Rumor? Rolex ending partnerships with hundreds of ADs, focusing on boutiques

[NigeG]

Originally Posted by whatisarolexym

I really hope they do not get rid of smaller family-business ADs. They seem to give the best service and have the best chance of getting an allocation.

Bucherer are the most arrogant and the worst customer service ADs in London. Just look at their reviews.
WOS are a close second. Arrogant, rude and highly unlikely to allocate you a watch.

Agree re family business ADs.

Never dealt with Bucherer. Had mixed experiences with WoS at LHR T5 Rolex store.

The first time when it was new and recently opened was very positive.

More recently has been crap. Where I was politely told that I had no “recent purchase history with us”. The SA checked my name and post code. He followed this up with “buy a cheap Tissot at our other store on this trip. Then perhaps a Tudor or something similar on your next one. Then you might get the call from here”. “I get regular customers to book a return flight to Manchester or Edinburgh so they can come and collect”

As I said earlier - Shysters


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[njlam]

When Rolex bought Bucherer, the stock of Watches of Switzerland dropped over 30% and has not recovered, so the stock market (which reflects all available information) thinks that something has changed.

To the degree it can, why wouldn't Rolex want to make the full spread (MSRP - Cost of Goods sold), rather than the wholesale spread (wholesale - CGS)?

So in places where Bucherer has a presence, the ADs are going to have some tough sledding. Obviously the locations without a Bucherer will be okay for now, but Rolex will probably demand some costly improvements in infrastructure.

I like the idea of a place to buy Rolexes where the SAs are only trying to increase the profitability of Rolex. It is also good for increasing the size of the Rolex owner community (once you own one Rolex you will want more) and will likely hurt the grey market.

As I have written many times, I have no problem with Rolex or the greys; the problem is with unethical ADs. The Bucherer acquisition and the move to Rolex only stores is a bold move in the right direction.

[Dave O]

Originally Posted by ratty

I’m curious about your numbers.

In the UK it feels like WoS have almost a monopoly on Rolex sales. How big is WoS in the USA?

According to their website, there are 9 WoS showrooms in the USA. As far as numbers go, watch the two videos below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSS8zTB-L_c&t=1s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...ature=youtu.be

[6172crew]

Rolex is smart, they don’t have to pay a guy who’s selling jewelry or pay rent for a building that sells jewelry.

A rep swings by to make sure things are within specs and profit.

I waited 3 years for my BLNR and the salesperson really didn’t do a lot to make the occasion special but I landed a GMT, my wife got gifts and my son a Tudor. The other option was to take the watches offered that I didn’t want. One day I’d like to own a Daytona, and my wife wants some things so I’ll play the game again once my bank account recovers. I went by the other AD in my area yesterday and I have a feeling the watches are becoming available again in my area.

[HiDive]

My Rolex AD is a great place for me, I love dealing with them. They are a family owned business that has been in town for 130 years. They are friendly and honest and I will not buy from another dealer, unless my favorite does not carry what I an looking for. I have been dealing with them for at least 15 years and they have come through with some pretty hard to come by watches for me.

[joli160]

Boutiques are owned and managed by AD’s. Having more of them will not change anything.

There is only one real Rolex owned boutique in the world.

[kittansett]

AD in Connecticut is being reduced from 4 to 3 Rolex stores in 2 months.

[ratty]

Originally Posted by Dave O

According to their website, there are 9 WoS showrooms in the USA. As far as numbers go, watch the two videos below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSS8zTB-L_c&t=1s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...ature=youtu.be

Thanks for this, I found these videos interesting. Does WoS sell under different brand names in the US?

[Dave O]

Originally Posted by ratty

Thanks for this, I found these videos interesting. Does WoS sell under different brand names in the US?

You're welcome. He has some very good points which make a lot of sense. As far as WoS with a different brand name? Not to my knowledge, but can't be 100% sure.

[hambone1983]

Originally Posted by watchmavan

The evidence supports that AD’s have brought this upon themselves, if it does indeed happen. They have created and fed the grey market for years. No sympathy whatsoever.


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I don't think this is entirely true. No doubt they've been feeding pieces to the greys, but if they were allowed to sell watches at the going rate they would have little incentive to do so. It's not a winning hand to tell a business that it has to sell something 30% below what his customer could get for it within 24 hours, then make the AD responsible if the customer does so. Rolex created this arbitrage problem, not the dealers.

