Roughly 3400-4000 watches leave Rolex Plant daily

[DonRickles]

Shortage my a$$!

Assuming of course that 850k to 1m units annually. 2021 has 261 workdays.

Can we go further with and calculate how many of each reference?

[rambo99]

where did you get this data?

[DonRickles]

Originally Posted by rambo99

where did you get this data?

It’s been posted here many times, with this total production no. @ 850-1m units annually.

[Aquinas]

A shortage is a function of two factors, supply and demand. Rolex watches are mass products, no doubt about it. It gets even more obvious of you calculate how many leave the plant every minute. However, since enough people are willing to pay the ridiculous retail price (let alone the gray price) to substantially exceed supply, yes, there is a shortage.

[WatchNutcase]

Yep it's not a shortage it's too much "demand" apparently, I think this was confirmed in a recent statement from Rolex. The AD's are receiving plenty of watches, some even more than before but the uptick in demand grew to exceed that.

[Koolpep]

It always boggles my mind that Rolex produces:

- as many watches than A. Lange & Sôhne and Richard Mille does in a year in one day
- as many watches as Zenith, Blancpain, Vacheron Constantin ,Breguet, Piaget, Glashütte Original produce in a year in one week
- as many watches as F.P. Journe produces in a year in less than half a day…..

https://monochrome-watches.com/top-5...les-editorial/

[ect2019]

Originally Posted by Koolpep

It always boggles my mind that Rolex produces:

- as many watches than A. Lange & Sôhne and Richard Mille does in a year in one day
- as many watches as Zenith, Blancpain, Vacheron Constantin ,Breguet, Piaget, Glashütte Original produce in a year in one week
- as many watches as F.P. Journe produces in a year in less than half a day…..

https://monochrome-watches.com/top-5...les-editorial/

I don’t find it mind boggling, it actually shows the strength of the Rolex brand. Imagine if they decide to produce less per year.

[Koolpep]

Originally Posted by ect2019

I don’t find it mind boggling, it actually shows the strength of the Rolex brand. Imagine if they decide to produce less per year.

Isn’t that strength and level of automatization that allows this crazy amount of watches to be produced while maintaining the quality mind boggling? I think it is.

[ect2019]

Originally Posted by Koolpep

Isn’t that strength and level of automatization that allows this crazy amount of watches to be produced while maintaining the quality mind boggling? I think it is.

I didn’t think of it that way, what an excellent point.

[Andad]

Will all forum rocket scientists please step up to the plate.

AND NO, I DIDN’T MEAN YOU.

[Tzachi]

Originally Posted by Andad

Will all forum rocket scientists please step up to the plate.

AND NO, I DIDN’T MEAN YOU.

And true..

[Sonoran_Tj]

Originally Posted by DonRickles

Shortage my a$$!

Assuming of course that 850k to 1m units annually. 2021 has 261 workdays.

Can we go further with and calculate how many of each reference?

The difficult part to figure out is what proportion of the total is made up of a given model line or reference.

If you assume an equal distribution of watches of every reference (an absurd assumption) there aren't very many watches of a given references made in a year. I have to assume they make many more of the easy to sell references than they do the unique ones.

[Fedor]

It´s spelled greed. Instagram made us want more, one piece per person is no longer enough. Once this happens, people with no watch-interest whatsoever will enter the room and capitalize on that greed. Same thing with drugs, once you are hooked, mucho dineros can be made out of you and when it comes to these watches, someone just found a room full of potential coke-heads waiting to spread all the money for that next hit.

One of the greys in my area told me that they get several calls each day from people that just got notified about an incoming watch with their name on it.

"I´m about to pick up a 126710BLRO from the AD, what will you pay me for it?"

Smack, 12,5k USD straight down the pocket and for that money, the guy will go back to the AD and purchase a JLC Reverso and pocket the rest. He basically gets a high end luxury watch for free + free cash for another Rolex purchase or a vacation for his family. And since he has now started to build a purchase history with the AD (I mean, coming back for a second non-rolex purchase straight after receiving the blro) he will get a new call for a new hot model in the future and do the same thing over and over again. Keep supplying the greys that collects the watches in piles, takes a photograph of them and posts it on Instagram while saying "look, we have all the watches, do you want one then pay up"......"oh and btw, this is the hotest model right now and it might get discontinued, and if that happens, your bankroll will skyrocket if you own it".

The greys are fully aware of this greed of ours, exactly as a drug dealer has control over his customers.

GREED, FOMO, ADDICTION equals good business. Classic!

[Harry-57]

Originally Posted by Fedor

It´s spelled greed. Instagram made us want more, one piece per person is no longer enough.

Given that a forum like this is likely to be thickly populated with collectors, enthusiast and WIS hobbyists, your comment is disingenuous and naïve.

For some of us, one watch was never enough.

