What time is it? Watches and horology

I’m still completely unsure who benefits from a shop showing a product in their window with a ‘below market’ price only to then presumably refuse to sell it to anybody who tries to buy it.

It will make people enter the shop

Yeah, it's to get people on the conveyor belt. They had a problem with too many people wanting to be on the conveyor belt, which is why they took the prices away and put the "for exhibition only" signs up. Now the speculators who would buy literally anything with a coronet on to flip for profit seem to have mostly gone away.

I did hear David Duggan say that sales of preowned steel sports Rolex in his shop is tied to the price of bitcoin. When it goes up, all the crypto bros come in and buy GMTs and Daytonas. When it goes down, they come back in wanting to sell them back.

Worth the wait I think

I was always under the impression that if there is something in a shop, and it has a price, then I can buy it?

Go and try

I admit I find it confusing- these are not cheap shops to staff, pay rent and business rates on etc, yet they seemingly sell nothing. It resembles nothing as much as money laundering, empty shops and restaurants with huge annual revenues.

😍

They sell stuff constantly. They get a shipment from Geneva every month (they don’t know exactly what they’re going to get until it arrives) and allocate it to people on their various lists who then come and collect it.

Plus with a few exceptions Rolex ADs are generally multi-brand and are also selling Omega, Cartier, IWC etc.

So in the example above.. the likely outcome of walking in to buy the green OP would be that WOS would add you to the waiting list and that would ‘eventually’ be the price you paid ?

Several reasons I won’t go to wempe or the Rolex boutique anytime soon.
But when I see a price on goods in a window I’d expect to be able to go into the shop and buy it for that price.
I know about all the waiting list stuff, but I’d say this is misleading as it creates the impression the watch can be obtained for that price inside the shop, no?

Correct. Though it’s quite likely there will have been a price rise or two in the time you were on the list, and you will pay whatever the current price is when you collect the watch, not what the price was when you joined the list.

Which models they will put you on a list for at all depends on the AD, and the state of their waiting lists. It’s entirely up to them how to allocate the stock they receive. Most of them I believe will also have a priority next to your name based on previous purchase history, so it’s not strictly in order of when you joined the list. Which is why it can make a difference to be friendly with the dealer.

But to be honest Rolex are probably one of the least bad waitlist offenders, mostly because they make so many watches, if you really want one there are enough on the market that you can just go and buy one (albeit at an inflated price). They’re mainly just doing their best to manage surplus demand (bar the super hype models like the Le Mans where they’re only ever going to super spenders, influencers and celebs) and they are increasing production to try and ease things. They do actually want to sell watches, and in large quantities. Lange, Patek and AP on the other hand are notorious for making their customers play games to get an allocation and are obsessed with the secondary market, auction values, who is posting what on Instagram, etc.

Fortunately other watch brands are available.

But when I see a price on goods in a window I’d expect to be able to go into the shop and buy it for that price.

I know about all the waiting list stuff, but I’d say this is misleading as it creates the impression the watch can be obtained for that price inside the shop, no?

Yeah but that's the point. You walk in thinking you can get it, instead you're told it's in massive demand and really exclusive and if you want to show you're rich and important you need to wait but once you do have it you'll be better than everyone else who can't get one. It's artificial demand.

It’s bouncers only letting punters into a nightclub slowly, so there’s always a line.

I think the artificial scarcity thing can be levelled at Rolex to a degree, especially in the way they try to push people into buying higher-margin gold models to get access to the steel stuff that ought to be bread and butter products, but a) they're cranking out a million watches a year and b) other (higher end) brands are so much worse – creating limited pieces that they know will be in the highest demand, pre-selling certain watches only to certain customers, or quickly discontinuing popular models/configurations.

The worst thing is, the collectors of those brands actually encourage that sort of behaviour from the brand in order to protect the value of their collections. Rolex sells far too many watches to care about collectors. I really do think they're mostly just in the thick of it with the way recent global demand has gone (over the last 5-7 years). No-one else is increasing production right now (there are Swiss brands taking government support to furlough their workers because they’re sitting on so much inventory). I know it's an odd position to take but I have a degree of sympathy for the ADs.

Festive, chilly stroll.

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Pelagos for me too.
Chilly walks 2 of 3 already achieved, final one due when I knock off work.
Not sure either of us are looking forward to it

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Trip up town today always like to look in the windows of burlington arcade

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Et encore

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This one is the same age as me

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The birth year 79 ghost bezel sub is nice.

New to me today. Stunning CWC 1983 quartz diver.

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No idea what the tiny red dot artefacts are on the photo. They’re not on the watch!

It’s when you’ve had the edit mode on in Photos on your iPhone without realising and by tapping on the photo you’re drawing with the pen tool.

Bit of Lego horology that's worth a watch.

https://youtu.be/kRzgCylePjk?si=nDFL4pgbSdMi071e