[xrole]

Originally Posted by watchmavan

Yes that is the case. But isn’t that because it’s self perpetuating? If the AD hadn’t created the context in the first place the price disparity wouldn’t exist


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Damn can people please stop quoting all of that stupid VB emoji code? :(

[HiDive]

Originally Posted by hambone1983

I don't think this is entirely true. No doubt they've been feeding pieces to the greys, but if they were allowed to sell watches at the going rate they would have little incentive to do so. It's not a winning hand to tell a business that it has to sell something 30% below what his customer could get for it within 24 hours, then make the AD responsible if the customer does so. Rolex created this arbitrage problem, not the dealers.

At my AD they sell pre-owned Rolex and they send some off to other dealers. I don't know how they determine which go and which stay but I know they do both. The used watches are priced above the retail ones, but maybe not quite as high as what I see them for online.

[HiDive]

Originally Posted by TomInNJ

The boutique in the Rolex building (which is closed at the moment because a new building is being built) is not Rolex owned. It is owned and operated by Wempe.

I had no idea. I have never been there, just my wife on her business trips to deal with Rolex. Does Wempe own / run the repair facility there as well?

[Flypanam]

Originally Posted by whatisarolexym

I really hope they do not get rid of smaller family-business ADs. They seem to give the best service and have the best chance of getting an allocation.

Bucherer are the most arrogant and the worst customer service ADs in London. Just look at their reviews.
WOS are a close second. Arrogant, rude and highly unlikely to allocate you a watch.

That's my concern too. The AD I mentioned in my original post is a family owned jewelry store. It's right near where I live and it was nice to know I could stop by whenever and just window shop, chat, etc. More bucherers, WoS, and similar type places just turns me off. Also with the suspected focus on locations in bigger cities / more "prestigious" locations, it's not nearly as convenient.

[HiDive]

Originally Posted by TheVision

Grain of salt it is. I have some bigger chain AD's in my area that literally thrive on Rolex sales and they've been in business for over 20 years.

Shyte ain't changing. Everyone nowadays appear to be a "rolex insider" but the reality other than Rolex itself, NO ONE knows what the company is doing. It's all smoke with no fire just like shyte Youtubers with ZERO source of credibility but pretending they know all business models inside Rolex chain.

Amen!

[MRBolton]

Originally Posted by joli160

Boutiques are owned and managed by AD’s. Having more of them will not change anything.

There is only one real Rolex owned boutique in the world.

I visited that boutique last month, and I believe they said they won't sell to anyone who's not local, unless it's a very unpopular piece. Talking with the sales associate, he said working there is exactly like working at any other AD. He doesn't really get any additional inside knowledge like you'd expect.

The boutique was nice inside, though. They gave me Rolex chocolates--something I've never even received when making purchases at ADs back home!

[MRBolton]

Originally Posted by kittansett

AD in Connecticut is being reduced from 4 to 3 Rolex stores in 2 months.

What happened?

[Andad]

One more thread full of misinformation.

[Rolexatlast]

Rolex are becoming more and more like the nightclubs that I used to try to get in, during my late teens. Always thinking up new reasons not to let me be a customer.

[xrole]

Originally Posted by Rolexatlast

Rolex are becoming more and more like the nightclubs that I used to try to get in, during my late teens. Always thinking up new reasons not to let me be a customer.

Gotta main that exclusivity image! It's what drives the hype.

[HiDive]

Originally Posted by joli160

Boutiques are owned and managed by AD’s. Having more of them will not change anything.

There is only one real Rolex owned boutique in the world.

Breitling owns boutiques and you can also buy directly from Omega. In both of those cases the Boutiques get earlier, easier and or exclusive access to certain models.

When I bought a Breitling Avenger B01 Chrono it was only available through the boutique. I tried to buy it from several AD's but was told by each AD that they could not access it and I would have to go to one of the boutiques, so I did.

When I wanted to buy an Omega Ploprof Ti, I contacted several AD's and none could get it. The Omega 'Concierge' had it for me in a very short time.

As far as Rolex goes I will not buy one anywhere else than my local AD here. Even when I lived in Hawaii I only bought from this dealer on the Mainland. They have always come through with the watch that I asked for.

[the dark knight]

My understanding is this is just a continuation of what Rolex has been doing for years now. IIRC only one of their boutiques is corporate owned, every other one is owned by an AD. It's just that Rolex "forces" the AD to build a standalone boutique and if they refuse then they will yank the AD.

I've seen this transition during my time living in the SF Bay Area. IIRC there was only one Rolex boutique when I moved up here, owned by Torneau up in the city. Then one opened in the Valley Fair Mall but owned by J. Licht, and Shreve is opening one in the Stanford Mall soon. Kern, Davidson & Licht, and Heller are long time ADs that don't run boutiques. My guess is they will eventually have to do what the other three did and build stand alone boutiques or lose their ADs.

