How the Rolex market is manipulated against normal customers?
Twelve months ago, the entire industry was in a joyous mood as we approached the first Geneva Watch Fair since the pandemic.
The demand for new watches has never been stronger, largely driven by a new kind of customer, defined in a report by the Boston Consulting Group and WatchBox as collectors/investors.
These customers are young, primarily high-income millennials, now between the ages of 27 and 42, who regularly buy ultra-luxury watches and resell them at a profit.
If BCG is correct, then almost six of the copy watches sold today were acquired by collectors/investors. This includes both new and used watches.
When you look at the other categories of luxury watch customers in the BCG chart above, you see how difficult it is for the average person who occasionally desires a high-end watch – maybe once or twice in a lifetime – to get a shot at a retailer.
The three types of customers that would have been the lifeblood of the watch business as recently as 2018 are now fighting for two-fifths of watches at retail and losing.
Every time WatchPro runs a story on a new Rolex showroom, we get comments from these “regular customers” complaining that they’ll never even get on the waiting list for a replica watch they’d love to buy.
The answer is that investing in newer and larger stores has nothing to do with better serving the average customer and is entirely about giving retailers a better allocation from Rolex to customers with the greatest spending power and the strongest buying history.
So when the Swiss watch company opens the Temple of Rolex Gods in London later this year, its primary purpose is to get more watches to benefit its investor/collector customers.
This is why the market for Rolex is being manipulated to the detriment of normal customers who truly love watches.
Suppose Rolex watches lose their AAA investment grade status. In that case, neglecting these normal customers and even insulting them over the past five years will not be to the detriment of Rolex and its authorized dealers.
Category: gifts