Airports and Rolexes

[Tennesseehorn]

Since air travel is coming back that reminds me of something I read a while back. The article was about Rolex watches and where they are shipped to. What caught my eye was the large volume that gets sent to duty-free shopping areas in international airports. In that environment I would assume no real AD relationship is formed so maybe you can get lucky one time. Now I don’t know all the Home Counties duty/import costs but what are the current experiences by our world travelers? Especially the availability of SS Sport watches.

[padi56]

All this AD relationship stuff mainly exists in internet fantasy land.

[dannyp]

Given the frequency with which some travel, don’t bet on it.

[Rolexatlast]

Originally Posted by padi56

All this AD relationship stuff mainly exists in internet fantasy land.

Maybe, but the much-heralded ‘significant purchase history’ / annual spend wouldn’t apply. And neither will waitlists.

So presumably all punters will have equal chance of getting a high demand piece (unless the Sales Advisers flip them all)

[Pipalextom]

Originally Posted by Rolexatlast

Maybe, but the much-heralded ‘significant purchase history’ / annual spend wouldn’t apply. And neither will waitlists.

So presumably all punters will have equal chance of getting a high demand piece (unless the Sales Advisers flip them all)

I think the ones at U.K. airports at least are normally part of a chain. So even if you don’t have a spend history with that particular store, they can look at your history in other stores on the computer and make a decision from there.

[RJRJRJ]

A few years ago before things got really crazy, you could still get lucky because many of them would put whatever they received in the window for sale. One things got even crazier, they all just followed the standard AD procedure we all deal with today and keep the good stuff in the back.

[Gab27]

The seller is usually going to work to maximize their economic return. With high demand Rolex models, especially in this situation that could potentially entail bundling and/or selling over MSRP (which I believe some international dealers do.) I think it is extremely unlikely most of these dealers would just sell something like a BLRO to just anyone for MSRP without accompanying purchases as that's literally leaving money on the table.