If you respect your hard earned money you will never buy a stock non limited or custom made watch over retail price. In my opinion this pre-owned business bullshit is the last nail to Rolex coffin in a world of real timepieces lovers.
….but definitely not the last / not a nail at all to a Rolex Coffin in a world of real luxury lovers and snobbery where a huge buying potential is sitting! Real watch lovers aren’t so important to the success of a watch brand….
@@fragu123 i know but i don't care for a snob perspective. There are so many watch brands sometimes even better and cheaper than Rolex to choose from. Of course I love some specific Rolex models but being a respectful to myself I would never consider to pay extra over retail for non limited or hand crafted timepiece.
Charging more for a used watch would be market suicide for them. I believe they will offer incentives: Trade in your old watch and we'll sell you a new one...no waitlist.
I think if the game plan of Rolex is to dilute the secondary market by entering into the fray, they might be in for a surprise. Unless Rolex is willing to remain more competitive than the grey's (which is unlikely, considering the buy-in cost, re-servicing and profit mark-up, extended warranty etc), there will only be a small select group of consumers going that route. If their pricing is less appealing to the masses, I don't see how that strategy could work out in the long run. Nonetheless, should this new initiative take on a large enough global market presence, it just might be able to tilt the demands to their favor.
IMO, Rolex just want to keep the price since the market price drops recently and will drop more in near future. Looks good to the grey market but don't konw if this is good to normal customers...
What's your take? Would the Rolex doing certified pre-owned watches weaken the current premium secondary market prices and bring them down closer to retail? Or will it be the other way around, and this will strengthen the secondary market (premium) prices?
Rolex is buying up grey inventory to stop their market price from failing off a cliff. Also ADs around the world been complaining that they spent huge $$$$ for Rolex renovation in prime storefront locations only have nothing to display besides the display models which they cant sell, so they wanted a piece of the online grey dealer's pie which Rolex finally agreed and came out with the official CPO program. Big ADs like bucherer's and WoS already been doing their own CPO for a while now, so instead of empty shelfs or display models, ADs will place these "Rolex official CPOs" within the Rolex section of the stores to sell to customers.
If Rolex CPO will be higher than grey because of all the rara, grey will benchmark against it- marketing it as why buy CPO when I’m 10% cheaper blah blah. Nothing new in the CPO car market, Rolex didn’t reinvent the wheel
@@danny77670000 Exactly. Porsche does this. During the covid phase, a CPO 911 was a lot more than MSRP. And still on some models this will always be the case. GT3, GT3RS… etc.
Before that move there were two prices in the market for a Rolex watch now that will become three , well done to the King 🤴 as if the joke wasn't funny enough.
Genius move by Rolex. Everyone wins. Rolex wins by controlling the secondary market and keeping the prices, and hence their brand status, high. ADs win because they get another income stream. Customers win (believe it or not) because it allows the subset of customers who were too cautious to enter the wild west of the grey market to now have a safe way to buy, sell and trade used watches, which is after all what collecting is all about. If anything it allows them another way to build history with their AD. I think it's a great move by Rolex.
The idea was not too bad but the execution - forced service of the watch whilst transferring the cost + premium to the Client - is hilarious. It also adds to the AD game "now you can buy Rolex whilst pushing your client rating so you might get retail". To top it they give you bracelets and parts which they kept from servicing older watches, telling clients those nedded to be exchanged because actual vintage parts are not easy to come by. It is super clever but the near opposite of a luxury customer experience imho. And we should not enforce and reward brands for evolving in this direction. Imagine Car companies to treat you the way some watch brands do (not only Rolex)
Yes all this for a small white tag & a warranty card. An average watch has 300 moving parts compare to thousands for a car that goes through real wear & tear, CPO cars gives more assurance to a customer than a watch.
The massive stockpile of Rolex watches at grey dealers argues that the market price of Rolex is overly inflated. These certified pre owned are priced even above this inflated price. If the “intention” was to slow or stop the deflation of that market price bubble, then it’s guaranteed to fail (as you point out). Floating the Rolex RRP to the market price WILL NOT stop the decline because the bubble was inflated by speculators. Now that the market price is going down, those people are gone. The only way to keep the bubble inflated is for Rolex SA (the manufacturer) to buy back Rolex at inflated prices and melt them down (to reduce the stock of watches in circulation), and that will never happen.
The true intention of this new program is to further consolidate the Rolex distribution market. The plan doesn’t come from Rolex SA (the manufacturer), it comes from the large distributors (Bucherer and Watches of Switzerland). Those big distributors have watchmakers on staff and can “refurbish” used Rolex, while the little mom and pop ones don’t. When this program becomes mandatory, it will drive the little shops out and the big ones, that have been growing by acquiring these small shops, will be able to get them cheaper. Rolex SA (the manufacturer) is so dependent on its big distributors (hundreds of stores) that it can’t refuse their request. The biggest losers here are the consumers and small AD shops.
This is BS, Rolex Pre-owned at the AD price is way above grey market value and is unjustified even after servicing the watch. Rolex had an opportunity to squish the grey market but they choose to prop it up again so you tell who’s at fault for this current dilemma especially when I go to the Bahrain AD to find no steel sport available but at the Gold Silk grey market dealer has all the new models at almost twice msrp. This is complete shame by Rolex prop up the price of their watches in the secondary with future plans of bring it up at the AD at higher rate than other brands, WATCH!
@@a004 at the rate they are going, Rolex is becoming the most hated brand in the upper mid tear watch industry. Where it used to be a mark of success prestige and accomplishment, Rolex now represents exclusive to stupid money that will spend too much just to get the elusive steel sport while trying to rise to a level they don’t belong in, AP and PP, Rolex is not a brand for the super rich whole will always look theirs noses down on those wearing them as new money. Time for Rolex to stop playing before they those their target audience indefinitely because a bad reputation is hard to over come.
@@navegandolejanooriente6268 they are hated, by people who can't afford to play the Rolex game. The truth, and yes it's a sad truth, is that Rolex doesn't want those customers. They want higher end customers. And I assure you that among those higher end, wealthier customers, the Rolex brand is as strong as it's ever been.
It gets worse, just as prices where decreasing, Rolex is shutting down in January because of that idiot Zelensky. That clown really needs bounced out on his sorry ass.
Let me explain.....Rolex preowned prices are a lot higher than the grey market prices. Rolex knows the grey market will get greedy and raise their prices accordingly. Thus the decision will be easy. Buy from the shady grey market or the AD which will give you a 2 year warranty. Its genius on Rolex's part.
