Rolex AD's

Please keep us posted - I will be very curious. Good luck.

MDS

 

You'll have better luck as you go down that list from top to bottom. That said, I did the same thing at our local AD with a similar list, Daytona being #1, no luck. They only had one Daytona for display, two-tone white face and nothing for sale on your/my wish list. I ended up picking up the new Air-King.


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I was told "not at the moment", now that I have the AK, they will probably have one or two of those models next time I go in, and get the "luckily your timing is great, we happen to have a sub, explorer...." you know how it goes.

This AD sells pre-owned, but between the asking and tax, grey market prices are better value on most of the models they had.

 

If you go in with a list of a dozen or more Rolexes and tell them you'll take any of them, my guess is you'll get pegged as a flipper, and probably won't get any of them. Or at least nothing that is desirable.

 

Just out of curiosity what is it about the Daytona that makes you want to do all this? By the time you buy and sell other “lesser watches” while waiting for that Daytona a chunk of time and money has passed. It’s a nice watch admittedly, but there are so many other amazing watches out there, especially when you get up into the $20K range. Do you love the chronograph feature, or is just the style?

 

Agree with Italia Fan. Not sure why you would do all this to buy a Daytona. FWIW, I would either buy one on gray market now and have it and start enjoying it, or buy a different brand.
Rolex makes 1.2m watches a year. Far from limited and in general their watches are far from complicated. It's the Toyota Camry of watches. Nothing wrong with it, but not worth playing games to me. There are lots of other amazing options out there that don't require playing such games. Zenith and Omega options are every bit as good, if not far better IMHO.

 

Understood. The process may take years for retail.
If you love chronographs there are so many great options.
If you lust after the daytona, well, then nothing else will suffice.

 

For chronographs it is hard to top the legacy of the Zenith El Primero, especially as they are in the class of high horology for Rolex prices. Their technical mastery is second to none. Just a thought. (I’m a sucker for being able to look at the escapement whenever glancing at the watch. Mesmerizing.)

 

The first automatic Daytonas were based on the Zenith El Primero movement with some Rolex modifications. Zenith powered the Daytona from 1988 to about 2000. One of the modifications the Rolex made was to reduce the beats per hour from 36,000 to 28,800. 36,000 BPH means that the second hand moves in 1/10th second increments, while 28,800 BPH means that the second hand moves in 1/8th second increments, so you get a more precise decimal seconds reading if that's needed. The BPH reduction was made for reliability (Zenith had to use special lubrication to get to the higher BPH) and consistent service processes (Rolex was used to the 28,800 BPH standard in their repair shops).

The Zenith Daytonas can be distinguished from the Rolex Daytonas by looking at the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock subdials. On the Zenith they're in line with the center, while on the Rolex, they're slightly above.

I've got a gold Zenith El Primero Chronomaster triple-date with moon phase from about 30 years ago in my collection.

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At some point demand and supply will meet, so if you're patient, and you don't need to have it now, I'd just wait when the Daytona becomes available, they will, it's not like it's going to go away. To me spending an extra $25-$30K to be considered to purchase a $15K watch isn't worth it. I go to the AD just for the fun of it, try on some watches and 9/10 walk out without buying anything. The previous generation Daytonas are coming down in prices, black dial can be had under $25K now and will continue to go down as more of the newer model hits the market.

 

Except the premiums for Daytonas only seem to have increased in the last 30 years. I first was interested in a Daytona in the '90s. At that time, the retail was something like $5-6K, while the market price was in the range of $8-11K. I couldn't see buying one then either. At that time, I thought about buying the two-tone or gold ones, as those didn't have a premium, only the stainless steel ones did. I checked the market every 3-5 years, but never saw the premium go away, only extend to the two-tone and gold models.

The Rolex Daytona seems to be for men, what the Hermes Birkin bag is to women.

 

True, but as with Hermes, how many other items you actually want to buy just to be considered for the Birkin? Rolex watches have always been a sought after item, Daytonas in particular, but it's only been since 2019/2020 that prices have skyrocketed to current levels, will they remain at these levels, imo no, as you're seeing with the previous model 116500, still expensive but are not 2-2.5x msrp anymore. Is 1.5-2x msrp the new normal, for now yes, that's why being patience will pay off. The value of the watch is what you pay for it, if you're never going to sell it then it doesn't matter what your cost basis is, that said, paying msrp or 1.5x is still better than 2-2.5x.

 

Yes.

Our AD in Palm Desert has a small collection of these. They go back to Rolex in Switzerland for reconditioning.

They had a Daytona when we were there in December. Not cheap, but beautiful and with a warranty.


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Good luck! Not on your wishlist, but I'll be selling my white dial two-tone Daytona soon. Just had it cleaned up at Bennison in WPB, one of the VERY few places I'd let polish a watch. Will pop it into the classifieds once I have glamour pictures.

 

Great analogy. I didn’t want to play the Hermes game either. I buy the new Birkin’s on the secondary market from a trusted seller over retail and call it a day. It’s much easier than sucking up to the salespeople and buying crap I don’t really want or need , in hopes of them selling me a bag.

 

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