Insta what? Is that something to do with watches? If this is where you get your watch info from I'm glad I've never been there. Sounds awful.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by Fedor

It´s spelled greed. Instagram made us want more, one piece per person is no longer enough. Once this happens, people with no watch-interest whatsoever will enter the room and capitalize on that greed. Same thing with drugs, once you are hooked, mucho dineros can be made out of you and when it comes to these watches, someone just found a room full of potential coke-heads waiting to spread all the money for that next hit.

One of the greys in my area told me that they get several calls each day from people that just got notified about an incoming watch with their name on it.

"I´m about to pick up a 126710BLRO from the AD, what will you pay me for it?"

Smack, 12,5k USD straight down the pocket and for that money, the guy will go back to the AD and purchase a JLC Reverso and pocket the rest. He basically gets a high end luxury watch for free + free cash for another Rolex purchase or a vacation for his family. And since he has now started to build a purchase history with the AD (I mean, coming back for a second non-rolex purchase straight after receiving the blro) he will get a new call for a new hot model in the future and do the same thing over and over again. Keep supplying the greys that collects the watches in piles, takes a photograph of them and posts it on Instagram while saying "look, we have all the watches, do you want one then pay up"......"oh and btw, this is the hotest model right now and it might get discontinued, and if that happens, your bankroll will skyrocket if you own it".

The greys are fully aware of this greed of ours, exactly as a drug dealer has control over his customers.

GREED, FOMO, ADDICTION equals good business. Classic!

Agree up to a point not a fan of any talking about drugs on forum though, but once just a few years back Rolex watches were bought to be worn and enjoyed myself been wearing Rolex watches for over 50 years. But to many now they are no longer watches just little more than £$€ objects. And agree about so called social media as many of todays younger age whose sole information cupboard is in so called social media,Youtube etc instead of using there own brain. And many buy whatever the social media platform dictates they must buy at any price, as so called social media have taken over there lives and use of there brain power.

[Fedor]

Originally Posted by Harry-57

Given that a forum like this is likely to be thickly populated with collectors, enthusiast and WIS hobbyists, your comment is disingenuous and naïve.

For some of us, one watch was never enough.

Insta what? Is that something to do with watches? If this is where you get your watch info from I'm glad I've never been there. Sounds awful.

Yes, it might have come out wrong....my bad. WISers and enthusiasts are not the ones I´m talking about. I´m a collector myself. Just wanted to give my perspective on why the market looks like it does, hence the "shortage".

[Divingdeep87]

Originally Posted by Fedor

It´s spelled greed. Instagram made us want more, one piece per person is no longer enough. Once this happens, people with no watch-interest whatsoever will enter the room and capitalize on that greed. Same thing with drugs, once you are hooked, mucho dineros can be made out of you and when it comes to these watches, someone just found a room full of potential coke-heads waiting to spread all the money for that next hit.

One of the greys in my area told me that they get several calls each day from people that just got notified about an incoming watch with their name on it.

"I´m about to pick up a 126710BLRO from the AD, what will you pay me for it?"

Smack, 12,5k USD straight down the pocket and for that money, the guy will go back to the AD and purchase a JLC Reverso and pocket the rest. He basically gets a high end luxury watch for free + free cash for another Rolex purchase or a vacation for his family. And since he has now started to build a purchase history with the AD (I mean, coming back for a second non-rolex purchase straight after receiving the blro) he will get a new call for a new hot model in the future and do the same thing over and over again. Keep supplying the greys that collects the watches in piles, takes a photograph of them and posts it on Instagram while saying "look, we have all the watches, do you want one then pay up"......"oh and btw, this is the hotest model right now and it might get discontinued, and if that happens, your bankroll will skyrocket if you own it".

The greys are fully aware of this greed of ours, exactly as a drug dealer has control over his customers.

GREED, FOMO, ADDICTION equals good business. Classic!

Seriously did it myself. I LOVE watches and collect watches and don’t like the resell game. But my wife put her name on the list for a daytona g/s at “our” AD, and then a day we were in another town and she put her name on the list there (the service is so bad there, but not for her ) our AD called after 4 months and she bought it, 1 month later the other AD called, she bought it and sold it the same day, and the same night we booked flight tickets for the maldives..

I understand why people do this. 4000 usd earned in 15 minutes..

The grey dealer she sold it too, said the same thing you wrote. They get picture directly from costumers at the AD asking what they would pay for it.

[Driver8]

Originally Posted by Aquinas

A shortage is a function of two factors, supply and demand. Rolex watches are mass products, no doubt about it. It gets even more obvious of you calculate how many leave the plant every minute. However, since enough people are willing to pay the ridiculous retail price (let alone the gray price) to substantially exceed supply, yes, there is a shortage.