There was also formerly at least two other ADs (Jade Galore and another in Campbell IIRC) that just straight up lost their right to sell Rolex.

So yea, the trend seems clear that Rolex wants boutiques, but they want ADs running them. They make 1.25M watches a year and plan on increasing this, so they do need lots of storefronts.

Interestingly a watchmaker going the other direction in terms of boutique strategy is A Lange. They are also pulling ADs, but most of their boutiques are actually corporate owned. This strategy works better when you have the low production numbers they do. Again, something Rolex can't.

[Zach69SS]

WoS did buy many ADs when they on a buying spree a few years ago, in my state they bought Mayor’s and Mayor’s does not care about new customers or old ones prior to acquisition. They claim that they don’t ask anyone to buy other watch brands or jewelry? But that is not the case. If you don’t buy anything else they will not offer you a Rolex. Ever!

I’m sure there are some Mayor’s Locations where this does not happen, I have not seen any.

With Bucherer they are still playing by the old play book, you have to pay to play. Period
Rolex does not know this is happening, they are not involved in the day to day operations at Bucherer , if you have been treated in this way , contact Rolex USA and Bucherer corporate. This has to stop and there is no reason for it, as consumers we should be able to buy what we want and not have play these games. If enough people complain things wil change Rolex does not want this type of publicity.

[Poodlopogus]

Originally Posted by Flypanam

Well, I have some possible bad news regarding the distribution and availability of Rolex watches. PLEASE TAKE IT ALL WITH A GRAIN OF SALT BECAUSE IT'S JUST INFORMATION I GOT FROM MY SA, PLUS A BIT OF SPECULATION ON BOTH OUR PART.

I went to the AD today to get a link removed from my Daytona. While the watchmaker in back was working on it, I was chatting with the SA. I noticed that they removed their Cartier section completely and that the Rolex section had even fewer than usual exhibition pieces. It was downright bare. I asked about it, and she said they "lost" Cartier and Rolex.

I asked what the heck does that mean... "lost"?? Where did you lose them!? She mentioned that Cartier pulled out of their store completely, citing plans focusing more on selling watches primarily through boutiques rather than jewelers. I asked what about Rolex, and she said they are doing the same thing.

While admittedly she is an SA and not one of the big bosses, she was involved in conversation because she is THE Rolex SA at this particular jewelry store, very knowledgeable not just some glorified sales clerk. They are apparently quite concerned about their business, and understandably so. This store is one of two remaining ADs in my state, with many customers coming from far and wide, and Rolex watches alone made up 60% of the store's revenue (the other 40% from their jewelry, diamonds, and other watch brands including Omega and Tag). It also sucks because they have a Rolex certified watchmaker on staff, and I believe they just hired a second one, and were really advertising how they could service watches professionally in-house without having to send them out.

Apparently they are no longer receiving shipments of new Rolex watches for the rest of the year, stuck with just their remaining stock, and according to her the plan is for Rolex to end partnership with 300-500 ADs worldwide over the course of the next year. The store's management is thinking that with the acquisition of Bucherer / Tourneau, Rolex's plan to expand and sell more from dedicated Rolex boutiques instead. This AD is in a bit of a holding pattern now to see what the end of the year brings as this all just kind of blindsided them.

Wonder if this is a bit of a hubris move on Rolex's part, or it it's part of some plan to try to cut down on ADs that Rolex has no direct control over (such as no oversight against selling to gray market retailers)... or both.. it's not mutually exclusive. I think this might be a credible idea, since back when the acquisition occurred the thought was "The Bucherer deal will give the brand a direct line to its customers and more control and oversight for distribution, allocations as well as pricing for pre-owned timepieces." per an August 2023 article. The other thing the SA thought was that Rolex seems to want big, opulent stores in big cities, rather than being distributed by random (though high-end) jewelers in suburbs, etc, for "brand image". My AD being one of these suburban high end jewelry stores. We agreed this is stupid, people don't want to drive into a busy city just to shop for watches when they used to be able to at their local jeweler, but on the other hand we also don't know what's going on in Rolex marketing's mind.

As mentioned, not sure if this is all 100% true (or even partially true) and it's partly speculation on my and the SA's behalf, but the store itself looked rather bleak and I can't really think of any ulterior motive for the SA to share all of this with me.

Wondering if anyone else has heard anything similar?

If this is the jeweler I think it is, then this is sad indeed!

