Regarding the use of 'My AD'.
There is a vague whiff of nouveau-riche on this forum. I find it harmless, at worst charmless.
Exhibit B, the OP's OP:
'Me and the wife were discussing our (surely he means my) collection of wristwatches over a bottle of Pauillac and came to the same conclusion: I am a success. Synergy'.
No wonder everyone’s up in arms!
Originally Posted by Fender
<chortle>
I think that you're oversimplifying relationships. If the retailer you use is just that then there is no emotional attachment. If however, emotional attachments are formed, such as friendships, then the reference "my AD" can apply. I've never used the reference "my AD" but I did make friends with the retailer that I dealt with and I'm still friends with him even though he works for a different company.
In reply to the OP's question, if the relationship is important to him then in my view the simplest solution is to put on one of the older watches, go and visit the dealer and have an informal discussion about how he's trying to convince himself that the watch he's wearing is worth keeping and ask the dealers thoughts on the matter. Should be easy to judge from that point on which route to take. I say this as a non Rolex owner who doesn't like the brand but appreciates the value of business relationships, whether formal or informal.
My 2 cents;
(i) If someone is worried the staff at the AD will be personally upset that he sold a watch, then that's just a bit silly IMO.
(ii) If someone is worried that the AD policy and/or staff will not sell additional models that they actually want, as they now classify that person as a flipper, that's a reasonable concern.
I personally find the idea of going to an AD to talk about my thoughts of what I should do with my property to be a very odd notion in either scenario. In fact I'll outright say I would not do that. However I absolutely would consider hanging on to the watch for a couple years to not fall foul of the general rule of thumb, if I deemed that delay to be worthwhile to getting a future product I really wanted.
This is all personal opinion of course.
Unless you desperately need the money, keep them (at least 2 plus years)
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
“A vague whiff”?
It hangs over this place like an old dog’s flatus.
The more I read this thread I’m starting to think that Stockholm Syndrome is in play.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This thread is excellent. (And you thought tz-uk was about watches? Maybe you thought the same about Rolex.)
OK, serious question: do people really sign something saying they won't sell within a specified time limit? If so, presumably the consequence is that the AD blacklists you and you can kiss your chances of getting the call goodbye.
Is that right? Is that actually a thing, as the kids say?
And if so, I hope Eddie is listening ha ha.
Honestly, though, it is a bit silly, isn't it?
It falls into the same category, for me, as 'new shoes' or 'pulling the trigger on' a 'bad boy', I guess, some people just fall into cliches associated with watches as with anything else.
If you're having a suit made to measure every six months, then, 'my tailor' isn't such a daft notion.
If you're buying one in Burtons once every other year, it sounds a bit pretentious.
As for the suggestion that anyone would refer to a supermarket as 'my supermarket', well...
M
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
I've just bought a new laptop from Currys, am I allowed to call them my electrical retailer? I hope so.
'My' simply annotates the one you use IMO, it's not an emotional statement and you seem to be placing a lot of emphasis on some hidden meaning.
Perhaps people use language differently and we shouldn't judge based on our own preconceptions.
You always talk sense but you have to realise that in Rolex world everything is different.
I also find usage of ‘my AD’ jarring. I am not sure why.
May be it denotes a familiarity or an access that is usually not there and sounds a little pompous.
I am always amused by posts like- so I dropped into my AD or I was chatting my SA etc.
Does anybody say my Tag AD or my Oris AD?
All the hyperventilation and the nasty sarcasm aside, there is also the question of being fair to the AD who sold you the watch ( not your AD). Even if you don’t want to buy another Rolex and you have your Rolex exit piece, why create a potentially troublesome scenario for the AD who allotted you the Rolex watches.
Idiots will come and say- you paid for the watch and it is yours to do as you please but in reality if AD allotted the watch with the assumption that you are not a flipper and that you wouldn’t flip it in a short time, it is reasonable to consider this. The practical question is- what is considered a short time. The rest is just some noise by the usual coterie of losers who come and p*SS on every Rolex thread.
Not sure 'My' implies a shop you simply use in common usage.
I don't hear people saying that they've popped into their filling station, their baker or their funeral director, it's very much a 'watchy' term. Personally, before today, I've never heard anyone say 'my supermarket'.
