Interesting trip to AD - wait lists, Tudor try on

[atn_uk]

Went to my local AD today to have the divers extension removed from my Sea Dweller and had a number of interesting conversations, and some wrist time for a few Tudors.

Bear in mind this is the U.K. and a provincial AD, small but significant as the only one around for 40+ miles in every direction.

They had no steel sports at all, no surprise, but had just cleared their entire wait list for Explorer II in one go, even ending up with one to put in the window for a day until it sold.

They have closed their wait list for Daytonas at 20 and don’t expect to fulfill for 3 years at their current rate, not quite as long as I had expected.

Lists open but very long for all GMTs, even (to my surprise but maybe I am out of touch) the two tone and the full rose gold Root beer. They get several calls a day Re Pepsi, and reject them all.

Only way to get on the lists now is to already be a customer of the store, though not necessarily as a Rolex owner, so a way to get on the list would be to buy from a cheaper brand, they sell Tudor, Tag, Omega among others (Patek too!). Clearly just local policy.

I put myself down for an Explorer II Polar, which I like a lot, but as with most of the watches have never actually seen in person. I may ask to change to a no-date Sub, when I can get some hands on time with both, probably at a used dealers. Wait may only be two months, maybe even less. I will not buy before Basel, if by a miracle it comes in earlier.


The sales lady was a bit dismissive of Tudor, until I had put my name down for the Explorer II.

Then she brought up a blue and a burgundy dial Black Bay, which they had several in stock, and the window. They had no BB58, but they did have Pelagos and several others, probably everything other than BB58 from what I could see.

I really like the Burgundy dial Black Bay, and did think hard about buying there and then, but again, will wait for Basel as I do kinda want a 58 GMT if that is on the menu, which of course it may not be. The sales lady had no idea and felt I would not like the smaller 58 anyway, but we shall see.

Oh, and we bought a Datejust 31 for my wife too!

As we were leaving the sales lady also gave us a Rolex “catalog” - the 200 or so page book we had been looking in.

All in all an interesting hour or so, only regret was asking for coffee when offered champagne.