Does anyone know of any independent AD’s in the UK?

[Caine-Cobain]

I want to buy a GMT Master II. It will be my first Rolex. The AD chains in London (Knightsbridge, Regents Street etc) mostly play the game of spend loads of money on things you don’t want and need and then I might give you chance and judge a lot on wether you are their usual millionaire customer or not. Any replies and advice is appreciated.

[iamspartacus]

Most if not all AD's will be limiting their customer lists to local long standing clients as they have so much demand there is no reason for them to accept any interest from outside of their "loyal" local client base.

Near me on the south coast there are a few good AD's and I have been trying to build a relationship. I have bought a datejust with one of them in the past and other brands so am not unknown in there. I have been waiting for nearly a year for an OP41 in dark blue and asked the last time I was in about my chances of a BLRO....... 10 years was the answer. basically meaning, we will NEVER sell you one of these watches.

[Srct]

There are lots of posts on here about building a relationship in the UK worth having a search on them - and you are right in London unless you are a good client you will not have a chance - simple supply and demand. There is the odd post where with persistence and some luck they can pick up an in demand watch but odds are very slim - I would suggest maybe looking at the grey route - life is too short. Anyway best of luck and good choice

[Harry-57]

My local AD in Bath is an independent who has been a Rolex AD for something like 70 years. It's a great store with great staff and a friendly atmosphere and always nice to visit. But for the harder to get stuff, they have pretty much locked down their lists and will only sell hot watches to locals and long standing legacy customers who may no longer be local.

Like any other AD, if you visit and spend you begin to get known and get onto waiting lists. We have never bought anything we didn't want from the store and I would encourage anyone not to go down that route. Happily for us, our AD sells lots of watch brands, jewellery, pens, accessories, and all sorts of interesting stuff. Jewellery is frequently reduced.

Being a smaller dealer in a smaller city they get smaller allocations. If you do the maths, the availability and waiting list numbers probably come out the same. I lived and worked in London, before living outside and working in London for many years. I don't envy you trying to score amongst all the local competition. It's likely much higher in London than where I live, but the square root of impossible is still impossible. People occasionally post in here about walking into a London AD and walking out with something nice. It's rare but it happens. It could happen to you if you keep looking.