My AD, the last time i was in there, was less than happy with his rolex sales rep because of their inability to deliver on multiple pre-paid watches and commitments. Not sure if it's all just smoke and mirrors, but the SA was suddenly much or open and pissy about rolex. To the point he said he threatened the sales rep that he'd give his clients this guys number. Also gave some more insight into what the sales rep says about pricing and availability. Lets just say the "we control the air" type comment may have been made by the sales rep. With my business background, i laughed and told the SA that if that was true, Rolex will eventually suffer the consequences for that thought. Anytime you get too big for your britches like that, it never ends well.

I bet they half heartedly try to control a lot of this "known" direct to grey strategy. My AD has given me info about people who've gotten smacked by rolex when they find they do it, but even he said he guesses it's a half hearted effort at best.

All of this, like said above, is dangerous and dumb for rolex. No one is too big to fail or fall from grace.

bump

Anyone into anything besides Rolex here? More mid range under the radar WIS type brands.

Germans are especially pretty interesting. Sinn, Stowa, Meistersinger, Hanhart, Dornbluth, Nomos, etc.

Yes and no. I find that Stowas are only really good at pulling off that aviator watch design on strap. It is a solid piece to purchase second hand though.

Sinn has some really fun color options but I kind of sort of hate the syringe needle hour hands.

Nomos makes some fun pieces. I particularly thought their “world time” was cheeky in the way that it functions. And in general, the design of Nomos watches is spot on. I could just never buy one because 9,999 people out of 10,000 will think you’re wearing some $250 Daniel Wellington trash. For that price point I’d have to go Omega

I dig the general Sinn/Stowa designs. DUnno what it is about them but they just are pretty clean. I also at one point would love one of the simpler Fortis watches.

Also, have a longines, and some of their heritage collection stuff is neat. Just dont pay full retail. I've got a Hydroconquest that i keep on rotation with nato straps.

Sloot at my AD got back to me after ghosting. Pretty fuking garbage after asking me if i would be willing to wire the full funds

more and more people, including those who could easily afford luxury watches, are going with the smart watch option. it just makes sense and is more convenient. just saw the CEO of my company recently, who used to wear an all gold rolex presidential, with a damn i-watch.

this entire upcoming generation seems to care less and less for luxury items, esp watches. would not be surprised if things change in the next 5 to 10 years.

Exactly. And the instant they get some coin and go….let me go look into rolex…they see all this nonsense. Their "too big to fail" and the quote of the sales rep saying "we control the air" is a dangerous line to tow long term.

First mechanical watch I bought during my trip to Japan when I was younger. Thought the blue second hand looked dope. Great piece that always takes me back when I wear it.

Strongly disagree. This is similar to saying young-successfulls will stop chasing BMW/Benz/Audi badges on their cars because tesla is making affordable cars now and require you to bypass the cost of gas.

Yes, when you're making true multi-million per year fuk you money, guys typically adapt the "i've left humanity behind" uniform of new balance sneakers and an apple watch. But for the young and hungry, luxury goods will almost always be that extra sauce they use to separate themselves from the pack.

For the average joe demographic who are saving and saving and saving to have the funds to purchase that ONE cool piece they've always wanted, they might abandon pursuit. But there's "being able to afford rolex", and then there's the level of disposable income of someone who can afford a royal oak msrp anyway, easily paying the grey market premium for a blnr or skydweller.

In all honesty, this scarcity is almost further feeding the beast of the "Rolex Effect". See the e-mail just sent to me from my AD. Datejust41s are now achieving submariner levels of scarcity as they become the new watch to acquire. All this is just my perspective, no judgement on anyones love or hate for rolex i'm just calling it how i see it.

This makes me want to repair my Oris Artix GT Chronograph. Ironically it's a more comfortable wear than my tudor bronze and it was my first "nice" piece. Lots of memories in it.

Was really close to buying a Nomos Orion (still may one day). Clean AF and under the radar. Sometimes you want to wear a watch that very few people will even know what it is. But when you happen to get into a conversation with someone that does know, it's a special exchange that you'll always remember.

The only people that will know what it is, are the people that you actually want to know what it is, if you know what I mean.

