Would you rather?

[eanzenberg]

Would you rather have watches freely available at retail and trading for less than msrp on the grey market, or the world we have today?

[Seddyspaghetti]

Today

[Koolpep]

Originally Posted by eanzenberg

Would you rather have watches freely available at retail and trading for less than msrp on the grey market, or the world we have today?

It would be nice if we could all remove the bragging and flexing about getting watches for MSRP and all the shenanigans needed to achieve that. Imagine we could focus on collecting watches and enjoying them, rather than competing, pumping and dumping, trading like commodities.

But realistically, there seems to be no end in sight unless trends change drastically.

[ny_yeti]

not the world today.

[mew]

Today, not tomorrow and not the good old days because that ship has sailed.

[Cigars&Watches]

Today. I don't mind the chase. Makes it exciting.

[DCheeta]

I don’t care. Either way is fine with me.

[JonaG]

…have the head of a chimpanzee but wearing the watch of your dreams or the body of a chimpanzee and wearing the watch you have currently?

[mquarter]

Yes

[Laszlo]

Doesn’t matter it’s all relative!!!

[TswaneNguni]

It is what it it is and it has benefits and drawbacks .Make the most of it .

[donas]

Originally Posted by eanzenberg

Would you rather have watches freely available at retail and trading for less than msrp on the grey market, or the world we have today?

I'll take yesteryear without a second thought. For those who truly want to own a Rolex for the quality etc of the watch and not as an "investment" or instagram flex why the heck wouldn't you want is below msrp? If for no other reason, it would eliminate 80% of the frivolous threads on TRF now about investing, building "AD relationships", should I buy this watch I don't like because it is offered to me, and the list goes on.

[kaiserphoenix]

I think value retention is for sure important. I just wish there was a "better" methodology in how the exclusivity is achieved. Like there is no real benchmark or guidelines as to how to go about purchasing stuff.

[Dougiebaby]

Originally Posted by eanzenberg

Would you rather have watches freely available at retail and trading for less than msrp on the grey market, or the world we have today?

TODAY - Any accomplishment that takes effort, and even some luck, is more rewarding to me.


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[28mm]

I was writing a long response and stopped to read everybody else's first.

Great posts and I agree with many of them!

[horseShu]

Originally Posted by eanzenberg

Would you rather have watches freely available at retail and trading for less than msrp on the grey market, or the world we have today?

but we DO have watches that are available in boutiques and trading for less than msrp on the grey market...

oh, i'm sorry. so only Rolex are considered 'watches' now? i swear, the low blows keep getting lower these days...

[minute_man]

Originally Posted by donas

I'll take yesteryear without a second thought. For those who truly want to own a Rolex for the quality etc of the watch and not as an "investment" or instagram flex why the heck wouldn't you want is below msrp? If for no other reason, it would eliminate 80% of the frivolous threads on TRF now about investing, building "AD relationships", should I buy this watch I don't like because it is offered to me, and the list goes on.

This, 100%

[ks58]

Has to be today. Makes every watch purchase that much more meaningful. Plus, everybody would be begging for discounts otherwise and nothing would be selling well.

[Moony17]

Freely available at retail. Buy what you like, and as many as you want. Buy it because you actually like it, and not to flex. We’ll just be focused on building nice collections

[Sandpit]

I would personally take the days of full display windows than the one we see today. I like to buy watches for certain occassions, and it's almost impossible to do that these days and it just sours the experience.

It's a simpler way of buying and owning also. There's no afterthought or discussion to be had on its new value. If you buy knowing it will depreciate then that drop is already factored into a purchase. The loss is written off in our heads.

Instead now people can buy a Sub (or whatever) and the immediate afterthought is how much more it's now worth rather than simply just enjoying it for what it is. I would guess a lot of people have a Chrono24 portfolio which they look at and treat like a stock portfolio.

There's more to it than that also, it's the constant chat from people that spot a watch. Every time there's a conversation about a watch it's about how much it's now worth, or how much did you pay, or did you get it at retail. Even to non watch people it's usually one of the first things mentioned.

Maybe I just miss the days of "oh that's a lovely watch" and that kind of being as far as the conversation goes.

[alphadweller]

Today. I'm not in the market for another watch in the foreseeable future, just wearing and cherishing what I've got. So, I might as well enjoy value going up.

[shaunylw]

I would probably go back to how it used to be. That also includes less worry about theft or being robbed. When you’re trying to buy a $30,000 watch, and everyone knows it’s actually a $125,000 watch, that becomes a big issue. I’ll take trading at retail or below. I would go back to losing money on every watch i decided to sell, at least it was easier back then.


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[kieselguhr]

I don’t really know what it was like before. I was a broke student when it mattered

Let’s be honest, if Rolex weren’t what it is today; the watch world would not be as active. Probably slowly fading into obscurity instead.

I’m sure those of us who love watches for what they are would still be here, but it would be a much smaller community.

[Harry-57]

I'm not bothered either way. I have what I want minus one model which my AD will produce at some point. Probably a distant point but I have nice watches to rotate in the mean time.

It's nice to know that I can probably sell any Rolex I own and get back what I paid at minimum. But I own plenty of other watches, bought new, which are worth considerably less than MSRP, although most of them were bought below MSRP to start with.

If it flipped tomorrow it wouldn't make any difference to me. Maybe I'd get my next Rolex quicker. Maybe I would buy more Rolex. Can't say for sure.

[Benzsiam]

I am happy with either way. If all the watches are always available to buy anytime at AD, I probably have a lot less watches than I have it now.

I purchase all my Rolexes at the boutique/AD and never intend to sell.

[Henrimontgomery]

I don’t care about price, I just want to go in a shop and get out with what I want.

[garyk]

Originally Posted by donas

I'll take yesteryear without a second thought. For those who truly want to own a Rolex for the quality etc of the watch and not as an "investment" or instagram flex why the heck wouldn't you want is below msrp? If for no other reason, it would eliminate 80% of the frivolous threads on TRF now about investing, building "AD relationships", should I buy this watch I don't like because it is offered to me, and the list goes on.

This! Anything to go back to just the watches on TRF.

[HogwldFLTR]

It is what it is. Hard to argue with reality.

[Krash]

Somewhere in between. It would be nice if watches were more readily available, but definitely not to the point where anyone could buy a Pepsi at anytime just by walking into an AD.


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[Cru Jones]

Freely available. Buy what you want, when you want.

It might have a positive impact on thread topics here on TRF, too. ;-)