Nashville, TN - ADs are gone

[BSG75]

Originally Posted by teck21

Have you been to Asia lately?


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Nope, just comparing Williamson County to the U.S. market.

[socalwatchcollector]

Originally Posted by Sunny Arizona

All the watches I’ve bought from him came from overseas ADs.

Almost all of them do from the secondary market here. Rare to see a US card from any of them and I have worked with a good majority over the years.

[SirPolarBear]

Originally Posted by BNABOD

SirPolarbear I am in Nashville had my name at Kings for 1.5 year for a blro long story short showed up there two months ago or so and all the Rolex display was gone and so there went my blro...(note they never even bothered to call me to tell me they were done w Rolex or Rolex was done w them). Anyhow got my deposit back ....

I heard the same of a Rolex boutique opening but no idea of any firm plans

Really should be a Nashville GTG not sure if that even exists ....

I was lucky enough to receive a phone call saying they lost AD status and that I won't be getting a Daytona or BLRO.

For my hulk, I was 3rd in line and got it 3.5 months later late last year. At least the LVc followed the waitlist.

[SirPolarBear]

Originally Posted by BNABOD

What kind of ride not a green gt3 rs by any chance .....

The green 911 GT3 belongs to David King, owner of King Jewelers.

[Radix]

Originally Posted by socalwatchcollector

Almost all of them do from the secondary market here. Rare to see a US card from any of them and I have worked with a good majority over the years.

I’m pretty sure that Thanh Do (aka Takuya, https://www.takuyawatches.com) is exclusively US-sourced watches, that is, US warranty cards. He’s a trusted seller here.

[oldman2005]

Originally Posted by Unclebuck

The empty cases do look awful. ..

No SS sport but there're still plenty of DJ/TT/PM at least from what I've seen locally

[BNABOD]

Originally Posted by SirPolarBear

The green 911 GT3 belongs to David King, owner of King Jewelers.

I am going to be honest a jewelry store owner driving a 250k car just doesn’t add up but yeah it is his....maybe selling grey was highly profitable for a while ...

[tyler1980]

Originally Posted by Unclebuck

The empty cases do look awful.

i dont know. If there is a storm coming close to houston and i see the grocery stores with empty shelves it makes me buy whatever is there because everyone else is doing it.

empty cases means that the turnover of watches is very fast, not that there wasn't watch there to begin with.

If its always there people think about it forever but when its not the sale happens right now. AD's make no money on people considering a purchase. They eliminated that and if someone now feels "lucky" to have found a particular watch, it's an instant sale

[teck21]

Originally Posted by BSG75

Nope, just comparing Williamson County to the U.S. market.

I guess that sounded bad, my only point was that the perception of wealth creation you saw happening in Wllliamson County is quite likely dwarfed by what’s happening in Asia and several other parts of the world that we have not traditionally considered ‘rich’.

And these places are where a constrained supply of Rolex watches have been reallocated in recent years.

[dtwer]

Originally Posted by tyler1980

why would they care?

3 years ago they were all going to grey dealers too except at a discount. Thats worse for brand image than inflated prices. Rolex on sale vs Rolex as a coveted and "rare" item

if they didn't care then it makes no sense to care now as its making the brand even hotter and strengthens the image of the brand, which is the point in luxury

I do think Rolex might act like they dont like it, and might make it look like they are doing something, but i doubt they are, as its not in their best interests to do so.

My two cents.

I think Rolex should and does care, in that the out-of-control grey market creates a bubble that they can no longer manage. It's one thing to turn a blind eye when greys and flippers are cashing in on their Rolexes for a grand or two profit; it's totally another when people are going for practically 100% profit. The latter is what we are seeing now.

This kind of markup creates way too powerful of an incentive for people to not take risks. If Rolex doesn't take action to deter the AD-to-grey loophole, they might as well be listing the greys on their dealer website because that's what all their ADs would eventually do.

It's like traffic enforcement. We all know the police is not going to catch all speeders and ensure compliance 100% of the time, but they still need to go out and catch some from time to time. It's about deterrence.

[tyler1980]

Originally Posted by dtwer

My two cents.

I think Rolex should and does care, in that the out-of-control grey market creates a bubble that they can no longer manage. It's one thing to turn a blind eye when greys and flippers are cashing in on their Rolexes for a grand or two profit; it's totally another when people are going for practically 100% profit. The latter is what we are seeing now.

This kind of markup creates way too powerful of an incentive for people to not take risks. If Rolex doesn't take action to deter the AD-to-grey loophole, they might as well be listing the greys on their dealer website because that's what all their ADs would eventually do.