Maybe doctor or dentist, but there is a closer, more intimate, relationship there.
'My' is a possessive/associative word, but as you say people can interpret things differently.
M
Last edited by snowman; 22nd November 2021 at 13:32.
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Cheers,
Neil.
I do refer to firms/people I use regularly as 'My' bike dealer, My Doctor, etc without any emotional attachment. Its simply a shorter way of saying 'the garage/doctor/shop that I regularly use'. I've used the same bike mechanic for years and refer to him as 'my mechanic' but that doesn't mean I'm in some sort of relationship with him! Apart from a commercial one, anyway.
I grant you 'my' doctor / dentist / local etc rolls off the tongue better than my slightly exaggerated supermarket example.
So it seems the question is what makes those different to the supermarket then? I'd say you're on to something, it's about having a relationship with the people there. You get to know the people in your doctor/dentist/pub, whereas you don't in your supermarket, so it's a little more personable. Now ask yourself this - can you get access to in-demand Rolex at an AD without knowing the name of, and being somewhat cordial/friendly with, a specific individual who's the person you deal with at the AD? Probably not right? Both because they have a long list of clients to sell too and limited supply, and also because of the lengthy period of time it typically takes.
So it seems to me the mystery is solved as to why people refer to some ADs as 'my AD' when they're sitting on hard-to-get watches (which is why we typically see it with Rolex, Patek, AP etc), because it's a lengthy relationship that develops. It also explains why it's less usual to hear 'my AD' in reference to a Tag AD or Oris AD (to use RAJEN's examples from a few posts back), as those typically are just over the counter same day transactions.
We might be overthinking this of course
Hehehe
I’ve been using the same garage for 9 years…it’s still not mine.
I go to ‘my’ proctologist on a regular basis - using somebody else’s would not feel right…
Once you've put your ring on the finger of the one...
It’s not his ring I am concerned about. He wears a Deep Sea…Once you've put your ring on the finger of the one...
Well where there's muck there's brass.
Once you've put your ring on the finger of the one...
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Love it. That made me laugh so much, my saffron infused bluefin fell off the Royal Copenhagen and soiled the Tabriz!
It’ll be a Pot Noodle for tea instead then...
If you’re looking at an easy sale, as others have said , Watchfinder are decent.
I’m up North in Manchester and have recently used Mark Worthington who have offered fair prices.
Yes, I know an AD group where you sign to say you’ll not resell within 3 years.
No legal case If you do, but you’ll be black listed.
Fair enough I say, and they have no shortage of takers.
I’d happily sign that.
Had a warranty card or two withheld before. Never bothered me one bit.
I’m amazed. This isn’t normal capitalism. So the watch is worth more than you’ve paid for it but to prevent (well, let’s say discourage) you from realising that increase in value they say that if you do sell it they won’t sell you another one?
Question 1: what’s it to Rolex if you flip it ASAP? How does doing that harm them?
Question 2: Is the reason Rolex won’t sell them for more (ie market value) because then they wouldn’t be an appreciating asset? So basically you’re buying a deliberately undervalued investment and effectively walking out of the shop showing a profit.
Didn’t they used to make quite good watches that you could buy and sell and own and wear and use to tell the time?
Q1:You do see the constant bickering about availability and frustration at people just selling new watches to greys right? In fact do I detect a smidge of that at the end of your very own comment?
Q2: Prices are up currently, but the whole market has gone nuts over the last few years. If Rolex were to pump up prices by like 50%+ to meet market value across the range, what happens if/when the market cools off?
Are you still thinking of the AD as simply a source for buying a product? I wouldn't walk into a random watch retailer and discuss a previous purchase but in the same way as I might talk to a friend about it, if I have formed a good relationship, to the point of friendship, with the person I purchased the watch from then why not? It's not too far removed from buying a watch on sales corner from someone you know through the forum and discussing it at a later date.
instant reduction in demand. It's a sad but true fact that people want what they can't have and the less likely they are to have it, the more they want it.
Each to their own. I wouldn't do it personally, seems distasteful. I'd of course be happy to have a convo about the watch with an AD if I have questions or something, but not about what I can do with my own property. Not saying you or anyone else can't do it, it's just not what I would do.
