Rolex lacks supply, other luxury watches benefit

Swiss watch retailer Watches of Switzerland Plc CEO Hugh Brian Duffy said a boom in demand for Rolex watches and a lack of supply is driving interest in other luxury watches. . He said in an interview that sales of high-end Swiss brands such as Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet increased only “modestly” in fiscal 2022. That has spurred interest in brands. other high end brands.

“We doubled production on them,” says Duffy of watches like Richemont’s Cartier, Swatch Group’s Omega, LVMH’s Tag Heuer alongside Tudor and Breitling. The retailer, with 171 stores in the UK and US, said demand for some Cartier and Tudor models is now causing new supply problems.

“We couldn’t buy enough Santos,” says Duffy of Cartier’s pilot watch. “We couldn’t have enough Tudor either,” especially the brand’s chronograph models, he added.

The shortage of Rolex made customers interested in many other brands as well. Photo: Rolex

Those supply concerns weighed on the decline for the company’s shares, which were trading 1% lower at 10:49 a.m. on May 18 in London after a 4.1 percent drop. The company’s shares have fallen by nearly a third in 2022, after tripling in the past two years.

Luxury watch sales have skyrocketed during the pandemic as wealthy consumers often use money that would otherwise be spent on travel and entertainment to buy high-end watches. Retailers benefited from a spike in sales both online and in-person after reopening.

Information revealed on May 18 showed that Watches of Switzerland’s full-year revenue increased 40% to $1.54 billion. That forecasts $1.79 to $1.45 in revenue for 2023.

Prices for Rolex and a number of other luxury Swiss brands began to stabilize or decline slightly in the resale market after the fever spike. Despite that effect, and the stock and crypto plunge, Duffy said retail demand for Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet watches continues to outstrip supply.

“Demand is just out of stock for those brands. We would love to have more of them,” added the director.

More and more people are spending on luxury watches than before. Photo: Tudor

Luxury watches have become a prized investment object around the world, however, sourcing from manufacturers is not enough. Rolex has said in a written statement that the rarity of its products is not part of its business strategy. However, the wait time to own a Rolex can be up to a year in some parts of the world.

According to Phuong Kim