What If?

[aw9nineteen]

Yup you read it correctly, a good ole what if. What if watches were sold online and in store? Do you think it would begin to devalue automatic watches as a whole? I’m not saying if they were readily available, because that’s just simple supply and demand. I’m wondering if they were somewhat like iPhones at the beginning. Sold out and people lining up nights before. Constantly hitting refresh on Rolex.com hoping that you can order first. Would that be a positive or negative thing?


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[Rashid.bk]

If you want to see how this would work. Look at Yeezy sneakers, in other words, it wouldn’t solve a thing.
We’d be back at square one and likely worse.

And to add, Omega did and does this among others. It released Speedy Tues watches online, sold out in hours and then sold at premiums second hand.

[Hollie_Rollie]

I wouldn’t mind Rolex getting rid of their ADs.

[Seddyspaghetti]

Bots would buy up all the hot models ����

[aw9nineteen]

Originally Posted by Seddyspaghetti

Bots would buy up all the hot models ����

Lol


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[Chewbacca]

Thought it was an Excel thread.

[georgekart]

There are two ways it could go.

A) There are Rolex accounts and you log into your account. They have information on your bought watches. Decision becomes very easy. Top spenders among the 1st on the list, new clients among the bottom. Good news for those who spend a lot of money with Rolex, bad for everyone else.

B) Absolutely random raffle. So then technically somebody with no sales history has a chance to get any model, but it reduces chances of others.

Grays will still exist either way and hard to get models will go through grays.

[Rado63]

Selling watches online will ruin the incentive for the privately owned AD. IF omega sells out a special edition watch through their online sales, what's the point of a business owner trying to be an AD. The AD is stuck selling inventory that the manufacturer is willing to send to an AD. Then to compete with the online site the AD has to sell to his client at a discount. To keep the relationship afloat, the manufacturer will need to lower the wholesale cost of the product they sell to the AD, who then sells to the retail client at a deeper discount. Who benefits from this arrangement?

[Fleetlord]

It's an interesting question...but based on the absolute domination of Rolex in the luxury watch space, I would expect there to be a SOLD OUT next to pretty much every classic and sports reference.

Rolex definitely won't build more to meet the surge in demand, so it's kind of pointless.

[Harry-57]

If it didn't change the frequency, size and content of my AD's regular allocation, this might make the situation easier for local, loyal customers. But where would Rolex get all the watches from? They would have to make tens of millions. And the hot ones would still be sold out.

Way back when modems still sung tunes to get us connected to the net, Gibson started selling guitars on line and expanded the facility to order custom designs. Everything they sold on line was sent to the buyers nominated Gibson AD. This model worked for them at the time. I don't know how it shook out long term.

If Rolex did this, it would be chaotic unless tightly managed. The best person to do that is the AD. If ADs were taken out of the equation, see Fleetlord's reply above.

[Ranger67]

Don't think all customers would want to purchase online, i personally would want to try on a watch before purchase.

[horseShu]

If R-watches are sold online, the AD distribution network would vanish.

Grey dealers would snap them all up.
Since they are not constrained to sell them at MSRP, they'd sell them at "market" price.

So we'd still be paying through the nose.

But hey, we won't have to deal with AD mind games anymore.

[Nairn1980]

It would be datejusts only online and even they would be mostly out of stock

[mister_poom]

I do not think selling online is the way to go. Few reasons:

1) There are no possibility to negotiate discount prices. Shopping online would just be you clicking on "add to cart" and that's it. There's no SA on the other side.

2) There are no consumer-business relationship. The only relationship would be your purchase history. But businesses always want to build a long-lasting relationship. That's marketing. They want to know you, talk to you, understand who is their clientele.

3) No possibility to try on the watch. People do still enjoy trying on the watch before purchasing it. Also, many are not as knowledgeable as us on TRF about watches. Therefore, it's better to have a SA in front of you explaining features.

4) No purchasing experience. Let's be honest. We always love to have a good purchasing experience where we are being offered coffee, drinks, or champagne and chit chatting with the staff at the AD and being offered few goodies with the watch. Again, this is to enhance the relationship with the customer.

This is my opinion. There are also many other factors to take into account. Also, I believe the opinion of everyone might differ concerning purchasing luxury items online depending on their geographic location, age, social class, etc. Let's say that maybe in general, people in Asia do not like to buy luxury items online but people in Northern America prefer to buy online. It all depends on the online shopping culture in certain places.