It's like traffic enforcement. We all know the police is not going to catch all speeders and ensure compliance 100% of the time, but they still need to go out and catch some from time to time. It's about deterrence.

holding US prices steady since 2012 makes the same watch 12% cheaper today vs 2012 due to inflation.... so they are doing nothing to keep up with inflation let alone raising prices above that level to take an edge off the demand.

Its not like Rolex is innocent in this situation

For a like for like model (not counting new movements/clasps whatever) every watch in the catalogue then is on sale today. Its a problem. Rolex is adding fuel to the fire with their pricing and the secondary gap is huge

[dtwer]

Originally Posted by tyler1980

holding US prices steady since 2012 makes the same watch 12% cheaper today vs 2012 due to inflation.... so they are doing nothing to keep up with inflation let alone raising prices above that level to take an edge off the demand.

Its not like Rolex is innocent in this situation

For a like for like model (not counting new movements/clasps whatever) every watch in the catalogue then is on sale today. Its a problem. Rolex is adding fuel to the fire with their pricing and the secondary gap is huge

That's a good point. But then that's exactly where I figured a "normal" spread should be; 12% on a $10K watch is $1,200. When this was the case, Rolex turned a blind eye and let flippers make some money on inflation: Rolex had its profit, flippers had their profit, and the customers didn't get hosed; everybody was happy.

The problem now is the greys are calling for way beyond that spread at the expense of Rolex and the consumers. This disrupted the equilibrium.

[1665fan]

Greys want 100% inflation...a double up. That’s BS Rolex should step in

[tyler1980]

Originally Posted by dtwer

That's a good point. But then that's exactly where I figured a "normal" spread should be; 12% on a $10K watch is $1,200. When this was the case, Rolex turned a blind eye and let flippers make some money on inflation: Rolex had its profit, flippers had their profit, and the customers didn't get hosed; everybody was happy.

The problem now is the greys are calling for way beyond that spread at the expense of Rolex and the consumers. This disrupted the equilibrium.

just saying retail to begin with is already low because of inflation.... then on top its low because of demand/market


its a great deal at retail based on both factors. Its cheaper than it use to be and its cheaper than the market price. Thats got to be getting all kinds of people into the AD's to try to buy one

[s_haverford]

Originally Posted by tyler1980

i dont know. If there is a storm coming close to houston and i see the grocery stores with empty shelves it makes me buy whatever is there because everyone else is doing it.

empty cases means that the turnover of watches is very fast, not that there wasn't watch there to begin with.

If its always there people think about it forever but when its not the sale happens right now. AD's make no money on people considering a purchase. They eliminated that and if someone now feels "lucky" to have found a particular watch, it's an instant sale

I agree with you there. I went into a local AD and saw a YM 37. I don't really like the YM but trying to get my hands on a Sub let alone GMT is well out of reach in a reasonable time period, I almost bought the thing because it was there.

I did not follow through and am going to stick to the pieces I do REALLY want. But I see that empty cases are not necessarily a bad thing to the AD.

[tyler1980]

Originally Posted by s_haverford

I agree with you there. I went into a local AD and saw a YM 37. I don't really like the YM but trying to get my hands on a Sub let alone GMT is well out of reach in a reasonable time period, I almost bought the thing because it was there.

I did not follow through and am going to stick to the pieces I do REALLY want. But I see that empty cases are not necessarily a bad thing to the AD.

making a 10k watch an impulse buy. that's really impressive they are able to make people do that. it really is.

People buy models they are not after all the time, just because its pretty close to what they are waiting for and/or because its also "hard to find". Even here there are threads almost every day about "waiting on a Hulk, offered a white sky d so i bought it"

its crazy

[Juan Luis]

I think Rolex has plenty of stock to sell, albeit the sports models in steel. I've been to many AD's and were very well stocked.

[BSG75]

Originally Posted by teck21

I guess that sounded bad, my only point was that the perception of wealth creation you saw happening in Wllliamson County is quite likely dwarfed by what’s happening in Asia and several other parts of the world that we have not traditionally considered ‘rich’.

And these places are where a constrained supply of Rolex watches have been reallocated in recent years.

No worries! I'm hoping to take a trip to Asia in the next year or two!

You're correct that wealth creation in Asia most certainly dwarfs wealth creation in Williamson County. IIRC, a few years ago, 300,000,000 people in China moved into the middle class. That would be close to the entire population of the U.S.! It's hard to imagine that kind of growth!

