![]() Long term, this may be a problem for Rolex. Don’t mix that up with “cheapening” however - since the watches will still remain sold out (almost always) before they hit the shelves. This turns off the new enthusiast to Rolex and drives them towards something else. What they don’t mention is the list is mostly non-existent outside of major clientele, and the new enthusiast never gets “the call”. This, in turn, causes first-time enthusiasts excited about purchasing their first Rolex to get hit with the “We don’t have that model in stock, we will put you on our list if you’d like” line. Which simply leads to empty shelves, or worse “Display Model Only” signs. If they can use gold watches to entice a buyer towards a steel watch, they will. That potential future business outweighs the direct current business pretty heavily. Rolex’s limited supply has put their AD’s in an awkward position of selling at a premium (which they shouldn’t, and technically aren’t allowed to do) to maintain cash flow or allocate desirable models to clients they want to keep long term. And ironically, they’re not entirely wrong - though context is needed. ![]() Rolex operates its business as usual, while moving responsibility to who they claim is the real culprits of this perception, the AD’s. However, Rolex, who remember has a finite production line that they seem to be fine maintaining, has made their money on the watch - however much that is. This gives the appearance that, without the access, you’ll have to pay upwards of $40,000 for the Pepsi when the value is less than $10,000. ![]() Retail on this watch is just north of $9,500, yet gray market prices have the watch selling at over $35,000 (and up) on many sites - and it’s not just listed at that price, it’s actually consistently selling there. Let’s take the steel GMT Master II “Pepsi” (ref. Pretend with me, if you will, that you run Rolex, and step out of the “enthusiast” role for just a second. Now, hear me out - from the brand’s perspective. With increases anywhere from 30% up to 200% outside of the Rolex Authorized Dealers (AD’s), many prominent watch journals have made claims that this cheapens the brand. The last five to six years have been a roller coaster for Rolex prices. Which explains a good portion of their predictable response. The major increases on the grey market really don’t affect the Rolex brand as much as people think it does. However, especially for those who simply want to walk into a retailer and buy the watch they want - It’s simply exhausting.Ģ. They have a certain capacity to make watches - they don’t seem interested in expanding that capacity to meet that demand (at the moment anyway). While the “We don’t want to compromise our quality to produce more” feels like a cop-out, it really isn’t. Do they necessarily need to or want to? No. Could Rolex make more money by producing more stock of specific models? Absolutely. The model production may vary year to year, but they are definitely NOT unaware of how much demand there is for steel Rolex models among enthusiasts - and they still won’t produce enough. They are fine with whatever business that amount of models drums up. What I mean by this is that Rolex is going to make a finite amount of watches each year. Rolex doesn’t care if there is a “shortage” of watches, because they don’t determine the demand. That being said, there are three things that I’ve noticed around the entire Rolex “Supply” situation.ġ. Right… So… Let’s dive in to that response. Understandably, this naturally restricts our production capacities – which we continue to increase as much as possible and always according to our quality criteria.įinally, it should be noted that Rolex watches are available exclusively from official retailers, who independently manage the allocation of watches to customers." They are assembled by hand, with extreme care, to meet the brand's unique and high-quality standards of quality, performance and aesthetics. Rolex does not compromise on what it takes to produce exceptional watches.Īll Rolex watches are developed and produced in-house at our four sites in Switzerland. This level of excellence requires time, and as we have always done, we will continue to take the necessary time to ensure that all our watches not only comply with our standards of excellence, but also meet the expectations of our customers in terms of quality, reliability and robustness. Our current production cannot meet the existing demand in an exhaustive way, at least not without reducing the quality of our watches – something we refuse to do as the quality of our products must never be compromised. "The scarcity of our products is not a strategy on our part. Before I continue, you can read the statement below - provided by Rolex SA to Yahoo Business:
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