Rolex Certified Pre-Owned program

[ILuvSubs]

It will be interesting to see how Rolex’s recent announcement about starting a Certified Pre-Owned program will impact vintage pieces.

On its face, it applies to Rolex watches older than 3 years, but I would be surprised if they entered the minefield of vintage Rolex and originality vs service parts, given RSC’s historical stance of polishing cases and replacing anything original with service parts (rather than trying to preserve originality).

I get the sense it will mainly cover modern Rolex, but imagine if you could buy a Comex 5514 through the program or a 1665 Omani Khanjar…

https://timeandtidewatches.com/rolex...-than-answers/

[TuRo]

This will increase used prices immediately - Bucherer have been selling used vintage Rolex for months and two Rolex AD's in UK have been offering vintage stuff - they'll now be able to fill the cabinets with 16710,16660, 5513, 1680, 14270, 16030, 16520, 1655, 16570 and the like and perhaps some big hitters like Milsubs, Comex and Exotic Deco Manual Daytonas too - Bucherer charge c 20% more than even C24 so expect prices to be high and even more than Watchfinder (and see my other new post - Watchmaster who have just gone into Administration)

[Mark020]

Exactly this will happen ^^

[mjolnir2thor]

Originally Posted by ILuvSubs

It will be interesting to see how Rolex’s recent announcement about starting a Certified Pre-Owned program will impact vintage pieces.

On its face, it applies to Rolex watches older than 3 years, but I would be surprised if they entered the minefield of vintage Rolex and originality vs service parts, given RSC’s historical stance of polishing cases and replacing anything original with service parts (rather than trying to preserve originality).

I get the sense it will mainly cover modern Rolex, but imagine if you could buy a Comex 5514 through the program or a 1665 Omani Khanjar…

https://timeandtidewatches.com/rolex...-than-answers/

Very interesting news and I suspect they will focus more on the newer pieces since the vintage market is much smaller than the market for newer timepieces. If they were to resell vintage, they would have destroy the originality of the watch to certify it. Can you imagine Rolex putting a new dial on a pristine 5512 from the late 50s!

What is even more interesting is Rolex is now directly competing with the big pre-owned sellers. For the consumer, I suspect the added market competition should drive prices down.

[Filipão]

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/vint...m-t271653.html

All < 3 years old.

[Dan S]

The program involves certifying authenticity, not originality. In the context of vintage watches, I doubt there will be any distinction made between service and original parts. Rolex never seems to care about that.

[Filipão]

This is a sample from the Bucherer's site:

[HMHM]

Im curious to see what's their plan regarding the 4 digits and 5 digits Daytona. If a fully serviced 6265 with replacement parts will be priced lower than a fully original 6265, it's something I will definitely consider. Or a 16520 with superluminova instead of tritium.

[Filipão]

Originally Posted by HMHM

Im curious to see what's their plan regarding the 4 digits and 5 digits Daytona. If a fully serviced 6265 with replacement parts will be priced lower than a fully original 6265, it's something I will definitely consider. Or a 16520 with superluminova instead of tritium.

No plans. Only for pre-owned less than 3 years old (#5 above)

Please read: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/vint...m-t271653.html

[mjolnir2thor]

Originally Posted by Filipão

This is a sample from the Bucherer's site:

Very interesting to see the "Rolex Certified Pre-Owned" symbol on the watches. A paradigm shift underway!

[Dan S]

Originally Posted by Filipão

No plans. Only for pre-owned less than 3 years old (#5 above)

Please read: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/vint...m-t271653.html

I believe it's more than 3 years old.

[TuRo]

Originally Posted by Dan S

The program involves certifying authenticity, not originality. In the context of vintage watches, I doubt there will be any distinction made between service and original parts. Rolex never seems to care about that.

Indeed - let’s say Rolex dealer sell say a 14060 from 1997 with a Swiss service dial and hands and a 2002 one with its original Swiss made dial - If otherwise both are identical, they would have to sell them at same price, otherwise they are somewhat diss’ing their own replacement parts!

[Haywood_Milton]

Their stratospheric prices will serve only to strengthen the grey and secondhand market, not stymie it as they apparently hoped.

More troubling is the move to stop service provision for four-digit model references. Even now Rolex UK seem increasingly to insist on a new mid-case before they will proceed. We could be about to see an entire generation of classics (5513, 1675, 1680, 1665, 1655 etc) all move out of mainstream Rolex service pathways.

[Kingface66]

Originally Posted by Filipão

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/vint...m-t271653.html

All < 3 years old.

That’s not correct. It’s for “Rolex models that are at least three years old at the time of resale”

[TuRo]

Originally Posted by Kingface66

That’s not correct. It’s for “Rolex models that are at least three years old at the time of resale”

How weird - can you imagine say a Porsche Dealer ONLY selling new AND cars over 3 years old - who will sell the 1 month old up to 36 month old, low hanging fruit (in terms of authenticity checking), ones then !?

[SOG DIVER]

Part of this direction may be in response to unavailable newer references to meet
world-wide demand. Particularly the sports models.
Not being oblivious to this, Rolex decided on a stop-gap measure to diffuse some of the gray market. May not be working.
Vintage Rolex parts have been drying up, if Rolex moves not to service the vintage watches as HM suggests,
our older watches may be in service peril sans independents. Most all of my Submariners fall into this area.