The fact that when you walk into a Rolex store, the dealer tells you which watch you can buy doesn’t help either.
So people buy from shady sites online, since Rolex won’t even sell them the watch they want, before they’ve “established a relationship” (i.e. bought a watch they don’t want first) with their dealer.
I hadn’t heard of that, and it sounds completely insane. I’ve never been interested in automatics, so I guess I’ve never had to deal with the level of pure hype that can come with them. It amazes me that people put up with it.
I am one of the heathen and not a real collector, although I do enjoy looking at all the beautiful and fascinating automatics. I always wear a Citizen Skyhawk A-T Titanium Blue Angels, a Casio Pro Trek 3500T-7, or a Samsung smartwatch. They make me happy, as well as doing the job.
It even makes sense on some weird level.
Demand still far exceeds supply with Rolex watches.
Which means, if Rolex sold any watch to any new customer as soon as its available, scalpers would keep buying up the entire stock and resell them for a profit.
By only selling the more desirable models to customers who already bought a less desirable one, Rolex prevents that.
The alternative would be raising prices until demand matches supply.
My guess is, they already tried that too, and found out to their delight that Rolex watches are a Veblen good.
and i’m sure the mass market consumers can’t be bothered to research how to spot counterfeits, so there’s fake rolexes walking around everywhere
The fact that when you walk into a Rolex store, the dealer tells you which watch you can buy doesn’t help either.
So people buy from shady sites online, since Rolex won’t even sell them the watch they want, before they’ve “established a relationship” (i.e. bought a watch they don’t want first) with their dealer.
Wow! Just wow.
I hadn’t heard of that, and it sounds completely insane. I’ve never been interested in automatics, so I guess I’ve never had to deal with the level of pure hype that can come with them. It amazes me that people put up with it.
I am one of the heathen and not a real collector, although I do enjoy looking at all the beautiful and fascinating automatics. I always wear a Citizen Skyhawk A-T Titanium Blue Angels, a Casio Pro Trek 3500T-7, or a Samsung smartwatch. They make me happy, as well as doing the job.
It even makes sense on some weird level.
Demand still far exceeds supply with Rolex watches.
Which means, if Rolex sold any watch to any new customer as soon as its available, scalpers would keep buying up the entire stock and resell them for a profit.
By only selling the more desirable models to customers who already bought a less desirable one, Rolex prevents that.
The alternative would be raising prices until demand matches supply.
My guess is, they already tried that too, and found out to their delight that Rolex watches are a Veblen good.