Rolex Ambassadors discontinued watches

[nachopc]

I was at Wimbledon last weekend, I saw Alcaraz wearing the Meteorite yellow gold discontinued. That never happened in Federer generation.
Many Rolex ambassadors now are wearing discontinued watches. Are they promoting Pre-owned? What’s the strategy behind this ?
Best
N


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[JSolution]

Probably just wearing the ones they like most

[2001jesper]

Really cant blame him. Its an awesome watch

[KatGirl]

Originally Posted by JSolution

Probably just wearing the ones they like most

I was thinking the same.

Kat


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[Neil McCauley]

Originally Posted by nachopc

I was at Wimbledon last weekend, I saw Alcaraz wearing the Meteorite yellow gold discontinued. That never happened in Federer generation.
Many Rolex ambassadors now are wearing discontinued watches. Are they promoting Pre-owned? What’s the strategy behind this ?
Best
N


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Alcaraz has owned this watch since before it was discontinued. He also regularly wears a 116500LN

Federer owns and wears plenty of discontinued models

[Bazil]

Originally Posted by Neil McCauley

Alcaraz has owned this watch since before it was discontinued. He also regularly wears a 116500LN

Federer owns and wears plenty of discontinued models

Perhaps he’d like to offer an opinion on our little debate .. 116 or 126 ..

[996marty]

It’s a great watch and given the option most would be wearing it

[fishingbear]

Marketing may be promoting the CPO program. Remember a few months back Scotty Scheffler wore the discontinued 116610LV after winning the Masters.

[dukie748]

Sir Jackie Stewart often wears a King Midas... even as Rolex Ambassadors they don't have to wear current watches, just Rolex watches.

I believe they promote the brand - not particular references.

[2000-NJDEVILS]

Originally Posted by dukie748

Sir Jackie Stewart often wears a King Midas... even as Rolex Ambassadors they don't have to wear current watches, just Rolex watches.

I believe they promote the brand - not particular references.

True That!

See Jack Nicklaus (Rolexes top ambassador) as a prime example of wearing his DD36 every day for 50 years and then doing an auction for charity (BTW he got $1,000,000 for it)…..

[Neil McCauley]

I doubt marketing are telling them what to wear tbh

They're contractually obliged to wear a Rolex watch, you wont see any of them wearing any other brand in a professional setting, that's as far as it'll go.

[Zach69SS]

Sick watch, I’m sure they give them a few choices to pick from.

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by fishingbear

Marketing may be promoting the CPO program. Remember a few months back Scotty Scheffler wore the discontinued 116610LV after winning the Masters.

Suits him well

[the dark knight]

The more I consider this, I am of the opinion Rolex doesn't actively push their ambassadors to wear certain watches (as long as it's a Rolex, of course). I've already posted by observation that Coco Gauff was wearing a discontinued grape OP36 last year when winning the US Open.

Jack Nicklaus has allegedly been a Rolex ambassador since the late 60s, and he's famous for wearing literally one watch nearly his entire life. James Cameron has stated he's not a watch guy and has only worn two watches his whole life, a Submariner for decades that he gifted to the leader of an indigenous tribe, and then the Deepsea he still wears.

Says something about the strength of the Rolex brand that they can have guys shoot commercials talking about and wearing watches that have been discontinued.

[Neil McCauley]

Originally Posted by the dark knight

The more I consider this, I am of the opinion Rolex doesn't actively push their ambassadors to wear certain watches (as long as it's a Rolex, of course). I've already posted by observation that Coco Gauff was wearing a discontinued grape OP36 last year when winning the US Open.

Jack Nicklaus has allegedly been a Rolex ambassador since the late 60s, and he's famous for wearing literally one watch nearly his entire life. James Cameron has stated he's not a watch guy and has only worn two watches his whole life, a Submariner for decades that he gifted to the leader of an indigenous tribe, and then the Deepsea he still wears.

Says something about the strength of the Rolex brand that they can have guys shoot commercials talking about and wearing watches that have been discontinued.

I agree, It's well-documented that Gary Player goaded Jack to pick his famous gold DayDate when Rolex invited them to a dinner at an event in Japan. Jack talks about this in the great Talking Watches episode he did with Ben Clymer. He clearly had a choice of what watch to have, and it stuck with him for all these years. Rolex also gifted Jack a few others to mark special occasions, too.

It's probably a little different today, with "testimonee" contracts etc. (Rolex doesn't use the word Ambassador, for those who didn't know); in the 1960s, most athletes would just wear what they were given because people were generally more grateful and Jack probably didn't see it as a brand association like it would be today.

I have read before that some, not all Rolex testimonees are paid, and in fact, some of them still have to buy their own watches and are not given them for free, or at least all of them. I'm, of course, unsure of how true that is, but it's definitely clear that for some of them, they're not quite in the spotlight as much as others. For example, Mark Webber is a Rolex Testimonee but is barely even on the TV anymore as an F1 Pundit and doesn't race competitively, so would it make sense for Rolex to pay him huge sums of money these days when, for all intents and purposes, he's hardly in the spotlight anymore? Racing driver Hurley Haywood also mentions being gifted watches by Rolex too (not only for winning Daytona), but has also mentioned how he has bought his own over the years too, and given by his family, so it's definitely not 100% clear.

