or overwhelmingly likely to diminish in in the short to medium future) and they should adapt now, before it's too late.
Have we reached peaked Rolex? ;-)
Just a thought.
Yes, indeed. Or, as I moot above, a business that has recognised that the world is changing and that its traditional product, popular though it is at present, will become relatively less popular as time goes on, potentially at a surprisingly rapid rate (almost regardless of price point).
Suspect the answer is going to be a series of price hoiks (I was told today by a previously accurate source to expect 11% UK raise in Sept) as they position themselves against AP and Patek in terms of desirability and prestige and the void gets taken up by Tudor.
Sounds like the present state of affairs! I hadn't noticed this before on the website, but at least Rolex is acknowledging the situation.
We should blame all the people who have bought Tudors and got Rolex thinking this way. If they will buy inferior Tudors at Rolex prices then Rolex must be worth more...
I know a few people who could afford to, and might consider, dropping £5-7k on a watch. I don't think I know anybody who would be in the market for £12-15k (for a stainless steel watch).
It's all well Rolex trying to be more exclusive but if you are trying to shift, what is it, 800,000 watches a year, you do need quite a big market, I would have thought.
But they wont. By positioning against AP and Patek the exclusivity pushes demand and prices. Happy to sell 400k a year watches at double price instead. It's what Hermes does.
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Where is the evidence that Rolex is trying to move into a ‘higher’ category? And why would they?
They have a unique choke-hold on the ‘upper middle’ market. No competitor is even in the same race. And this sector can deliver more profit than any other...because of the numbers of potential buyers.
There are 1.2 billion people in China. If only one-per-cent are potential customers, that’s ten times more than Rolex’s entire production.
There’s an old business saying . ‘Stick to your knitting’....that seems to be exactly what Rolex are doing.
Fair dos, if that's their business model.
Mark as a simple Rolex owner I feel they have taken some time to witness the rise of the grey mkt. Even as a charity they have found the grey mkt profit hard to stomach. They are then left in a dilemma, “how did these watches get to the grey mkt?” Answer AD’s who have to move metal to generate cash and survive. So in a darkened room they realised , in order to reduce the grey mkt, reduce AD’s move more in house, then , and this is the trick, reduce supply.
Having studied at the same school as the marketer’s of Birkin bags and aspirations to take on PP they strangle supply, keep advertising eg this months GQ and then drive up the retail price as has been alluded to above many fold.
Long term, the brand repositions itself as an ever more exclusive brand and the world goes on.
1% of Chinese people cant afford Rolex, end of. China is a massive country where working folk often take a 5 day train ride home from where they work to see their family.
In the UK we have appx 65 million folk somewhat better off, we are more developed, do we hit 3% 200,000 Rolex owners? Dont think so. Maybe in London and the Home Counties but OOP North not so.
Speaking to a very high up person in Goldsmiths he admitted that as of last FY watches accounted for more than 75% of turnover for them-I was astounded.
Good post/rationale.
The biggest thing with Rolex I believe is that as their “business” model (trust/charity) is somewhat unique and they can basically do whatever the heck they want and often clearly do.
They’ve been starving the market ever more and the results are clear to see in the grey market. The hike in RRP for certain Patek models (5711 etc) has totally failed in removing that dynamic so why would any Rolex strategy work any better for their brand?
Personally hope “my” AD are ok to retain their Rolex franchise as I get fabulous service and they’re a pleasure to deal with.
The policy does not work, and it will never work.
I bought my first Rolex 30 years ago from a short (3 months) 'list' and I paid list price. Grey dealers were almost non-existent/invisible.
Zip forward to today and the intervening period. I can buy anything from the catalogue if I am prepared to spend the money on the open market. The only difference is the premium to do so has got bigger for this to occur.
If you are happy to do it, crack on.
For me, there is no pleasure in the ownership under these circumstances anymore. There are 12 year old kids from overseas wearing them openly in and around London any day of the week. They are not watch nerds, they do not share the hobby, nor do they appreciate the ownership.
If that is what you chase then enjoy,
Last edited by Chris_in_the_UK; 3rd August 2019 at 20:54.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
So where is the evidence that Rolex has been ‘starving the market?’ As best I can tell, there isn’t any. The shortages are caused by a relentless growth in consumer demand. Even if Rolex wanted to, it takes time to step-up production.
It’s interesting how people post highly speculative guesses, only to see them turned into ‘fact’ on the forums. No-one here knows what Rolex are planning. No-one.
You seem to forget that this is a simple difference in scale from 30-40 years ago.
There is no relentless growth - you could pretty much buy what yo want tomorrow if you had the cash.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
I think the evidence is that you could go in to any one of hundreds of Rolex ADs in the UK tomorrow and you’d be unable to buy a Steel Submariner, Seadweller, GMT, Explorer and so on. Not one dealer, in the whole country.
5 years ago that wasn’t the case. And yet as a nation in the last 5 years we’ve not all won the lottery, had huge pay rises and all wearing Rolex. We’ve also seen the rise of Smart watches, and rappers today aren’t talking about Rollies, but Hublot, AP, Mille and Patek. So the youth aren’t buying them all.
Now some say all the stock is going to grey dealers but it doesn’t look like it. I remember Chronext launching and we had offer codes here, they loads of in stock steel Rolex, selling at a discount, available immediately. As did Iconic. Between those two dealers there’s two new steel Submariners available. Two.
If that’s not a starved market I don’t what is.
I’d also add the UK Rolex ADs also have full displays of steel Tudors with in house movements. So I don’t buy the idea Rolex SA can’t manufacture enough watches to fill AD displays, they clearly can, just under a different brand name.
That’s not really evidence though. What has happened Is that demand has rocketed and I really mean rocketed - 10 fold, 50 fold, 100 fold, whatever. All these watches available 5 years ago simply aren’t available now as the AD could sell them 50 times over (especially a Daytona). I’ve been in an AD for a couple of hours and the phone has rung half a dozen times ask for a SS professional- multiply that over a week. There was talk last year that Rolex reduced the supply by 20% or so but no one has ever confirmed whether that was true or just another ‘Rolex urban myth’.
The really sad thing about this is I’d put money on it that the majority of these people are only trying to buy so they can flog it for a profit!
Just because you don't know, doesn't mean everyone else doesn't. There's a least one person on this very thread who knows someone who works for the company and who sometimes shares info. If you want to ignore that insight because it doesn't support your personal hypothesis though, go right ahead.
Agreed.👍
Fortunately the better ADs are increasingly able to sniff out those you are only interested in buying the so called “hot watches” to sell on at a discount.
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