Rolex- the stupidest, lamest company

[flat8]

Had to chime in on this one because I’m a watch guy.

Love my Explorer. Perfect under-the-radar Rolex.

Also own a few from Cartier, Grand Seiko, Omega, Breitling, JLC, Sinn & others.

My point - Rolex makes a great watch. I’m glad I have one, and do wear my Explorer more than any of my other watches. But many other brands make a good watch too. And like many here, I have been treated like garbage by every AD here in the US except the guys in Vegas. It’s very sad - they are damaging their brand.

Right now, I’m on a 5 state business trip. I’m wearing a G-Shock GW5000U!

 

[Daisy]

That sprite is stunning @Hawken18 . My dream watch is a SS GMT “Pepsi” with a jubilee band. It was an undesirable watch 10 years ago, now it’s unobtainium, even with the relaunch. The black and green ceramic bezel looks great on your modern GMT.

 

[Tango]

Very very nice. I don't think it gets any better than a Pepsi GMT.

 

[Tango]

Had to chime in on this one because I’m a watch guy.

Love my Explorer. Perfect under-the-radar Rolex.

Also own a few from Cartier, Grand Seiko, Omega, Breitling, JLC, Sinn & others.

My point - Rolex makes a great watch. I’m glad I have one, and do wear my Explorer more than any of my other watches. But many other brands make a good watch too. And like many here, I have been treated like garbage by every AD here in the US except the guys in Vegas. It’s very sad - they are damaging their brand.

Right now, I’m on a 5 state business trip. I’m wearing a G-Shock GW5000U!

Agreed on the Explorer. That piece on a NATO has become my daily. Works all over the world in a very low key manner

 

[Safari Dave]

I've never had to wait to purchase a new Rolex.


But, the last one I bought was 19 years ago...

I bought a stainless/gold DATEJUST in 2005 for my aunt to give my uncle for their 50th wedding anniversary.

 

[Luvthunt]

Many Rolex sales folks IMO would qualify as used car sales people. Must be a learned system.

 

[rookhawk]

Many Rolex sales folks IMO would qualify as used car sales people. Must be a learned system.

Easiest job ever if you’re in sales at an AD. Your job is solely to figure out who has spent serious cash at your jewelry store previously that warrants access to your allotment.

Those that get a call from an AD offering a watch, 95% say yes. (You should always say yes) Saying no is the last call you ever get. If you don’t want the watch, buy it and sell it for equal money if you must, but stay on the AD’s good side by always accepting if they take the time to present you with a new watch on allotment you had requested.

Same with Ferraris.

For that reason, its one of the easier sales jobs.

 

[Daisy]

Good for Rolex for protecting their core customers over, selling, as many watches as they can. It keeps their brand awareness up, it keeps their resale values up, and rewards repeat customers. If you really think about it, what a great way to do things.

 

[Tango]

Agreed, I appreciate knowing my Rolex purchases are solid investments as well as enjoyable

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Easiest job ever if you’re in sales at an AD. Your job is solely to figure out who has spent serious cash at your jewelry store previously that warrants access to your allotment.

Those that get a call from an AD offering a watch, 95% say yes. (You should always say yes) Saying no is the last call you ever get. If you don’t want the watch, buy it and sell it for equal money if you must, but stay on the AD’s good side by always accepting if they take the time to present you with a new watch on allotment you had requested.

Same with Ferraris.

For that reason, its one of the easier sales jobs.

Really hard for me to grasp why anybody would want ANYTHING so badly to be played like that. As to investment value, I think letting my pro advisor do that for me makes more sense. Yeah, I pay them money for that advice but at the end of the year it comes right off the top of my taxable income. Buying a watch not so much.

 

[JoninCO]

My best friend bought a Daytona for $16k (MSRP) off the waiting list (9 mos.) Tuesday and sold it for $31,500 today. For the reasons mentioned above, he didn’t want to pass on it and not get the call in the future.

My financial advisor would probably tell me doubling my money overnight is an OK decision. Find me a safer way to do it than a new stainless Rolex sports watch and I’m all ears.

You don’t have to work for the game, you can make the game work for you.

 

[Tango]

Really hard for me to grasp why anybody would want ANYTHING so badly to be played like that. As to investment value, I think letting my pro advisor do that for me makes more sense. Yeah, I pay them money for that advice but at the end of the year it comes right off the top of my taxable income. Buying a watch not so much.

No one is getting played, same as buying a car, a home, stocks/investments etc. It's a free market, buyer beware. I've always been treated well by my ADs

 

[rookhawk]

Really hard for me to grasp why anybody would want ANYTHING so badly to be played like that. As to investment value, I think letting my pro advisor do that for me makes more sense. Yeah, I pay them money for that advice but at the end of the year it comes right off the top of my taxable income. Buying a watch not so much.

