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I remember when I was looking to buy my first Rolex. Alternatives like Omega were priced well below, Tudor was ugly, AP was niche, Blancpain had just been revived. All those brands and more were cheaper or similar prices. I couldn't get a Daytona from a dealer, nor could I afford a second hand Nautilus for £15k.
These days it seems like all those brands are the same rrp as a Rolex (which you can't buy) or vastly more. How can it make sense not to just raise the rrp until you can keep some in the window. They've fallen behind a lot of brands by price that were never in the same league. It's no wonder they sell so well. A Fifty Fathoms is £12k now!
Airhead-
You can set your watch by a Rolex price rise, it just turned out that everyone else has raised double or triple what Rolex were raising. Rolex RRP basically goes up 5% a year plus whatever’s happening to the Swiss franc. A 36mm Oyster perpetual looks like an absolute steal at 4.4k even though they were 3.9k two years ago, given that a 38mm Aqua Terra that was 4k two years ago (and already rather rich at that) is now 4.9k.
People used to complain about Rolex price rises!
Regal
Yeah, I agree. The statement they made a couple of months back was really unusual for Rolex. But they are at pains to point out that they can’t just turn the tap on and make 2x the watches they currently do.
And even if they could…why would they? Flood the market, demand drops, residuals drop, and you’ve just invested probably billions of CHF in a factory and employees that you no longer need.
I really don’t think they have deliberately acted to manipulate the market to the point where their own boutiques are literally empty. They just aren’t acting to counter it, either. Ultimately I think they are fundamentally ultra Swiss and conservative and simply do not want to change course from what has kept them at the top for so long. And as you point out, they don’t have shareholders screaming at them to increase production. Not that I think many shareholders would have much of a problem with the way things are going at Rolex right now.