Interesting chat with UK AD today

[ninjagaiden]

I happened to be near our local Rolex AD today. Normally I'm too shy to walk in as there's a security guard on the door, but I really wanted to have a look at a new Sub in the flesh. I went in and they had ExpII's, DJ2's, Milgausses and Daytonas but no subs. The AD explained that it was unusual to get a sub into the store, especially a 114060 nodate. She explained that the entire UK dealer allocation was for 15 submariners. I said I'd wait and take a look at one at the airport, but she said Rolex tend not to push subs to airports. She then cheekily suggest that my best option was to choose from what they had in stock!

This really surprised me. On here its a bit of a standing joke about who has the best sub, and most of the modded watches are subs. So I just assumed subs would be most popular in the gen world too.

I guess that's why they say ASSUME means you make an ASS out of U and ME!

The other thing that I realised is just how much the reps have come on. I mean at a cursory glance the gen watches didn't really have any more 'pop' than the really good reps I've seen. I reckon I could wear my Tudor Pelagos into the Rolex AD and it wouldn't get called.

N

 

[aspecT]

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[QueTip]

Generally ADs tend to talk a lot of [censored]. I highly doubt that the sub 'line' is as rarely seen as the Daytonas a while ago. 

Probably no AD will give a second thought about your rep since they want to sell you some of their stuff not ridicule their potential customer.

[alligoat]

"She explained that the entire UK dealer allocation was for 15 submariners. I said I'd wait and take a look at one at the airport, but she said Rolex tend not to push subs to airports. She then cheekily suggest that my best option was to choose from what they had in stock!"

Certainly the allocation for the whole UK wasn't just 15 subs- that would be crazy! Maybe the AD you went to was a small dealer and didn't rate a better selection. I'm with QueTip- dealers talk caca.

 

[freddy333]

I think the AD was mostly correct. Rolex tends to favor larger (ie, higher volume) ADs over anyone else. They always get priority & for obvious reasons.

You are also correct that, relative to 5-10 years ago, today's reps are visually very close to their gen brothers.

[sgtguk]

I've been into a lot of AD but the only Rolex I've had a quick look in was in Harrods, then I had kids and wife in tow and barely got a glance at the pieces they had  I did shop for a piece for the wife couple weeks ago and found the dealer (Tag) really very good indeed but they again were only interested in what they could sell on the day which to be fair is expected.

I popped into a Tudor dealer in Paris last year and found they had plenty of stock and were helpful too. I do find reps are now so good that it's really hard to shell out a few grand rather than a few hundred for a piece thats especially Rolex   

On the Uk allocation of Sub's I suspect she's just a 'little' out on the 15 available.... 

[highoeyazmuhudee]

tons of subs 'round

dealers are full of it. always making up some tale to sell you some stock thats in their best interests. most recent one ive been to kept going on about price increases as a reason to buy now.

then theres the whole creating the daytona shortage so they could charge above list price when the dealers themselves were hoarding them in their safes while they appreciated in price. dislike every rolex ad ive been into, theres a sense of pretentiousness and condescension no doubt. almost feels as if im playing a table game at a casino and trying to beat the house.

[Haziel]

There's absolutely more than 15 subs available in UK, if you pop in the shop inside Westfield shepherd's bush in London next to the omega AD in the window you'll take a look at the full subs range so at least 3 out of 15 just in one shop(???) plus on park lane there's the rolex flagship with again the full range of rollies subs included...

Maybe, just maybe 15 subs are available for small watch dealers, jewellery shops across UK, but I'm positive that at Harrods', Westfield's and Co where the big spenders  go you'll be able to buy whatever rolex you fancy on the spot (except for the latest SS daytona or newest model produced on a limited initial run for which you need to get on the waiting list and preorder...)

[ninjagaiden]

Thanks guys. I did think it was a bit of a tall tale. Still the lady had moxie - I'll give her that!

The thing that gets me is that you aren't going to drop £5k on a watch you haven't even seen in the flesh before are you? If people buy subs (and they are at the lower end of the scale for Rolex ownership) then why not stock at least one? These smaller dealers are still ADs and are carrying hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of static stock.

I'd love to know the relative volume of sales (in units, not price) for the different models. I guess Rolex aren't going to put that info into the public domain!

 

[alligoat]

You're right about Rolex not telling, but my gut feeling is that the Datejust is the biggest seller maybe followed by the Submariner. Day Dates, Daytonas and maybe YMs follow.

If you look at ebay and count how many of each model are for sale at any given time, maybe that would be an accurate indication of just what Rolex is producing.