The other disadvantage of buying from a grey market dealer is that they don’t offer the same sort of luxurious buying experience you’d get from a real boutique. Image: screenshotĪside from the price-gouging aspect, the other big issue with buying from the grey market is that you miss out on the factory warranty you’d get from buying through an AD – which probably doesn’t bother most customers, but is certainly a disadvantage. The US list price for this watch is US$8,550, meaning they’re charging a 150% markup. 226570-0001) for sale on Watch Trading Co.’s website. That’s a lot of individuals passing their new watches onto them… A brand-new, unworn 2021 Rolex Explorer II (ref. Indeed, all the watches they currently have for sale (including some OMEGAs, too) seem completely new and unworn. ![]() has a clearly separated ‘pre-owned’ section on their site but as of publishing, they have no watches for sale under that category. is necessarily doing anything untoward, either, but the sheer number of virtually new watches they have in stock seems suspicious. We don’t mean to imply that Watch Trading Co. It’s also worth pointing out that there’s a big difference between reputable second-hand dealers selling genuinely second-hand watches (or, at the very worst, new unworn watches that normal customers sell onto them, as per suggestion) and grey market dealers who have undeclared relationships with ADs who are funnelling them new stock before it ever hits a boutique display shelf. RELATED: Canada, China or Colombia? Where To Score Rolex’s Hard To Find Models Who’s really at fault here: the ADs doing the wrong thing, or the grey market dealers fuelling the problem? Would the ADs be so brazen if there wasn’t such insane demand for their watches (or if they thought they couldn’t get away with it), or if there was more stock? It’s a bit of a ‘chicken or the egg’ scenario. First introduced in 2016, they’re two of the most in-demand pieces in Rolex’s current model range. A Rolex Cosmograph Daytona ‘Panda Ceramic’ (ref. They also suggest that the overall profit margin on grey market watches for the grey market dealers isn’t as high as people might assume, instead alleging that the AD takes the lion’s share: “if a Daytona costs 36k, then will sell it probably at 34.5-35k to ”. “The AD will sell it above the list (which is illegal but they still do it) or they will sell bunch other undesirable garbage next to the Daytonas.” RELATED: ‘Avoid Like The Plague’: Watch Fans Reveal The One Place They Would Never Buy A countered by suggesting that it’s not just these large-scale grey market dealers who are supposedly price gouging, saying “the ‘normal’ sells his Daytona for 20k profit the moment he leaves the AD.” They also provide some insight into how these grey market dealers are able to get their hands on so many watches: Some enthusiasts hate how rife the problem has become, suggesting that it prices ‘average consumers’ out of the market (as much as someone who can spend four or five figures on a watch is an average consumer) and degrades their hobby making it about flexing instead of appreciating watches for what they are. RELATED: Patek Philippe Auction Proves The Watch Aftermarket Has Lost Its Damn MindĪs for the watch community at large, people are divided. While brands allegedly try and combat the practice, blacklisting ADs or customers who engage in the practice, the scale of the issue suggests that more than a few ADs are in on the take, potentially backdooring popular models to these dealers. The grey market or ‘flipping’ watches is, sadly, incredibly common in today’s luxury watch landscape. ![]() We all know what’s going on but this just looks sad.” Image: WatchProSiteīut there’s another reason Rolex has become so unattainable – the proliferation of grey market dealers who dominate the market, buy up stock and sell it on at a substantial premium. As the photographer put it, “7 watches for sale. A conspicuously empty display case at Rolex’s Rome–Fiumicino International Airport boutique in 2019. Undoubtedly COVID-19 has had an impact on Rolex (as well as the rest of the watch industry) but this is a problem that’s been brewing for many years. It’s not a mystery why there’s such exclusivity: there’s just nowhere near enough supply to keep up with demand in today’s market, and Rolex hasn’t been able (or willing) to ramp up production to meet it. And that’s when you’re in Rolex’s good books… Even if you’ve built up a relationship with an authorised dealer (AD) – which usually means dropping hundreds of thousands on watches over a long time period – waiting lists for ‘ Pepsis‘ or ‘ Hermits‘ can still be years long.
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