My profits from buying and flipping Rolexes within 24 hours during the 2010-2014 era paid for a lot of safaris, and diapers, and dinners.

It was a grand time.

Its one of the best alternative investments you can own. For me, virtually all of my alternative investments have outperformed the markets. Unlike stocks and bonds, I get to wear my rolexes, shoot my London bests, and take my doubles on safaris. If I choose to sell them, I beat the market and got to enjoy a tangible, appreciating asset for a period of time.

This isn't meant to be a snark or dig at you or any other person, just a frank warning to any reader. If you have a bad read on tastes and market preferences, don't buy anything thinking you're going to make money on it, call it a total loss. I don't operate that way in my life and it has allowed me to live a bigger life than my financial means would otherwise permit. But there are limitations, I can't always stomp my feet and buy "what I want" I need my preferences of what I want to also be backstopped by what I believe the market's future wants are as well.

People ask how I could afford more than a dozen safaris, and live in a lodge on 1300' of trout river, and have all my paid off cars, and am nearly debt free, and how I have so many toys. The answer is above: I don't make investment mistakes, the alternative asset classes and their trajectory has been obvious to me because I'm not stubborn and unwilling to "go with the market flow" in the areas that interest me.

 

[fourfive8]

I don't know about getting played but seems there are plenty of people play the game and expect to to get played. It's like a 50-70 year old in midlife crisis, cruising around in an expensive convertible Euro sports car, with hairdresser-do combed back thinning hair, while wearing a gold bling jewelry necklace with top shirt button undone, light blue slacks, no socks and penny loafers. Then having to drive across a state to a service center for an oil and filter change that costs $500. Sorry, but that's my image of many Rolex connoisseurs.

 

[Tango]

The intransigent drive by some here to insult Rolex owners with tired ad hominem arguments (vs an honest discussion of watches) amazes me. People should take rookhawk's last post to heart. He gets it.

 

[Siennacoyote]

My best friend bought a Daytona for $16k (MSRP) off the waiting list (9 mos.) Tuesday and sold it for $31,500 today. For the reasons mentioned above, he didn’t want to pass on it and not get the call in the future.

My financial advisor would probably tell me doubling my money overnight is an OK decision. Find me a safer way to do it than a new stainless Rolex sports watch and I’m all ears.

You don’t have to work for the game, you can make the game work for you.

Your best friend is part of the problem for a Guy who just wants to get a watch and not pay double .i think The grey market is just ads who sell to friends and split the profit since ads aren’t supposed to sell above msrp

 

[JoninCO]

Yes, the grey market relationship with ADs is probably crooked. Nobody has a gun to anyone’s head: find a dealer that isn’t scummy and wait your turn, or pay the convenience tax and go grey. Supply and demand just is what it is.

He waited his turn, paid his money, and is doing what he chooses with his property. FWIW he has 3-4 dozen and he’s only sold two that I know of. That said, It isn’t his moral obligation to protect the new Rolex market.

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

It is all about that feeling of excitement, satisfaction, happiness and appreciation that comes from looking forward to something special. Waiting for it, saving for it, finding it and finally it is yours. Could be a double, a fine watch, a classic car perhaps, but you know you have found something of value, not because it necessarily cost a lot, but because you bestow that value upon it, and it makes you smile. I almost feel sorry for folks that deny themselves that pleasure.

 

[WyoBull]

I don't know about getting played but seems there are plenty of people play the game and expect to to get played. It's like a 50-70 year old in midlife crisis, cruising around in an expensive convertible Euro sports car, with hairdresser-do combed back thinning hair, while wearing a gold bling jewelry necklace with top shirt button undone, light blue slacks, no socks and penny loafers. Then having to drive across a state to a service center for an oil and filter change that costs $500. Sorry, but that's my image of many Rolex connoisseurs.

Well, I guess you haven’t seen me then. I wear a Stormy Kromer cap most of the year, wear wranglers and boots, drive a 1 ton truck, hunt coyotes, fly fish for trout, hunt birds with my black lab, drink Coors beer, like a good single malt scotch and have been known to pack a good dip of Copenhagen.
I couldn’t be further away from your image of someone who owns a Rolex but yet I do have a Submariner.

 

[Jefferry404]

bought my first Rolex in 1989 (coke GMT) and my 2nd in 2015 (Sea dweller). Retired now on a ranch in the mountains and wear my Sea Dweller 24/7, working around, plowing snow, repairing fences, chain sawing fallen trees, etc. Used to worry some. But when I saw Philippe Cousteau watch realized they are meant to be worn and used... Not bad for 11 years at sea
Steve