Not that it's much consolation, but if it is the jeweler I think it is, there are actually a total of four dealers in the state, though.

[Dave O]

Originally Posted by the dark knight

My understanding is this is just a continuation of what Rolex has been doing for years now. IIRC only one of their boutiques is corporate owned, every other one is owned by an AD. It's just that Rolex "forces" the AD to build a standalone boutique and if they refuse then they will yank the AD.

I've seen this transition during my time living in the SF Bay Area. IIRC there was only one Rolex boutique when I moved up here, owned by Torneau up in the city. Then one opened in the Valley Fair Mall but owned by J. Licht, and Shreve is opening one in the Stanford Mall soon. Kern, Davidson & Licht, and Heller are long time ADs that don't run boutiques. My guess is they will eventually have to do what the other three did and build stand alone boutiques or lose their ADs.

There was also formerly at least two other ADs (Jade Galore and another in Campbell IIRC) that just straight up lost their right to sell Rolex.

So yea, the trend seems clear that Rolex wants boutiques, but they want ADs running them. They make 1.25M watches a year and plan on increasing this, so they do need lots of storefronts.

Interestingly a watchmaker going the other direction in terms of boutique strategy is A Lange. They are also pulling ADs, but most of their boutiques are actually corporate owned. This strategy works better when you have the low production numbers they do. Again, something Rolex can't.

As an FYI, the Davidson & Licht location in Walnut Creek is currently getting ready to remodel their store mostly due to Rolex's request (just as many other AD's are doing). They have a temporary site they will be moving to during the remodel, and will be moving there late this year early next. After the remodel, the new store will not be a Rolex only boutique. They should be maintaining their current line of watches and jewelry. That being said, the new Rolex part of the store will be front and center.

Bottom line, I don't think the Rolex end game is a boutique only business model.

[the dark knight]

Originally Posted by Dave O

As an FYI, the Davidson & Licht location in Walnut Creek is currently getting ready to remodel their store mostly due to Rolex's request (just as many other AD's are doing). They have a temporary site they will be moving to during the remodel, and will be moving there late this year early next. After the remodel, the new store will not be a Rolex only boutique. They should be maintaining their current line of watches and jewelry. That being said, the new Rolex part of the store will be front and center.

Bottom line, I don't think the Rolex end game is a boutique only business model.

Good point. Heller did the same thing, basically half of their store is only Rolex so might as well be a small boutique.

I do think though that this will be the minimum requirement going forward. I guess Kern in Burlingame is the only one left (well at least when I last visited) that has more of that "older" AD feel where Rolex is just in a showcase alongside other brands instead of in its own "side" of the store. My guess is if they keep their Rolex AD they will have to build out a separate Rolex "wing".

[bay_area_kid]

Originally Posted by the dark knight

I guess Kern in Burlingame is the only one left (well at least when I last visited) that has more of that "older" AD feel where Rolex is just in a showcase alongside other brands instead of in its own "side" of the store. My guess is if they keep their Rolex AD they will have to build out a separate Rolex "wing".

Kerns just opened a Rolex boutique in San Francisco on Post St. It's right next to their new Patek boutique.

https://www.rolex.com/rolex-dealers/...o-unitedstates

[Poodlopogus]

Originally Posted by njlam

To the degree it can, why wouldn't Rolex want to make the full spread (MSRP - Cost of Goods sold), rather than the wholesale spread (wholesale - CGS)?

Because it's not that simple. There's a whole other set of expenses (SG&A, PP&E, etc) associated with retail besides COGS you have to consider. And sometimes, those expenses can exceed the wholesale-MSRP spread. At least with wholesale, you're dealing with a smaller number of larger B2B customers instead of thousands of consumers. It's a whole different world.

[ArtNouveau]

Just a point that has been overlooked…when RolexSA bought Bucherer it was said at the time that the purchase was more about the real estate than the jewelry business. RolexSA has never said that they are getting into the retail business via these stores yet people here keep making up scenarios where they are. I certainly believe that Rolex is expecting more from their dealers and closing many, but the Bucherer acquisition has nothing to do with it.
My local Rolex dealer is undergoing a major renovation right now and is currently in temporary quarters across the street. From what they told me Rolex and Tudor will have their own dedicated sections and surprisingly to me they are adding Omega, it will be their only AD in the state.

[the dark knight]

Originally Posted by bay_area_kid

Kerns just opened a Rolex boutique in San Francisco on Post St. It's right next to their new Patek boutique.

https://www.rolex.com/rolex-dealers/...o-unitedstates

Oh nice. Where there you go.