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Around 250 customers attended the Rolex 2017 launch event hosted by Aurum Holdings.

Aurum gives customers their first chance to buy 2017 Rolex models

Aurum Holdings hosted a Rolex dinner in London last night with 2017 models on sale to invited customers for the first time.

The group’s chief executive, Brian Duffy, said that the event was the first time anywhere in the world at which Rolex models launched at Baselworld in March were on sale to the public.

There were 200 Rolex timepieces on show and available to buy at the event.

The UK’s biggest Rolex retailer even had a pop-up cashier at the dinner, and a watchmaker ready to make any adjustments customers required to their watches.

Mr Duffy was joined on stage by Aurum Holdings’ most senior watch buyers, Mark Toulson and Faye Soteri, and by David Lindsay, director of VIP client services at Watches of Switzerland. The team ran through the 2017 models launched by Rolex at Baselworld, and described how they fit into the current line up.

Aurum Holdings, the parent group of Watches of Switzerland, Goldsmiths and Mappin & Webb, has 46 Rolex agencies throughout the UK.

Mr Duffy quoted retail sales figures from GfK that say that the group sales account for 50% of the value of Rolex sales in the UK.

He also shared news of the flagship 155 Regent Street Watches of Switzerland store’s performance, revealing that aggregate sales had topped £50 million at the boutique since it opened in 2014.

Within the Rolex and Aurum Holdings branding at the event was a new logo for Goldsmiths Luxury, which has not been seen before. Aurum Holdings has been restructuring its retail portfolio this year, with a number of Boutique.Goldsmiths stores closing or being reassigned.

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Boutique.Goldsmiths is the group’s entry-level retail brand, offering mainly affordable fashion and lifestyle watches and jewellery.

WatchPro is awaiting comment on whether Goldsmiths Luxury was a brand used only at events like the Rolex dinner, of whether it is the first outing of a new retail brand under the Goldsmiths umbrella.

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