Not only is this a really cool piece, but the fact that you actually bought it in Japan makes it that much cooler. Mirin

I think if Omega had the same "investment potential" as Rolex (at least knowing your watch will retain its value and slightly appreciate), they could close the gap between Omega/Rolex in the US. Swatch Group (who owns Bregeut, Omega, Longines, Glashutte, Blancpain, Tissot, etc) is the reason we are able to buy Swiss mechanical watches today because they consolidated the industry in the 1960s and forced everyone to utilize ETA movements. Then Omega industrialized the co-axial movement which made it possible to mass-produce incredibly accurate mechanical watches. The history behind Swatch/Omega is really impressive, but Rolex heavily outsells Omega in the US (where Rolex has 3x the marketing budget compared to Omega) largely due to the ways the watches are marketed/sold, compared to China where Omega is by far the #1 brand (srs)

I get all that, but theres a big difference between comparing the marketing and availability of Audi/BMW/Mercedes and Rolex. You dont walk into an Audi dealer that's empty…

Im more pointing toward the obvious holier than thou attitude they have. Thats a very slippery slope to get down, and is the downfall of many businesses. Especially those almost 100% brand-centric.

The thing is you can. I think the percentage of collectors who buy Rolex with the hopes of making money are very few. I feel there is a larger percentage who buy them knowing they won't completely lose their ass on it the moment they leave the dealer, and then yes the majority who pursue them just for the crown logo. I paid around $14,000 after taxes for my Rose gold DJ. The fact that i could fairly easily resell it around $12500 ($10500 if i wanted to sell it same day) is beyond a good enough storage of value for me.

Aqua Terra is $5700 retail. Can easily get one for $4400 from jomahshop/prestige time. Could wear it for 3 years or longer and could resell it at worst for $3000. That's great value retention if you are in fact a watch person that enjoys it as a wristwatch and not an investment vehicle. You can own Blancpain, Glashutte, Nomos, Breguet, etc with the exact same great value retention. As long as you bypass that initial 20% msrp hit from the grey dealers.

The elephant in the room is the human ego. I was one of the main guys itt hating on rolex when i first got into watches saying things like "i'd buy X brand instead because only the people you want to notice them will notice them". That's all cute and purist-like when you're talking about pieces under $5,000. But trust me, when you finally have the funds to add the watch to cart, whip out your credit card, and ACTUALLY press the buy button… $10,000 is a looooooooot of fuking money to spend on a Glashutte/Blancpain when exactly 3 people over the course of a year will know wtf is on your wrist.

And anyone willing to dump 10grand into a WRIST WATCH that claims they don't care if people notice it is full of schit. Now granted there are plenty of times where i want to wear a nice watch but i don't want the attention the jubilee bracelet/fluted bezel of the DJ bring. That's precisely why i'm currently looking to get an omega aqua terra. A respectable WIS-nerd piece that looks great, is built great, that i don't have to worry about getting clubbed over the head for. But you know what? An aqua terra isn't 10,000 fuking dollars.

Nomos, Stowa, Sinn, Longines, Seiko, etc all have their place in the WIScomm, but they are not as aspirational/status pieces.


….Edit: ^^strong ******** rant

agreed. i'm just not entirely certain what would be the economical event to bring them down to humility.

Do it!

For sure thanks man.

Hodnkee acquired Crown & Caliber wow. I've bought things from both companies and a big fan although Hodinkee kinda shill stuff a little too much.

In other watch news I went into David SW Showroom yesterday in Orlando and was disappointed, There were only like 10 watches out and the rest were in the vault. He has an insane rotating catalog of pateks, langes, etc. I really wanted to try on some cool stuff. I did try on the Tudor GMT for the first time and it really is an incredible watch and a good value, might add one this year.

Yup, he blows through that stuff online. People keep complaining about the prices but he still gets them.

Besides Rolex prices which are inflated everywhere DavidSW always has very competitive prices. He lives in the neighborhood next to me, heard its mostly family money and he is pretty full of himself

Agreed with will.

Do i like the fact that my AK is now trading above retail? Sure. But it isnt the reason i bought it. If i walked out of the store and the $9700 BLNR is now worth 7K, wouldnt care. And if i could buy it grey for 7K, i'd probably do that. But then again, i like supporting local businesses, so who knows?

My girl was kicking around the idea of getting a new watch after graduating from grad school. She's not reallllly a watchhead like that but me, her dad, and some of her friends are. She really likes my datejust but couldn't justify spending 8k on a watch for her level of interest.

