What time is it? Watches and horology

I'm not in the market for a Rolex but all these stories really make it very unappealing as a brand. Who wants to feed that business model. Not me!

I wrote a long thing yesterday and deleted it. But yeah. It's really only a recent thing, like the last 10 years. It isn't necessarily their business model, they just aren't acting to alleviate demand by increasing supply (even if they were able to, which is debatable - why invest huge amounts in an additional facility, if you make loads more watches and then the demand goes away?). It's a conundrum, the negative brand sentiment is surely damaging, even if the brand equity is strengthened due to the perceived value of the product.

Thierry Stern is saying what Rolex are thinking:

https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/thierry-stern-patek-philippe-steel-watches-nautilus

These companies want to sell gold watches. They don't want steel to take over. Once it does, you can't go back to selling gold. He cites IWC and AP as cautionary tales.

You don't know what's going to happen to the market. It's all based on speculation and there have been times in the past where watches become overvalued, the bubble bursts and prices crash. For long-established manufacturers like Rolex and PP, the best strategy is to hold firm. They might be leaving money on the table in the short term but these are businesses that think far, far longer term than most companies.

I agree with @Airhead, Rolex product is the best it's ever been. I don't really blame Rolex for the supply and demand issue, it's purely driven by people using it as an investment asset class. Their refusal to be short-termist is a survival strategy. It's just risk aversion.