Rolex has been relentlessly expanding its Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) programme with at least 33 authorised dealers around the world now onboarded, and over 3,600 watches on sale with the official Rolex CPO tags and two year international warranty.
The big three in Rolex CPO are Bucherer in Europe and Bucherer | Tourneau in the United States, Watches of Switzerland on both sides of the Atlantic and The 1916 Company, a fusion of WatchBox, Govberg Jewelers, Radcliffe Jewelers and Hyde Park Jewelers in America.
The 1916 Company, which draws on the pre-owned watch trading experience and scale of WatchBox, launched Rolex CPO with watches priced significantly below its rivals in the scheme, demonstrating that it will be retailers, not Rolex, that will set prices.
Morgan Stanley, in partnership with WatchCharts, has compared how retailers have been pricing their Rolex CPO and also how these prices measure up against wider market prices offered by dealers outside the Rolex tent.
The research shows a significant variance between retailers in research updated on January 8 with The 1916 Company charging an average premium of 17% for official Rolex CPO watches compared to pieces that have not been through the Rolex-backed servicing and authentication process on the wider secondary market.
Watches of Switzerland Group charges a 33% premium over market prices in the UK and 39% more in its USA showrooms and ecommerce site.
Bucherer in Europe and Bucherer | Tourneau in the United States charge 30% more for its Rolex CPO watches than unofficial market prices.
Although analysing prices for 3,600 watches is a significant sample size, the Morgan Stanley research does highlight the vast array of references that feed into that pool.
Not only are there over a dozen collections in the Rolex catalogue, each collection has myriad variations and, when it comes to the Rolex CPO market, the watches can be from any year, as long as they are more than three years old.
The real issue is will collectors pay over list price for a CPO Program Rolex, or let the watches sit in the AD’s inventory until they sell for less then the retail price for a new & unworn watch? Collectors will decide, not the Authorized Dealers. Also, since the Rolex CPO watches are pre-owned, why can’t the collector negotiate with the AD? Are they afraid we will beat the CPO price down to a saner value? We collectors need to be patient and send the AD’s a stern message that we will not be price gouged just because we want to buy a Rolex.
Very nice