Buying a Rolex watch is getting harder – how the company strategically controls supply and demand

Rolex watches are hard to find, even though the luxury brand is generally believed to produce as many as a million per year

As a result, prices for second-hand Rolexes have shot up, in some cases to almost three times the retail price – and Rolex probably likes things just as they are

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Rolex watches, like this one worn by model and fashion blogger Mariano Di Vaio, are hard to come by, but the scarcity is a strategic move by the company. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 7:15am, 5 Aug 2021Updated: 7:15am, 5 Aug 2021

Semiconductor chips, used cars, Rolex watches – which is the odd one out?

Yes, people are having a hard time getting their hands on them; and yes, all are more expensive now than they were last year; but unlike the first two, the scarcity of Rolex is strategic.

While there may have briefly been supply chain disruption for watchmakers at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, Adam Golden, of vintage dealer Menta Watches, said that the issues in the past year are a mere blip compared with larger trends happening in the luxury watch market generally and with Rolex in particular.

“Rolex seems to have structured their business in such a way that they’re controlling distribution and who gets what, at a retail level,” he said. A decade ago, most models were available on-demand from authorised dealers (ADs) of the brand, he explained.

Rolex watches, like the Oyster Perpetual Explorer are becoming increasingly hard to find.

On a recent trip to a shop in the US state of Florida, Golden said there was just one Rolex available to buy – a ladies’ Datejust that a customer had ordered and cancelled.