London Rolex

Absolutely not. And especially not if you mean a stainless steel model.

There is nothing to stop you getting a watch anywhere you want, and the AD will not care. However if you get on in the UK you could get stung for duty on bringing it in. The next problem is getting them to give you a submariner. Google on this and you will see that these watches are in high demand and usually only given to preferred customers. How to become a preferred customer?

• Let the pointy shoe salesman ride your wife.
• Buy a bunch of shitters off them and loose your shirt on them.
• Bring them coffee and donuts every day for a year.
• Suck them off yourself to spare the wife the trauma.
• Get amazingly lucky.

With all options you get to take what should be a nice purchase and turn it into a shameful loss of your dignity.

Or.....just buy one on the secondary market and spend a couple grand more for the privilege of saving your dignity and actually saving money. I recommend iChrono.ie

But if you don't go to your local AD you won't "get the call"

Check out reddit for the horror stories. Last week I read a guy who was waiting 2 years after putting his name down for a black dial oyster perpetual, and in that time he had to buy 2 tudors. And he insisted he "enjoyed the process"

"I do not wish to spend a lot of money on jewellery and other watches as I'm not even certain I'm even in the financial state to buy the Rolex in the first instance."

This above all else will limit your ability to have one allotted to you unless a saleperson take a big shine to you. As for the rest it good to set boundaries 😁 In general the person selling the watch on the secondary market is the one with more flexible boundaries. The submariner is a excellent watch, and a credit to any owner, so if thats the one you want try not be swayed to buy other options, man maths can quickly fill a watch box.

Said every Rolex buyer ever. 🤣 I have never bought a watch I intended to sell, but here I am so many watches bought and sold. Generally ADs are not interested in what other things you have outside of money spent with them, they just want to see you have a good spend history with them on high profit items and less desirable watches and then by their divine grace they may release a watch to you are RRP. You will have lost more money on the purchases than any possible grey market mark up on the Rolex. If you need a engagement or wedding ring it often a good time as that a spend you need to make anyway.

Generally what happens is you go in. Chat to the sale person,, give them some tale of what you want and why, maybe get a glass of cheap prosecco. They say they will put you down on a list, you leave happy and hopeful and then 5 years later you're a cynical cranky bollox on the internet like me.

2007 was a different time, you were a lucky man to make that decision then. 4-5 year wait on a daytona these days.

Having said that, you can have a Daytona tomorrow from weirs if you buy 2 or 3 100k Patek dress watches and the hope diamond for the wife. Ah those AD games, such fun.

Now maybe I am far off the mark but you are playing it….

1) If all Rolex models you like were available would you still have bought the other 3 watches (tudors I assume?), possibily not I suspect.

2) They gave you a sub and that blue OP? Now those watches are not scarce like Daytona but equally you can’t walk in and buy. Do you really think they would have given them to you if you hadn’t being buying the few other bits and gotten to know the sales person etc ?

I posted the below over on the chit chat thread, but it is just as germane to the conversation here.

There are a few posts recently in the Rolex sub on Reddit that claim to be getting a Submariner / GMT in a few days without any relationship or purchase history. Wondering are things changing?

Can anyone recommend a Rolex dealer on Chrono 24 or similar? Been watching the 126710BLRO for about a year now and the price doesn't seem like it's going to budge anytime soon so looking at going grey market.

C24 has a "guarantee" in the form of escrow payments. You receive the watch, you can take it to your local AD or indy watch specialist, they can check the watch over, make sure everything is ok, and only then do you need to inform C24 that all is in order, which will prompt them to release your money to the seller

So pretty safe, even if you buy from a private seller on C24

I travel a lot to Frankfurt airport. Their shop there has no watches for sale since I started to enquire about 2 years ago. They are just for show.

How many people have been in to the new Rolex boutique in Weirs? They’re claiming that they will have significantly more stock as they have made a substantial investment in the new showroom .. still couldn’t sell me a Pepsi GMT when I asked though 😁

I think it’s a nice fit out. Obviously branded well as a Rolex space .Nice to see the trays full even if you can’t buy them for now. It’s not long ago since you couldn’t even try one on so at least that’s a step in the right direction

yeah tbf a bit of staff training would be expected but they probably get away with a basic knowledge when dealing with the majority of customers. A wis will always be a challenge for them. When I was last there I was wearing my Tudor dark Chrono which is a limited edition piece for the all blacks in 2019 . The sales rep had never seen one or even knew of its release despite also selling Tudor.

Wimbledon dial 41mm DJ would be my choice of what you tried but I would be biased .

I obviously also had to enquire about the Deepsea Challenge. If they could give me a call if they ever got an even "exhibition only" one in, could they give me a call so I could try it on. The fella showed me a pic of one still in the protective plastic on his wrist on a Rolex do they had been to abroad, it looked insane on his tiny wrists 😁 the lady then told me there is zero chance one would ever come to an AD in Ireland. Rolex told her directly that about 3 or so of them went to ADs in the UK per year. Shame.

He does! :)

To be fair, most watch sales people cant be expected to be watch nerds but basic things like size should be known. I find main dealer car salesmen the worst. I generally know more about the car they are selling just from reading their own brochure before going in there. Shocking laziness.