It just seemed so odd to me that in our small corner of the world (Tennessee) that Rolex shut down the AD's in the most upwardly mobile area of the state, while leaving the other three cities Knoxville, Chattanooga and Memphis with AD's.

I will add that a couple of weeks ago, my wife and I were visiting Memphis and stopped by an AD. Pretty much empty cases, just like everywhere else!

[42itus]

I'm a little puzzled on how an AD is not wildly successful in today's market. I find it hard to believe that ADs are not getting shipments. And I'm not convinced that Rolex is "shutting down" dealers that are knowingly selling to grey. Isn't the current secondary pricing a dream scenario for Rolex?
However, my opinions are based on what's going on in my little corner of the world. Over here I have SA telling me that they are not getting anything, and other SA in the same AD telling me that they are selling almost everything before it hits the cases. Which do you believe?

[tyler1980]

Originally Posted by 42itus

I'm a little puzzled on how an AD is not wildly successful in today's market.

i think they are too however i think Rolex is favoring big AD's and chains at the expense of smaller AD's. Even in big cities, the chains do better than the one off independent AD.

No doubt they (Rolex) are selling more watches than ever. At the AD level though i think how well they are doing depends

If an AD opens a separate mono brand Rolex boutique then they tend to get more supply than the one that doesn't as Rolex likes this IMO. The chains are also more able to remodel their stores to satisfy Rolex requests, as they have access to more cash i would think

[42itus]

Originally Posted by tyler1980

i think they are too however i think Rolex is favoring big AD's and chains at the expense of smaller AD's. Even in big cities, the chains do better than the one off independent AD.

No doubt they (Rolex) are selling more watches than ever. At the AD level though i think how well they are doing depends

If an AD opens a separate mono brand Rolex boutique then they tend to get more supply than the one that doesn't as Rolex likes this IMO. The chains are also more able to remodel their stores to satisfy Rolex requests, as they have access to more cash i would think

That makes sense. So, in your opinion do you think some ADs fail because the mothership wants them to fail? Or rather, some ADs are favored over others?

In Honolulu there are two Ben Bridge stores in the big mall. I've been told that because they are Ben Bridge, they can get just about any model fairly quickly by accessing inventory from their network of stores. And they said that Honolulu doesn't get as much of the "hot" references because the two stores here do such a good job of selling.

I was always under the impression that it would be better to work with smaller independent ADs, but we only have Ben Bridge and Tourneau (Barron and Leeds) here.

[GoPackGo!]

Crazy! I was just in King's a few weeks ago.

[tyler1980]

Originally Posted by 42itus

That makes sense. So, in your opinion do you think some ADs fail because the mothership wants them to fail? Or rather, some ADs are favored over others?

In Honolulu there are two Ben Bridge stores in the big mall. I've been told that because they are Ben Bridge, they can get just about any model fairly quickly by accessing inventory from their network of stores. And they said that Honolulu doesn't get as much of the "hot" references because the two stores here do such a good job of selling.

I was always under the impression that it would be better to work with smaller independent ADs, but we only have Ben Bridge and Tourneau (Barron and Leeds) here.

as a customer i prefer small AD's... im sure Rolex prefers to deal with big ones.Its easier to sell in larger quantities to larger businesses.

I know a ben bridge in houston lost their AD status but that one was in a mall next to the cinnabon and zales.

[BNABOD]

Originally Posted by GoPackGo!

Crazy! I was just in King's a few weeks ago.

Yup just happened and for one second do not believe it happened because they wanted it to. I hear the past Rolex space will go to used watches now ...
Can tell you w what happened to me they lost a customer for life ..

[superstarmar]

How do you close the market where all the country music stars live?
I guess Rolex doesn’t like country music anymore ?

[RolyMoly]

Originally Posted by tyler1980

making a 10k watch an impulse buy. that's really impressive they are able to make people do that. it really is.

People buy models they are not after all the time, just because its pretty close to what they are waiting for and/or because its also "hard to find". Even here there are threads almost every day about "waiting on a Hulk, offered a white sky d so i bought it"

its crazy

Totally impressive.

[77T]

Originally Posted by superstarmar

How do you close the market where all the country music stars live?

I guess Rolex doesn’t like country music anymore ?

Or maybe vice versa...country music stars don’t like Rolex?


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[superstarmar]

Originally Posted by 77T

Or maybe vice versa...country music stars don’t like Rolex?


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Now that’s funny ...

[Uppersouth]

The Nashville market will certainly get another AD soon. As others have said, the demographics are fantastic.


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[TswaneNguni]

Very interesting Lee .Thanks for posting