Seeing Rolex in Amsterdam, Zurich, and Paris

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I saw pretty much zero SS professional models at the ADs I went to in central Amsterdam and at the airport shops in Paris, Amsterdam, and Zurich. Of course, I expected that.

I talked watches for half an hour with the salesman in Amsterdam. He was very nice and knowledgable. Based on his interaction with Rolex, as he goes there often regularly he said, Rolex is not trying to go upmarket or abandoning SS professional models. They just got caught producing the usual amount while there seems to have been an increase in demand.

After a few minutes of conversation I noticed he had a black dial Tudor Black Bay ETA with rose. But it looked odd. It had white markers and hands! When I commented on it, he said that he got it because he knew people at Rolex and that it was a long story and he indicated he didn't really want to say more, so I didn't press him.

At the Paris airport, I tried on a smooth bezel blue dial DJ with oyster and a white gold Day Date 40 with blue dial. I didn't like the blue on the DD as much in person as I thought I would based on the pictures. At one of the airport stores, the sales person was very nice and indicated that I could get a discount on the DJ at their shop in the city but not here at the airport.

In Paris, when I asked for the price of the DJ 41 (126300), she quoted me a price of about $7,000--that was supposed to be without any taxes. I didn't think about it until I got home, but I did the math and the 126300 price without VAT in France should be about $6500. ???

In Paris, is a VAT refund service taking a cut, even though you are supposed to be buying it without the VAT? The salesman at the Amsterdam airport AD last year told me directly that they did take some fees out, and that I wasn't getting all of the VAT back. Does anyone know what airport shops do that and which don't. Someone here indicated that this doesn't happen in London. Seems kind of lame. If you are buying without paying any VAT at the airport and flying out of the country then you shouldn't have to pay any fees.

Speaking of VAT, I recall stories about US persons buying in Europe and then hailing the VAT refund themselves without a VAT refund service, saving several hundred dollars or more. I haven't ready lately of anyone being able to do that, and the ADs in Europe I spoke with said they would only do the VAT refund through a service. I wonder if you offered to pay an extra $100 for the watch, an AD would allow you to self-process the VAT paperwork.