Rolex not liking the Grey Market is B.S.

[tyler1980]

Originally Posted by seadweller43

people dont trust money and gold any more. they think rolex is a better thing to invest money on. no gold, just steel, rolex is a piece of art, which everybody loves. people trust rolex more than money now.

You need money to buy a Rolex and you accept money when you sell it. If money is worthless so is your watch.

[superstarmar]

lots of people with money left in hand ... NO PRODUCT TO SELL!!!
How do explain that one ...

[MrInternational]

Originally Posted by chloebear

I love these kind of threads. Really thoughtful post by the way.

+1


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[Devildog]

Originally Posted by GreatScott

And finally, there is no way they can punish a dealer for selling to a flipper. They can not dictate discrimination. If you have cash and the product is available then it is first come first served or a dealer would be sued out of existence.

Wrong on all levels

1) ADs operate under an agency agreement which can, and does give Rolex the power to pull the AD status if they see fit.

2) It’s not discrimination. A retailer can sell an item, or decline to sell an item to whoever they choose. No one is getting sued

3) It is not first come first served, and again no one is getting sued.

That is all fact, unlike the speculation in most of your post.

So, let’s stop all this nonsense and just admit that the global economy is really hot right now, thus more people are interested in luxury items, and thus Rolex, while increasing production, is just not increasing it fast enough to keep up with the generation of new wealth that desires to own a Rolex. If a recession were to come, suddenly there would be excess capacity. Rolex would also fare much better than those brands that churn out unlimited supply and are left holding the inventory.

This is most likely correct. But Rolex are taking steps to prevent flipping. That is known and well documented on here. So, ask yourself why. Rolex is a privately owned enterprise. It doesn’t need to maximise profits at any expense.

Rolex is smart, these threads are not.

Agreed. Including this thread

[AK797]

Originally Posted by chloebear

Really interesting story. Seems like the UK is a particularly unique market for Rolex. Really hard to compare a Rolex buying experience in the US to the UK. For that matter a big city US AD versus a rural AD.

Funny about the Premier League Footballers. I'm sure they get whatever they want.

You know the interesting thing about our footballers and maybe all highly paid sportsmen, is that their agents do most of their retail buying - clothes, watches, entertainment devices etc, it's how they justify making millions living off them with no talent but negotiating once every few months, and so as they are tight as frick I bet they haggle like crazy and get big discounts, even on the populars, because the ADs want the watches to go to celebs. So same old story of when you can afford anything, you get it for free or at a huge discount.

[Bigblu10]

Originally Posted by Devildog

Wrong on all levels

1) ADs operate under an agency agreement which can, and does give Rolex the power to pull the AD status if they see fit.

2) It’s not discrimination. A retailer can sell an item, or decline to sell an item to whoever they choose. No one is getting sued

3) It is not first come first served, and again no one is getting sued.

That is all fact, unlike the speculation in most of your post.



This is most likely correct. But Rolex are taking steps to prevent flipping. That is known and well documented on here. So, ask yourself why. Rolex is a privately owned enterprise. It doesn’t need to maximise profits at any expense.



Agreed. Including this thread

All I can say is if you peruse the for sale section here, all the familiar US based trusted sellers are still in business, still listing hard to get SS watches for sale, and all of these watches do in fact originate from USA and overseas AD's. Rolex is not putting anybody who sells grey market/resellers out of business. DavidSW, JustRolexes, Takuya, etc, these guys have booming business and will most likely continue!

[Robbyman]

Wrong wrong wrong.

Rolex can and does punish dealers

Rolex does buy stock and does know where it comes from.

Fact.

[jvd99]

I don’t think being able to buy or not buy a luxury item
Is a civil rights issue

[77T]

While this conversation has been going, Richemont has purchased a gray marketer, Watchfinder.

https://www.ft.com/content/55dafc62-...d-4df188287fff

What an interesting development, Richemont as a “first mover”.

Now one of Rolex’s prime competitors (who make brands like A. Lange & Söhne, Baume & Mercier, Cartier, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Montblanc, Officine Panerai, Piaget and Vacheron Constantin) can profit from gray market sales of Rolex, Omega, Patek and others.

“Johann Rupert, Richemont’s chairman, is overhauling the group’s distribution systems to meet customer demand for sales through a variety of channels. Swiss watchmakers are increasingly focusing attention on the second-hand market to help trading in their products and protect their brand image.”

I think Rolex and Patek aren’t going there - yet - but I could see Swatch doing something similar soon as a “fast follower”.

Hope this real world move helps illustrate the mundane textbook post I made earlier. Global Marketing means more than physical presence nowadays.


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[jonnyz1245]

Originally Posted by Robbyman

Wrong wrong wrong.

Rolex can and does punish dealers

Rolex does buy stock and does know where it comes from.

Fact.

Source?

[AK797]

Originally Posted by jonnyz1245

Source?

Trust us, it's been standard operating procedure here for well over a year now, really old news. We had Brexit a year before the rest of the world felt the squeeze so we are ahead on all these strategies and policing.

[AK797]

Originally Posted by Bigblu10

All I can say is if you peruse the for sale section here, all the familiar US based trusted sellers are still in business, still listing hard to get SS watches for sale, and all of these watches do in fact originate from USA and overseas AD's. Rolex is not putting anybody who sells grey market/resellers out of business. DavidSW, JustRolexes, Takuya, etc, these guys have booming business and will most likely continue!

They are not trying to drive big greys out, they just want to stop flippers and ADs who enable them, greys have a purpose, esp with DJs, PMs etc and if they take many of those in I'm sure Rolex look the other way on some of the populars even now. We've had premiums on the D500 for years now and Rolex didn't mind so it is not greys that are the problem, it is endemic flipping for profit only across many models now that is.

[Andad]

Originally Posted by chloebear

I love these kind of threads. Really thoughtful post by the way.

Thoughtful but disintermediate.

Whatever that indicates?