Exactly that. Absolute numbers produced don't matter - if Rolex produce 1,000,000 watches and 1,000,001 people want them, then there's a shortage. If Rolex only produce 10 watches but only 1 person wants one, then there's no shortage. Simple as that.

Originally Posted by Koolpep

It always boggles my mind that Rolex produces:

- as many watches than A. Lange & Sôhne and Richard Mille does in a year in one day
- as many watches as Zenith, Blancpain, Vacheron Constantin ,Breguet, Piaget, Glashütte Original produce in a year in one week
- as many watches as F.P. Journe produces in a year in less than half a day…..

https://monochrome-watches.com/top-5...les-editorial/

And that shows the crazy control that hype and FOMO have over genuine horological exclusivity.

[kaiserphoenix]

Originally Posted by Koolpep

It always boggles my mind that Rolex produces:

- as many watches than A. Lange & Sôhne and Richard Mille does in a year in one day
- as many watches as Zenith, Blancpain, Vacheron Constantin ,Breguet, Piaget, Glashütte Original produce in a year in one week
- as many watches as F.P. Journe produces in a year in less than half a day…..

https://monochrome-watches.com/top-5...les-editorial/

It also shows how SMALL the buying population is for those brands and perhaps luxury watches in general. Rolex is a different animal altogether.

[Krash]

Demand exceeds supply; not just a little, but by a significant amount.

I just ordered 2 Datejusts. A 31mm for my wife and a 41mm for myself. The sales person said, “no need to put money down, because even if you don’t want it, we’ll sell it in a day. every Rolex we get sells within hours.”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JSCP]

Rolex is closed several days a year, not counting Covid-related closings. Assume they don’t produce in weekends, that’s 261 week days. if they then take 10 days off at xmas and 30 days for yearly time off, that’s 211 days of production time if they produce /make 800,000 a year, the every working day has a release of 3,790 time pieces.

What’s mind boggling is that one doesn’t see that many people wearing Rolex daily. One sees more apple watches.

[YGRLX]

Hard to keep up with demand when real collectors are ok have 100 timepiece collections.

[saxo3]

Originally Posted by JSCP

Rolex is closed several days a year, not counting Covid-related closings. Assume they don’t produce in weekends, that’s 261 week days. if they then take 10 days off at xmas and 30 days for yearly time off, that’s 211 days of production time if they produce /make 800,000 a year, the every working day has a release of 3,790 time pieces

"Interesting" primary school calculation (just joking) but the OP and you forgot to subtract the 2021 public holidays (9) in the cantons of Geneva and Bern (Switzerland) which leads to 252 working days instead of 261

[skoobasam]

Originally Posted by Koolpep

It always boggles my mind that Rolex produces:

- as many watches than A. Lange & Sôhne and Richard Mille does in a year in one day
- as many watches as Zenith, Blancpain, Vacheron Constantin ,Breguet, Piaget, Glashütte Original produce in a year in one week
- as many watches as F.P. Journe produces in a year in less than half a day…..

https://monochrome-watches.com/top-5...les-editorial/

Marketing…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Marcjvr]

Lol shortage

It’s a great time to be looking for a Rolex if you don’t mind paying market price. 1000s and 1000s of them available. Plenty in unworn condition.

[Tensai]

Well, every Instagram hypebeast wants to purchase a Cermit, Pepsi and Daytona and then proudly shoot out their “incoming” pictures all over the interweb. That’s millions of watches right there and creates millions more hype addicted consumers. So boring.

[Oxfordian]

Originally Posted by Krash

because even if you don’t want it, we’ll sell it in a day. every Rolex we get sells within hours.”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have worried about declining watches the AD had with my name on, I raised this with them, they said virtually the same as your quote, if I say no the next person they phone is likely to say yes either way the watch will be sold very very quickly.

[Feb_29]

I heard that producing one Rolex Sub watch end-to-end takes one year?

[Lewi777]

Originally Posted by Divingdeep87

Seriously did it myself. I LOVE watches and collect watches and don’t like the resell game. But my wife put her name on the list for a daytona g/s at “our” AD, and then a day we were in another town and she put her name on the list there (the service is so bad there, but not for her ) our AD called after 4 months and she bought it, 1 month later the other AD called, she bought it and sold it the same day, and the same night we booked flight tickets for the maldives..

I understand why people do this. 4000 usd earned in 15 minutes..

The grey dealer she sold it too, said the same thing you wrote. They get picture directly from costumers at the AD asking what they would pay for it.

So some poor sucker basically paid for your holiday in the Maldives. Says it all really!

[Divingdeep87]

Originally Posted by Lewi777

So some poor sucker basically paid for your holiday in the Maldives. Says it all really!

Naah the grey did, and the poor sucker paid 1500 usd more than he did? Wouldn’t say you are poor when you buy a watch alot above retail…

I see why people do this.. Is it sad yes.. But money talks.. and yo gotta work some hours for 4k..