I for one would love to know more about the testimonee topic, I find it super interesting. It's been yet another stroke of marketing genius from Rolex.

[brandrea]

It’s rumored that Roger Federer is still on the Rolex payroll to the tune of 8 million per year.

I know it’s not exactly the same thing as what’s being discussed, but sort of related. I’m certain they might suggest what he wear at a specific event

[rolexpatek363]

Rolex is all about marketing. I don't care who wears or promotes which watch, so this whole ambassador thing is wasted on me.

[Neil McCauley]

Originally Posted by brandrea

It’s rumored that Roger Federer is still on the Rolex payroll to the tune of 8 million per year.

I know it’s not exactly the same thing as what’s being discussed, but sort of related. I’m certain they might suggest what he wear at a specific event

Yeh it's my understanding he is the highest paid of all testimonees, on a rolling 10yr contract for $15m

[Andad]

I guess they all just pick one out of the box.

[Neil McCauley]

Originally Posted by rolexpatek363

Rolex is all about marketing. I don't care who wears or promotes which watch, so this whole ambassador thing is wasted on me.

Yehh you say you don't, but it's about brand perception, it runs deeper than you simply associating a celebrity wearing a watch.
It's not treated the same as say, Omega, who just seem to pick mid-tier actors (Clooney is the exception) to promote their watches, making posts to actively promote the brand, just simply posting a pic of them wearing it or whatever - this is quite lazy marketing really, compared to Rolex.

Rolex go about it slightly differently, they choose winners and champions in their field, be that sport, music, arts, etc, because they believe it helps build a stronger foundation for their brand, and you don't necessarily associate the brand with the celebrity (... erm, Clooney & Omega, anyone?) but instead, the brand is associated with winning, being a champion, or reaching a point in your life where having a Rolex marks something important.

That's really unique and clever marketing, and so far, works really damn well for Rolex!

[nachopc]

I don’t think they can wear whatever they want, at least not all of them.
Rolex calculate everything, I don’t believe they leave the decision to the ambassadors.


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[nachopc]

Originally Posted by Neil McCauley

Yehh you say you don't, but it's about brand perception, it runs deeper than you simply associating a celebrity wearing a watch.
It's not treated the same as say, Omega, who just seem to pick mid-tier actors (Clooney is the exception) to promote their watches, making posts to actively promote the brand, just simply posting a pic of them wearing it or whatever - this is quite lazy marketing really, compared to Rolex.

Rolex go about it slightly differently, they choose winners and champions in their field, be that sport, music, arts, etc, because they believe it helps build a stronger foundation for their brand, and you don't necessarily associate the brand with the celebrity (... erm, Clooney & Omega, anyone?) but instead, the brand is associated with winning, being a champion, or reaching a point in your life where having a Rolex marks something important.

That's really unique and clever marketing, and so far, works really damn well for Rolex!

This.


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[Neil McCauley]

Originally Posted by nachopc

I don’t think they can wear whatever they want, at least not all of them.
Rolex calculate everything, I don’t believe they leave the decision to the ambassadors.


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Maybe, perhaps that's one of the details that we'll never know.

Perhaps they do get given a choice, but it's a fairly narrow one, like in their meeting they get a choice of say, 5-6 watches, curated by Rolex for what they want the person to wear.

Interesting that we don't tend to see many female Rolex testimonees wearing bigger, sports oriented models, perhaps with the exception of Ana Ivanovic who wears a Daytona

[the dark knight]

Originally Posted by Neil McCauley

Yehh you say you don't, but it's about brand perception, it runs deeper than you simply associating a celebrity wearing a watch.
It's not treated the same as say, Omega, who just seem to pick mid-tier actors (Clooney is the exception) to promote their watches, making posts to actively promote the brand, just simply posting a pic of them wearing it or whatever - this is quite lazy marketing really, compared to Rolex.

Rolex go about it slightly differently, they choose winners and champions in their field, be that sport, music, arts, etc, because they believe it helps build a stronger foundation for their brand, and you don't necessarily associate the brand with the celebrity (... erm, Clooney & Omega, anyone?) but instead, the brand is associated with winning, being a champion, or reaching a point in your life where having a Rolex marks something important.

That's really unique and clever marketing, and so far, works really damn well for Rolex!

You articulated this perfectly, in terms of what sets Rolex's marketing apart.

[the dark knight]

Originally Posted by Neil McCauley

Yeh it's my understanding he is the highest paid of all testimonees, on a rolling 10yr contract for $15m

Makes sense, after Michael Jordan and Nike, Federer and Rolex is probably the best ever pairing of an athlete and specific brand.

[RyanJ]

Money talks! According to fratellowatches.com, Federer's deal since 2016 was 8 million a year. No idea if that is true but sign me up. :0

[nachopc]

Originally Posted by Neil McCauley

Maybe, perhaps that's one of the details that we'll never know.

Perhaps they do get given a choice, but it's a fairly narrow one, like in their meeting they get a choice of say, 5-6 watches, curated by Rolex for what they want the person to wear.

Interesting that we don't tend to see many female Rolex testimonees wearing bigger, sports oriented models, perhaps with the exception of Ana Ivanovic who wears a Daytona

Correct, the 116520. I saw wearing a Tiffany as well.


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