LAZY / TRAVESTY - Federico Unloads on Rolex

[Frank McKay]

Originally Posted by matPORTS

I rarely comment, but I am getting sick of these YouTubers who continually hype this already severely over inflated market, even without the presence of YouTube and other avenues of social media.

Rolex will not listen to Federico and any other YouTuber, and for good reason. As a brand they do not want to become like their competitors.

If you go to any AD / Boutique you will find the stock of most other brands sitting in the display cases gathering dust.

The reality is that the mechanical watch industry is dying a slow death. Rolex (and Patek) understand this, and know that the only way to survive in a 'Smart Watch' world where the Apple Watch / Garmin / FitBit / Etc has become the mainstream & mechanical watches have then become essentially close to obsolete will be 'brand equity and exclusivity'. I'm talking 15-20 years from now.

So, I'm sure they hear what Federico and all the other popular YouTubers are saying. They understand the frustration many normal people have in not being able to walk into an AD / Boutique and buy a steel sports model (even if it is one of the least popular models).

But then the executives from Rolex go on their walks through town and browse through the multi-brand ADs / single-brand Boutiques and see many watches sitting there in the display cases unsold, and they then realise that their strategy is the only one that will ensure their survival long term.

They ignore YouTube. They ignore the general buying public. What the majority of YouTubers suggest Rolex do in their videos would make the buying public happy but would ultimately KILL Rolex in the next 20 years or so.

Demand is a funny thing - when things are easily available then suddenly people don’t want them as much.

Look at virtually any Omega Seamaster. Which is why, ironically to some complaining about Rolex, even Omega is starting to use a similar strategy (look at the way they have gone about the release of the updated Speedmaster as well).

Rolex wants to survive the 'great culling' that is coming to most mechanical watch brands. It will make the Quartz Crisis look like a walk in the park.

On another note RE: the releases overnight...

The flippers/speculators who have been hoarding Explorer II's, GMT's and Daytona's (particularly precious metal versions) just had their dolphin tanks drained in my opinion. Underwhelming release by Rolex, but there are some signs here that this overhyped hot market might start to cool. In saying this, I'm glad to be part of the Explorer I 214270 owners club today!

Tudor is over doing it somewhat on the Black Bay range in my opinion, and that gold BB58 is just absolutely ridiculous. Why would you buy one of those on a leather strap when you can almost get a two tone Rolex on the grey/secondary market for the same prices?

Breitling & IWC were the stars of the show in my opinion, They seem to be headed in the right direction, and they may even nor into a little bit of Rolexes market share.

Excellent feedback.

[KeithP]

Judging by his girth, Federico seems to be the lazy one. There also seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of what Rolex is, and what has made their brand so strong over many decades. Rolex makes iconic watches. You can’t redo icons every few years to please Instagram addicted show- offs with nearly zero attention span.
IMO.

[330ci]

Originally Posted by Old Expat Beast

The 5701 Explorer Date was two tone.

I believe a few 5501s were released as two tone explorers as well.

The two tone air Kings/explorers used to be fairly common. I wish I kept my 5501, hardly see them anymore

[nicon]

Who cares what this idiot thinks. Rolex was always conservative in its history and it was good strategy. Wasted 6 mins of my life on this bullshit.