are watchfinder taking the p***?

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stefs
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are watchfinder taking the p***?

Post by stefs »

A couple of months ago when I looked watchfinder were selling the hulk (green rolex sub c) for £7600 which is a grand over list. Bad enough but now they have two. One at £8950 and one at £9250.
Supply and demand and all that but surely this is taking the biscuit? Or is it me being a moany old git :oops:
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Re: are watchfinder taking the p***?

Post by downer »

Supply and demand innit. :)
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Re: are watchfinder taking the p***?

Post by nbg »

The average euro land sterling equivalent is currently about £7,600 for the LV. Even more in some other non euro territories.

So for folk outside the UK it's not such a premium. Does though make it even more difficult for potential UK buyers.

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Re: are watchfinder taking the p***?

Post by nbg »

downer wrote:Supply and demand innit. :)
I blame the Instagram generation!

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Re: are watchfinder taking the p***?

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

downer wrote:Supply and demand innit. :)
So, please correct me if I’m wrong here…

WF is a grey dealer, right? So they can charge what they like. Normally I would have expected them to be cheaper, but Rolex appears to follow its own laws in this respect. I’m not a Rolex fan at all so this does not give me an axe to grind

Now, I am also assuming that a pukka A.D. would not be allowed to charge over the odds? But also they suffer from Rolex's marketing strategies and therefore probably have a 75 year waiting list, which you can only jump if you went to Eton and Christ Church and are a member of the MCC. Or you know the owner, which is probably the same thing.

Even were I a Rolex fan, I would at this point be giving the old third finger salute and toddling off to look at other brands.
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Re: are watchfinder taking the p***?

Post by Dancematt »

nbg wrote:
downer wrote:Supply and demand innit. :)
I blame the Instagram generation!

Neil
Agreed. They have no idea how much these things should cost and hardly ever bargain. They just spend spend spend.

Rolex are shooting themselves in the foot somewhat though.
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Re: are watchfinder taking the p***?

Post by Mikkei4 »

Are they any worse than any other after-market or non-AD sellers?

For example they have 2 x Omega Speedy Tuesday each at just under £7k when the original RRP was under £5k, but try buying one at the proper price. Their price for the Tuesday is no worse than other sellers of such watches. If somebody is willing to pay that money then it'll sell which WF and others know.

Surely it's the original manufacturers that cause the problem with very limited production of some standard models (Rolex) or very limited numbers in their Limited Editions (Omega) or so many limited editions models (Omega). All they manage to achieve is to push up the prices for certain desirable watches once they've been bought at the AD price.
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Re: are watchfinder taking the p***?

Post by AdDaMan »

Watchfinder are well overpriced anyway!
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Re: are watchfinder taking the p***?

Post by scooter »

I am struggling to understand how Rolex can be held accountable for the price that a grey dealer seeks to achieve for a brand new or otherwise Rolex watch.

If you purchase a brand new Rolex from an AD I understand that you pay the maximum RRP but no more.

If you purchase a Rolex that is not brand new from an AD that AD can charge what he likes as does a grey dealer such as Watchfinder.

Should Rolex decide to limit the production of a particular model to heighten it's exclusivity, there is no earthly reason why they shouldn't do that.

What I do know is that unlike 99% of watch brands, owning a Rolex usually means that you have the pleasure of owning and wearing an excellent watch for next to nothing should you decide to move it on.

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Re: are watchfinder taking the p***?

Post by downer »

In my opinion, Watchfinder are on the way to achieving the retail holy grail, which is to be market makers, rather than market followers.

They are almost in the situation where they are the price benchmark for quality used watches in UK, and as such have a good grip on setting prices and availability. In other words... they decide the used prices in this market.

In the example of the Speedy Tuesday mentioned above, I would be fairly sure they have more than two in stock (looking at the number of flippers on TZ-UK alone), and that they are now restricting the secondary market availability to maintain desirability and high prices.

Clever guys.
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Re: are watchfinder taking the p***?

Post by reggie747 »

downer wrote:and that they are now restricting the market availability to maintain desirability and high prices.
à la Rolex then ?
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Re: are watchfinder taking the p***?

Post by downer »

Yes...but without the development, infrastructure and marketing costs and risks. Basically piggy backing off the strength of other brands.
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Re: are watchfinder taking the p***?

Post by nbg »

The days of grey dealers selling desirable models from desirable brands such as Rolex and PP have gone. For less desirable brands its still generally the case that you can easily buy grey at a discount.

@scooter - spot on comment.

@downer - certainly seems the case re WF setting the market prices. A couple of smaller dealers I have spoken to basically said they look at the price WF are charging before setting their price.

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Re: are watchfinder taking the p***?

Post by stefs »

I wonder how long these will be with them at 9 grand a pop? Almost at daytona levels of daftness. These massive margins seem to be a relatively new thing to me but I could be wrong (usually am)
I sort of get it with special limited editions like the snoopy or Tuesday but just seems nuts with production watches. Try anf find a nautilus without paying a bloody great premium. I suppose rolex, pp etc know what they're doing but it can be very frustrating if your a potential customer. Personally with regards to wf it makes me want to say shove it to using them in the future.

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Re: are watchfinder taking the p***?

Post by Tyke »

Lot of money for watches with flimsy (worthless?) Guarantees
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