However, we cannot deny that it is a possibility that online sales might happen for many brands such as Rolex. But I believe not soon and if it does happen, would be on a small scale to test the waters.

[1William]

If Rolex wanted to bust the bubble, and they do not, it would be easy to do. While production numbers are estimated at around 1 million watches a year they could manufacture significantly more hot watches. SS Daytona's, Hulk's Sky-Dwellers, etc. They have the capacity. The second part would be to cut the price buy 50% or more for msrp and sell and fill orders on line. If you put 50k Hulks on line at that price you would instantly blow up the Grey Market. Fire sale form Grey's and if you did the same for the other models you would shift the market completely and most big Grey's would instantly be on the ropes. Prices would crash in the secondary market and many that are buying and driving the market would be out. Rolex will never do it and they have the capacity to do it. Talk about markets changing overnight this would do it.

[FHFinster]

Originally Posted by Chewbacca

Thought it was an Excel thread.

Like a thread titled Goal Seek about finding one’s grail.


Fin

[Rashid.bk]

Originally Posted by Seddyspaghetti

Bots would buy up all the hot models ����

This is mostly true. There is some new anti-bot software but then the bots get updates. This is totally based on popular opinion but it’s widely accepted that companies like StockX have super sophisticated software to buy up most of the available stock of an online sale, I would imagine companies like Chrono24 or Watchfinder would have very sophisticated bots.

Registration of authentic customers would help but then you’d have many just registering so they can flip it. AD sales is the best option for brands like Rolex, AP and Patek who have no issue moving units.
Online sales usually reflects to the customer with more aggressive pricing and reaching a wider market, but in today’s climate many brands have zero issues with pricing or customer base.

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by 1William

If Rolex wanted to bust the bubble, and they do not, it would be easy to do. While production numbers are estimated at around 1 million watches a year they could manufacture significantly more hot watches. SS Daytona's, Hulk's Sky-Dwellers, etc. They have the capacity. The second part would be to cut the price buy 50% or more for msrp and sell and fill orders on line. If you put 50k Hulks on line at that price you would instantly blow up the Grey Market. Fire sale form Grey's and if you did the same for the other models you would shift the market completely and most big Grey's would instantly be on the ropes. Prices would crash in the secondary market and many that are buying and driving the market would be out. Rolex will never do it and they have the capacity to do it. Talk about markets changing overnight this would do it.

Apocalypse Now

[FTX I]

Originally Posted by brandrea

Apocalypse Now

[HogwldFLTR]

It could help to distribute the watches better/fairly and reduce the Grey's hold on the market. I believe this would be a good thing.

[Dr.Stu]

As bad as things are now, this would be the watchpocalypse. The market would, overnight look like the event/concert ticket market. On or two (or 3) consolidating consortiums like “ticketmaster” would deploy people and bots and immediately buy out tens of thousands of watches within 90 seconds of their being released to the “open market” and desirable models would be marked-up 1000%, 2000%, whatever- the equivalent of a $300 face-price ticket being routinely listed at $3000+ for a desirable show (watch) like Hamilton*, or 5000%-10,000% (that’s 100x list price) for extremely desirable watches (“Super Bowl Watches”). I think I’d be looking at some nice Swatches.

(*the Musical)

[RJRJRJ]

Originally Posted by georgekart

There are two ways it could go.

A) There are Rolex accounts and you log into your account. They have information on your bought watches. Decision becomes very easy. Top spenders among the 1st on the list, new clients among the bottom. Good news for those who spend a lot of money with Rolex, bad for everyone else.

B) Absolutely random raffle. So then technically somebody with no sales history has a chance to get any model, but it reduces chances of others.

Grays will still exist either way and hard to get models will go through grays.

Option B would be a complete disaster. The customer pool would grow by 100x once people found out they could enter a raffle for free to win 10k. People that know nothing about watches would be all over it. Throw it on the CC, flip to a gray. Free money.

[georgekart]

Originally Posted by RJRJRJ

Option B would be a complete disaster. The customer pool would grow by 100x once people found out they could enter a raffle for free to win 10k. People that know nothing about watches would be all over it. Throw it on the CC, flip to a gray. Free money.

Welcome to world of sneakers. Every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to buy sneakers that have resale potential. Buying 2k Air Diors might be expensive to most people, but of they can immediately flip it for 10k, they'll do it.