I wanted to share with you guys some information I was told fairly recently and see if anyone else had heard the same.
Early August I was chatting with my sales guy, we get heading down the train of talking about different OP models 34/36/39. He says “we haven’t received a single OP39 this year” to which I asked, isn’t that unusual?
He shares with me that the (regional?) Rolex sales rep had told them to not expect any OP39’s in 2020.
I realize if I would have shared that information 24 days ago, it might have carried a little more weight than it does now
The second bit of information I got was more shocking. If true, of course.
We had picked up that conversation about OP39’s and new releases just recently. I was told that production of the OP39 ended almost two years ago. That all of the OP39’s that have been shipped or sold since then was just “stock” sitting around in Rolex vaults slowly trickling out.
The same information was shared to me about submariners. That production of the 116610LN/LV and other 11661X submariners supposedly ended approximately a year ago.
What does this mean? Well first and foremost. Rolex has been quietly making the 12661X submariners for a year. Putting away stock in their vaults. And that any “old” submariners that were shipped before 9/1/2020 are at least a year old.
The last piece of information I was told, Rolex has started to decrease the allocation of “slower selling watches” to heighten the demand for them. In particular the example was “the two tone Yacht-master 40 with both the black and chocolate dial will get cut back to just two of them a year” at this particular AD.
Almost seems as if Rolex is intentionally embracing our much despised wait list.
Take that information as you will, it seemed more realistic to me than some of the other “s#it my AD says” threads I have read. Figured it was worth sharing.