New Purchase from AD London

[James.B]

Originally Posted by russellg

I have a gut feeling Rolex made more watches available at AD's just before Christmas. Not sure if this was because of the fact that AD's has a lot of inventory to shift.

I know you are right. I bought a wg Daytona with blue dial from my AD a few days before Christmas. My contact told me that a large shipment had come in the previous week and that they hadn’t really start unpacking everything. It would be in the new year. Not surprising considering the price increase.

[stark1]

Your persistence paid off in the end - great! Hopefully the harsh experience allows you to enjoy the DJ even more so!

[JoseR]

Persistence paid off, good for you. Congrats and enjoy..

[Trek360]

Congrats! Thanks for sharing your story—so much of an allocation can be dumb luck and/or making the right connection with a SA.

[TimepieceRPP]

Originally Posted by MisterDave

Hi all,

This is my first post, so apologies if I'm in the incorrect thread.

I wanted to share my experience (and frustration) of purchasing a Rolex from an AD in London without prior history. This is really for those who are in a similar position that I was.

Over the past 12 months I have been trying to purchase a Rolex Explorer 1 or Blue DJ 36mm from an AD in London. I dropped into to every AD in town, a couple of whom seemed promising, Harrods Fine Watches and Bucherer Selfridges especially. Weirdly, these 2 stores told me that they would not put me on the waitlist and that I should contact them via WhatsApp instead. However, when I did they would seldom respond. I ended up losing 6 months of my search on these guys as they gave me the smooth chat and made it seem like it they would be fairly straight forward watches to obtain. Which it wasn't.

Bucherer, Geneva who I spoke with on email and phone were super friendly and I was due to visit them in Jan 2022 to try my luck there.

Watches of Switzerland, Regent Street had nothing to try on and not overly helpful staff.

Mappin & Webb, Bond Street were really friendly and had most models to try on.

One Saturday morning I popped into a store in Covent Garden that I hadn't tried yet and spoke to the sales assistant. She was friendly and we small talked about Covid and watches and what I was interested in. After about 15 minutes she told me she had one available and asked if I was interested. A stupid question. Naturally I was, so I proceeded with the purchase.

So after nearly a year of searching, phones calls, emails and trips to ADs, my purchase came down to pure chance and luck. I was able to purchase the blue 36mm Datejust fluted on Oyster Bracelet from a London AD for retail and am over the moon with it.

Essentially the advice I would offer to those who are getting frustrated, as I was (so much so I even wrote a letter to Rolex) is to just keep trying. I had registered interest for a VC Overseas as I was getting pretty annoyed with the whole "experience" of buying a high-end watch in 2021. But due to persistence, some small talk with the AD's and a bit of luck/timing you never know.

Just visited the store you mentioned in Covent Garden. The SA is very honest to me and it depends on my spending power. It previously needed to spend at least 30000 and now he told me need to be more in order to get the name down for Green Submariner. If I bought jewellery or other brands than Rolex, it will help. He told me that it is centralised and based on the money i spend to allocate the models I want. However, he also told me to be patient and don't buy the models i dont want. haha. Honestly, if i have to spend more than 40K GBP to have my name down and it is still uncertain when or if i could get it, i would rather go grey.

[just1time]

Congrats OP. The way you got the watch will make you appreciate and love it even more.
The experience is part of it all for me.
I got my hulk last year at a Rolex store in Singapore with. literally 30mins left to end boarding.

[Sprezzatura!,]

Originally Posted by MisterDave

Hi all,

This is my first post, so apologies if I'm in the incorrect thread.

I wanted to share my experience (and frustration) of purchasing a Rolex from an AD in London without prior history. This is really for those who are in a similar position that I was.

Over the past 12 months I have been trying to purchase a Rolex Explorer 1 or Blue DJ 36mm from an AD in London. I dropped into to every AD in town, a couple of whom seemed promising, Harrods Fine Watches and Bucherer Selfridges especially. Weirdly, these 2 stores told me that they would not put me on the waitlist and that I should contact them via WhatsApp instead. However, when I did they would seldom respond. I ended up losing 6 months of my search on these guys as they gave me the smooth chat and made it seem like it they would be fairly straight forward watches to obtain. Which it wasn't.

Bucherer, Geneva who I spoke with on email and phone were super friendly and I was due to visit them in Jan 2022 to try my luck there.

Watches of Switzerland, Regent Street had nothing to try on and not overly helpful staff.

Mappin & Webb, Bond Street were really friendly and had most models to try on.

One Saturday morning I popped into a store in Covent Garden that I hadn't tried yet and spoke to the sales assistant. She was friendly and we small talked about Covid and watches and what I was interested in. After about 15 minutes she told me she had one available and asked if I was interested. A stupid question. Naturally I was, so I proceeded with the purchase.

So after nearly a year of searching, phones calls, emails and trips to ADs, my purchase came down to pure chance and luck. I was able to purchase the blue 36mm Datejust fluted on Oyster Bracelet from a London AD for retail and am over the moon with it.

Essentially the advice I would offer to those who are getting frustrated, as I was (so much so I even wrote a letter to Rolex) is to just keep trying. I had registered interest for a VC Overseas as I was getting pretty annoyed with the whole "experience" of buying a high-end watch in 2021. But due to persistence, some small talk with the AD's and a bit of luck/timing you never know.

How did the response to your letter go?

[TooManyIDs]

Originally Posted by russellg

I have a gut feeling Rolex made more watches available at AD's just before Christmas. Not sure if this was because of the fact that AD's has a lot of inventory to shift.

Originally Posted by James.B

I know you are right. I bought a WG Daytona with blue dial from my AD a few days before Christmas. My contact told me that a large shipment had come in the previous week and that they hadn’t really start unpacking everything. It would be in the new year. Not surprising considering the price increase.

Santa experience here as well. Whatever the actual reason, it was an unexpected surprise.