Demand is incredibly high at the moment. The wait times for submariners are being quoted at over a year in most cases. This has pushed the punters out to other models. The explorer II is now a wait list model at all the UK ADs I know of.
Apologies if some find my question a little vulgar, but what is going on with Rolex prices? I've just been looking on Chrono 24 and I was shocked by the asking prices for (what I thought was) a relatively unloved model, or at least one that has been fairly easy to obtain in comparision to other SS Professional models.
Seems that some traders are asking over list for a new Explorer II 216570. So, have I missed something? Have these become a little more sought after suddenly?
Demand is incredibly high at the moment. The wait times for submariners are being quoted at over a year in most cases. This has pushed the punters out to other models. The explorer II is now a wait list model at all the UK ADs I know of.
The answer is yes, you have missed something - about a 1000+ threads on here all talking about the madness of Rolex, grey dealers, price increases, stainless worth more than gold, warranty cards, price hang tags................................ The list goes on and i'm sure it will continue.
Is there a large chunk of society I never interact with where stainless sports Rolex wearing is de rigeur? I just can't think of a situation where something was so hard to get and trading at such ridiculous prices where I wouldn't think "OK, what else is there?". That '69 Sub is a lovely thing but the modern ones just seem...something else.
I think the fact that the Sub situation has 'pushed' people in to GMTs says it all, it's about displaying a Rolex on your wrist at all costs not having the watch you want.
I’m not sure it’s just the Sub situation, I think Rolex may be one of the chav brands of the moment. I was at Bluewater yesterday and there were a large number (100+) of members of a certain community there stocking up on designer brands. All the men wore Hugo Boss tracksuits and brown brogues with no socks whilst the women and girls dressed a prostitutes with a good covering of creosote. What they all had in common was a Rolex, any Rolex, on the wrist, even a lot of the children. I was in a queue behind two of them, one with a Sub C and one with a larger Day Date, both showing different and incorrect times. The kind of money these people were spending, which is obviously legitimately earned and taxed, leads me to believe that these watches were all genuine. But these people obviously didn’t have any idea about the history of the watches or even how to set them, it was all just for show.
I think you’ve got that totally wrong; I believe that the reason the GMT is so popular is that Rolex have been producing a few variations in such numbers as to cause a stir and generate demand. Submariners by comparison (lv excepted) are now less popular and more readily available.
The lack of availability of the GMT and, to a lesser extent, is what’s driving the increasing demand for the Explorer II.
That’s my interpretation of the situation, others may disagree.
These can be had still. My AD has them in the window sometimes
Potentially just the impact of the social media culture. There's such a need to show your latest acquisition to everybody. Apparently you can't enjoy stuff if nobody knows :)
may be because they are every bit as good as any other steel Rolex but more distinctive especially in white , fortunately I have mine :-)
Tiger won’t have hurt the brand .
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Demand demand demand.
Its also pushed the prices of some datejusts up because when people get the hump with waiting for the professional models they're going for the equality capable DJs instead. Dark dial DJs are getting difficult to find as a result.
Thanks for the helpful replies.
A decent older model 16570 Explorer II is still readily available at <£4K and is arguably the right size and shape for a sport Rolex, while the newer one is a bit of a monster. Those who are freaking out about the unavailability of everything could do worse. It may not be shooting up in value at the rate of less attainable models, but even if you’re waiting for something else in the long term there are worse ways to do it.