When Rolex announced its intention to buy Bucherer last year, there was an initial panic from legions of authorised dealers around the world that they would suffer if the watchmaker favoured its new retail arm with bigger and better allocations.
That jitteriness has subsided since the deal was revealed last August as watches continued to arrive, as forecast, by Rolex.
Nervous or not, Rolex’s retailers were never going to raise a fuss about the Bucherer deal. They were going to suck it up and see what happened.
Rolex is simply too big and important to these ADs for them to do anything other than keep doing the best job possible and hope that proves enough to keep the watches flowing in.
There is an obvious comparison to be made here with The Watches of Switzerland Group’s acquisition of Roberto Coin’s North American operation.
Just as all Rolex partners — in the UK and USA at least — are competitors to Bucherer, so are all Roberto Coin retailers in the United States competitors with Watches of Switzerland Group’s stores.
This begs the question, will they stick with Roberto Coin when its distribution in the United States is run by a rival? And, will rivals of Watches of Switzerland Group want it to have data on their Roberto Coin sales?
Time will tell, and the outcome will hinge on how important Roberto Coin is to its retail partners, and whether there are alternatives they could stock.
No Rolex official jeweller would dream of dropping the brand, but we will see whether Roberto Coin has the same control under Watches of Switzerland Group’s stewardship.
Retailers are pragmatic by nature, but also rational. Pragmatism may steer them towards sticking with Roberto Coin, but giving Watches of Switzerland Group a gateway to sensitive commercial information is likely to tweak their rational instincts.
Watchpro is an excellent source for Prestige Watches.