Lie, of course it is!
Whilst out walking the hounds today i bumped in to one of the sales guys who works in the local AD, lovely chap who I've known for some years who also lives in the same village. As always we got around to watch nonsense and was asking if the current stock levels have improved….after he stopped laughing he was telling me about hoops that Rolex are making them jump through.
They are Rolex repair accredited and had 2 fully trained techs and have just put 2 more through the qualifications. After spending 2 mill totally changing their showroom several years ago they’ve now been dropped the bombshell that they have to fork out a further 150k with improvements to the workshops.
He then said about their stock levels, they should have around 125-150 in stock and have currently only 12. 10 ladies which are all gold and 2 gents 41 DJS which they’ve been told they cant sell. They’ve also just been told that they have to get 40 in stock to be used as window demonstrators only and are also not allowed to sell. These are all proper watches, not the hollow ones with no movements which they have to purchase and not be given.
They also sell Bremont, GS, Seiko, TAG ( which are apparently flying ) Longines and a few others. It got me thinking that if i was the owner id be telling Rolex to Far cough. What is the point of being a Rolex dealer given the above, why not just wind it up and get Omega IWC etc which would also sell.
They currently get given around 20 new models a month from Rolex which are gone instantly, take away the lost time they have with hundreds a calls a month enquiring about models etc i see no logical reason to be a Rolex AD.