Rolex enters the pre owned market

I think it's brilliant, firstly your buying a watch with a 2yr guarantee from an AD , secondly I hope it sorts the grey market out , thirdly you cannot trade one back to a AD untill it's 3yrs old to stop the flippers hopefully, your also getting the guarantee it's genuine,win win I think ,now for the bad news the prices are comparable with other retailers but you are getting all of the above 

I think the same way. I think it’s also great that the ADs get support and it’s not all about the Boutiques. 

I think there is a long term idea of bringing the prices back to normal. You can‘t start the program and be 50% of the market. I think they‘ll be always around the grey market price. But I think that those who want to buy a Rolex prefer a local AD when he is at the same price or a little bit cheaper than the grey market. Than the grey market needs to sell to lower prices. Otherwise there is no advantage buying there.

 Hope that Rolex uses this as a tool for some kind of correction. But it‘s going to take some time. 

Massive news, and really positive. Helps the second-hand market as now people can buy the most popular brand with the largest number of models with real authenticity guarantees. Helps the ADs as they have more stock and incentivises them to invest in their servicing arms (by funding more capacity to service Rolexes so they gain share from wathcfinder etc). This will be slow to toll out globally but is a big deal.

Even tough it‘s slow, I think there will be a huge benefit. I think we‘re going to see more and more watch brands doing sth similar the next few years. The watch industry itself will benefit a lot I think. 

Uncertified!

Anyway, I need to bone up on the take someone did on this whole gambit a year or two ago.

https://thetruthaboutwatches.com/2021/01/certified-pre-owned-watches-ads-ftw/

"Well, if this certified pre-owned Rolex is too expensive, we have a waitlist for the same model new at a lower cost..."

I think it's a great idea, at least based on the 30,000' view that the links provide. The devil is in the details.

Further to this, here are some additional details:

https://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=msg&th=2458028&rid=12189#msg_7738814

Very interesting to hear.

It's good to note that Rolex is not itself getting into the secondary market; the program is an authentication program much like what eBay or Watchbox would provide. They just control that directly with this program. However, there's no doubt in my mind that this effort is designed to stabilize secondary market pricing for the good of its brand reputation.

There's no legal way for Rolex to control the secondary market themselves or to eliminate the resale of their watches by gray market dealers or individual sellers but I believe their certified pre-owned program will place downward pricing pressure on grey market dealers who will have to compete against ADs who carry the certified pre-owned AD label and reduce flipping of new watches overall. 

Rolex ADs have been both cause and casualty in the recent rise in secondary prices for Rolex hype pieces. I'd wager that as part of the governing rules, Rolex will somehow set resale pricing parameters to ADs (within what is legal) in the certified pre-owned program which will be good for Rolex, ADs, and us (the customer). 

Rolex news release: 

Rolex Certified Pre-Owned - Guaranteed authentic | Newsroom

The news is getting picked up all over the interweb now both in the watch world and finance world:

Rolex Announces Certified Pre-Owned Program (hodinkee.com)

Rolex To Establish A Certified Pre-Owned Program Rolling It Out With Authorized Retailers, Starting In Europe (forbes.com)

Rolex to Certify Pre-Owned Watches in Major Shift - Bloomberg

Rolex Officially Enters the Secondary Market with Its Own Certified Pre-Owned Program (yahoo.com)

Several people have suggested this might decrease prices in the used market. I don't see why.

If anything this may encourage more people to buy Rolex watches. Given the constrained supply, that'll just push prices up higher.

Maybe that's why they are doing this now. The market is softening. So add more fuel to the fire. 

From Hodinkee

...
gmoneyswag.com 4 hours ago
Bucherer (the first AD to participate in this CPO program) has the GMT Batman listed for £21k. Watchfinder UK has the same watch listed for £15k. This does not look compelling at all. If anything, my theory is that Rolex and the CPO will artificially prop up the market price of their watch to make the retail price for new pieces seem more attractive

You are buying a genuine Rolex from an AD. Cuts out fakes, Franke watches, and (potentially) reins in the price. 
 

I managed an AD for many years, many years ago. ADs have been asking Rolex for this additional sales channel since the ‘90’s. 

It's basically the same as branded certified pre-owned cars. It demands more of a premium because it's "inspected" by the dealer blah blah, but at the end of the day the regular pre-owned car market is strolling along

Not sure what to think here.  I guess this means we can actually see some Rolexes for sale (albeit CPO) at ADs instead of them being only Museums for most of us (i.e., just exhibition versions only).  

However, I think @OscarKlosoff hit the nail on the head.  You can go to an AD and get on a waiting list for a new watch at retail (and jump through whatever hoops may be required) or you can pay thousands more for a 3+ year old used version and get it now. 

At least it gets one part of the AD games out in the open. Instead of buying a few watches or jewelry you don't want to get the watch you do want.  You can just pay the AD the premium and get a used version of the watch (with a Rolex warranty and the peace of mind knowing that when you inevitably send it in for service, it won't be impounded by Rolex as a stolen or counterfeit watch).

Still, I wouldn't pay above retail for a Rolex before out of principle and the CPO program won't change anything in this regard for me personally.  If this means I never get the GMT I have been on the waiting list on for over 3 years at my AD where I bought 2 other watches (that I wanted so no harm), so be it.  Fortunately, there are more than enough non-Rolex watches I am interested in.

Interesting to see how the Rolex CPO program plays out.

Creating and structuring a program of this sort can’t be done in weeks or even months. This has likely been in planning for years while the market has only softened since March. So I don’t suspect this was rolled out to prop up prices. However, as you note with supply limited, pricing wouldn’t come down without some intent by Rolex to help reduce secondary pricing in some way. That’s why I theorize there might be some pricing restrictions placed on ADs on what they can resell a CPO watch to a customer. In exchange of course they get the label and a built-in method to not only capture a first time customer but also when they are ready to turn it in for another purchase. Smart on Rolex IF they do it this way. I’ll be very curious to see how this rolls out.