Quote:
Originally Posted by Blksnowflake
I wouldn't expect the prices to shift but the second hand market may lower a bit.
People say there's a shortage, however, if you visit grey dealers in China or anywhere else in the world or even pull up social media you will see that they have numerous quantities of all the recent releases and popular models.
Where are they getting them from?
Lots of rumors and chatter about what is supposedly going on with the most popular theory being the economy jumped up and so did demand, a demand that Rolex didn't expect and one which came right at the time a new movement was being introduced while at the same time coexisting with current products.
Example...GMT2's using both 3186 and 3285 movements....that takes a lot of coordination to retool the factory in between batches, also the two BLROs using the same bezel but in different metals...the Datejust switched movement and bracelets, discontinuation of the ladies 26mm and updating all 28mm and 31mm Datejusts and ladies DJ president models, etc etc..
It may seem easy because Rolex is highly mechanized but look at how long an individual color from BMW takes and all they have to do to reprogram the robots for just a few or just one car, that gives an idea.
Either way, no clear answers, but as for shortage, I honestly don't believe it. You want shortage, look at a 5711, ss is precious metal for Patek. But hop over anywhere in the world for second hand or grey sales and you will see any model you want in abundance with the exception of two, the Rainbow Daytona and Blue dial BLRO in white gold, both in production for a ridiculously short time.
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That's why supply is tight. The factory can only make so many watches per year and now with the Chinese market opened up they sucked up a lot of the supply from Rolex.
To make more watches you need to higher more skilled watchmaker and invest in more equipment and inventories. A lot of people didn't think about it and think Rolex should just increase supply but it is not so simple.