But as stated previously, I'd happily follow a rule of thumb and not sell on for a couple of years if it's in my own interest to do so.
Some people buy houses to make a quick buck. I don’t see builders insisting you live in them for 2 years or whatever before moving on
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
Heiniger famously said Rolex wasn’t in the watch business. And that was decades ago.
The AD want their watches going on genuine customers wrists. That’s all.
Clearly it’s not for you, and likewise, you’ll not be someone they’d want to sell to, and that’s equally fine.
However for most collectors, they’ll be totally fine with it, and they have huge waiting lists of collectors happy to sign up.
I think we need to dig more deeply.
First, they're all genuine customers.
Even speculators are customers.
Second, IMHO, Rolex is restricting supply to drive demand. If they really wanted to satisfy the demand of all WIS in some utopian horological fantasy, they'd increase supply.
ADs seem to be just doing what Rolex wants under threat of removal of the product.
I'd be surprised if there is an ethical consideration here that is any more complex than brand building and sales.
Most of the toppy market is probably froth generated by customers who couldn't care less what the plots look like. They could lose the plots without worrying. In fact, some would say they have lost the plots.
That was a big build-up to a poor pun, wasn't it. I need to work on my delivery.
And yet this and other watch forums have endless threads about these Veblen bling bracelets that are, to be honest, horologically pretty unremarkable.
(No, I'm not a "hater". That implies I care. I'm just a regular WIS who sees a once fine brand gone crazy: the company acts in a way I don't care for and the watches themselves, such as they are, are now rich people's commodities and status symbols. They're not even on my radar, except for the fact that the thing they make and sell happens to be watches. But tbh the product could be anything: tulip bulbs, magic beans, Emperors' new clothes. It no longer matters. I won't be debasing myself at an AD to obtain one. My dignity is worth more than that and I have far more interesting and/or rare and/or well-made watches that no-one knows or cares about, which suits me just fine as I don't want to impress anyone or make a profit or get mugged.)
This thread, a true Shakespearean tragi-comedy.
Hear, hear…live free or die…if you can’t walk into a shop with your money and buy a thing, an old fashioned, anachronistic definition of a genuine customer according to the Rolex view, then honestly it’s not worth having, plenty of other things, other shops….imho…We are not exactly talking individual, beautiful, rare pieces of art here!
All other issues aside, it’s the deceit that’s clearly often involved that I find very distasteful. My AD told me a story about a customer who bought a Rolex - TT Sub, from memory. He sat with the sales assistant and gushed (not literally) about how he’d always wanted a Rolex and how pleased he was to finally get one and what pleasure it would bring him wearing it for years to come. He’d sold it within a week. Not sure how the AD found out.
Some car manufactures apply almost identical tactics to Rolex to prevent flippers/speculators.Some people buy houses to make a quick buck. I don’t see builders insisting you live in them for 2 years or whatever before moving on
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
How would 'your' AD know you've sold the watches you currently own? Serious question, and just chiming in because it seems de rigueur
Theres nothing quite like calling people who may respectfully disagree with you on a subject ‘idiots’ and ‘losers’ to bring more peace and harmony into the world.
Any watch is ultimately an inanimate object we use for telling the time for heaven’s sake; it’s certainly not something worth getting so excited about.
‘Nothing matters very much and very little matters at all’ as someone far smarter than me once said - and I suspect this whole subject falls into the latter category.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Last edited by adg31; 23rd November 2021 at 18:36.
Surely ones responsibility to any bloomin´shop keeper starts and finishes with completing the purchase with honest money.
Last edited by Passenger; 23rd November 2021 at 15:43.
Two possibilities spring to mind. You sell it to someone who, as happened to Ryan, then puts it on ebay with the warranty card on show or you sell it to someone who then needs some warranty work done on it, which is far from uncommon.
The first example is probably the most problematic as the dealer is then shown in the public domain as potentially selling to a flipper. Problem is that once the watch is out of your hands you have no control of how it is marketed.
We all know dealers are feeding the grey market, Rolex know dealers are feeding the grey market and are quite happy with it because if that route was shut down and there was no instant profit waiting lists would end for most models and they would be available at a discount again as they were five years ago. They just don’t want you to know they are happy and don’t want it flaunted.
It’s a sad state of affairs but there are thankfully other makes available.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