Drunkenly browsing the web yesterday i (re)discovered that new mint green breitling chronomat. Won't lie. Kinda jelly it's 36mm because i really love the design of it. Anyways, showed it to my girl and she was stoked about it. $4700

you could buy an AP ROO (although they aren't water resistance iirc)

Also it depends on your peers (regarding brand visibility). Very few of my peers (like the average people I encounter IRL, not people who know watches) recognize a brand like AP. Some might recognize Patek. Everybody knows Rolex, though.

I don't think so. Rolex will always hold a level of prestige. What watch would you get for 25k? A nice Patek or AP would still be a ways out of your price range for that amount.

Let's be honest. If you're gonna spend that money on a watch it would be nice to have people recognize the brand. I really like the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, but as W1LL said earlier idk about spending 10k on a watch that nobody is gonna ever recognize.

@W1LL I like that breitling.

Too common? Youre kidding right? Maybe if youre on the CEO time and surrounded by investment bankers every day….

If youre doing above or happen to miraculously be around a group of WIS', maybe sure. But outside of that i've seen maybe less than 5 in 4 years. And been around some serious money in various places.

This is like over in the cologne crew where it comes up with some of the bloggers about how a fragrance is "too common." I recently said i've been in the frag game maybe 4 years, and i have enough fingers (potentially on 1 hand) to count the amount of times ive even smelled a frag on another dude that isnt something like Axe body spray.

AP ROO Diver is ~$18k and is water resistant, it was the AP ROO Chrono I was thinking of that isn't water resistant (which turned me off from that watch since it looks like such a beast, but to learn it couldn't even be submerged in water was a disappointment srs)

check out this AP ROO Diver
https://www.chrono24.com/audemarspig...id18247178.htm

I had a big hard on for a while to just suck it up and buy a standard issue blue RO and call my watch journey done. But….the more i looked into how "fragile" they were i decided to just stick with chatting up the Rolex AD and saving the coin.

Dang I didn't know they were fragile. They look like they'd be tanks. lol I love the black and blue dial RO.

edit- I'd take this one all day long. This is the new 2020, and he said in the intro they made them more durable. So maybe they fixed what you're talking about.

^^ Should clarify, the fragility was more associated with the finish on the watch. But also they werent as much of "tanks" as rolex. And i beat up my watches. Wear them everywhere.

Why not a dj26 or 31? Should be around that price range. But hey, if she likes it

I ended up getting a Speedmaster. I've been wearing it for the past few days and love it.

I regret nothing.

When I opened this thread today and saw the "does anyone think Rolex is getting too popular and diluting the prestige of the brand?" i literally said "oh god" and went and refilled my coffee to go through the comments lol.

Spend most my time between Chicago and Toronto. I have yet to see a Datejust41 in the wild, srs. The only thing i've seen in those cities are black subs, sea dwellers and I saw a bluesie Once. All that over the course of 3 years.

Currently in Miami. In 3 weeks here I've seen the yacht master on oyster flex, a bluesie, a traditional submariner, and last night i finally spotted a Hulk in the wild at dinner. But it's Miami, i expect it to be overflowing with Rolex. Funny part is i STILL havent seen a datejust 41. So this notion that rolex is becoming "so popular that it's diluting the brand" like they're 3series BMWs is pretty hilarious.

As to the rolex you said you liked. That's the rosegold twotone with chocolate dial. I have the rosegold twotone with sundust dial. Can confirm the rosegold bracelet is always enjoyable to look at. I liked the Chocolate dial a lot but that would have to be a 3rd or 4th piece for me. I wanted something a little more versatile.


Because I'd actually respect the Breitling more in this use case. It's a respectable size (women are wearing larger pieces these days), non ETA movement and what appears to be a really nice bracelet. Getting the DJ26 would just be a pathetic attempt to be associated with the Rolex brand.

Have you ever seen a dj26 in person? the dial is about as big as my thumbnail. DJ26 is for attorneys and lawyers to throw at their 20something year old sidepieces who don't know any better to make them feel good about seeing the rolex emblem, and the 31 isn't much better.

How do you post this and not specify if it's the new one or old one? And if it is the new one, the audacity to not post pics of the new bracelet… tempted to neg.