Rolex ... the myth ...is gone Bananas

[TempoKing]

The Rolex Watch company drives me crazy with their unreasonable demands
from their authorized dealers..

They want money in advance (?)
and they do not deliver the store orders right away.
They lowered the store's profit margin
They want ID photocopies of the buyer's info (is this legal ?)
They do not want the store to buy the customer's old Rolex
in exchange for a new one.. and many other "Don'ts"...a mile long list I say.

I can understand protecting your brand... but this is crazy.

I bet you..
Their next step will be ...how to get rid of the second hand market
which is the only obstacle to their in store sales - I can see them using
scare tactics about fake, about Franken, about honesty etc.
Can you imagine Ford or Mercedes or Bentley or Rolls trying to stop
sales of their used cars..or not take them as trade-ins ?

Soon all steel Rolex watches will be selling at extraterrestrial retail prices
What am I saying..(?)...already steel sport Rolex watches are selling for
more than $10.000 ...see deep sea, Daytona etc.

I believe the market will teach them a lesson - maybe not now but it will.
Already authorized dealers are crunching the numbers to see if it is financially
beneficial to carry the Rolex line

[Paladin]

Rolex is treading a fine line here....they have taken all aspects of their watch production in house and ramped up capacity to sell A LOT of watches. Creating this bottle neck of boutique company stores and very limited AD's may reduce sales to a greater degree than the increased profit margins can make up for.

I am sure the fixed costs of the increased in house production capacity must make for some retry high break even points.

[TSW]

Patek Philippe has been doing this for years.

[Timber Loftis]

I've seen it happen in other industries. If the brand is powerful enough, then they may want to limit AD's or put them out of business so they can step in with their own shops and collect about double what they currently do per transaction. I know it's a totally different market, but I watched Games Workshop do this. I could think of other examples if I tried.

[mfer]

Well, my AD says there are tons of these "understood" rules, but they make too much money selling Rolex not to obey. Maybe you are right A, one day the market will teach them, but most likely not today.

[Keeperoftime]

"They do not want the store to buy the customer's old Rolex"

It just means I'll end up with more pre-owned watches!

Seriously, I don't know what Rolex is up to. I really don't care. I'm in love with the Rolex watch company circa 1930-1970.

[GradyPhilpott]

My AD said that if you want to sell Rolex, you have to play by their rules and they have a boatload of rules and details that ADs must follow.

It is evident that my AD intends to keep selling Rolex and I'm glad for that.

I may be wrong, but I think this increases the brand image and pays off in the long run.

I don't know about some of the things in the OP, because we did not discuss those things.

However, when I ordered my 14060M, it took a full month for it to come in. That may be a related issue.