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This is an odd comment. Rolex AD's are notorious for stonewalling customers who wish to buy (particularly newer models) and making them jump through all sorts of hoops. By this I mean retail authorized dealers, not gray market. And there's nothing at all "poor man" about Rolex movement or quality, even for the Vacheron Constantin or Richard Mille crowd.
You may be right that it's a well-known brand and is by no means at the apex of watch pricing, but Rolex isn't in the category of mall fashion watch quite yet.
Why you shouldn't buy a Rolex
An interesting video. He makes an off-hand mention to the high-pressure sales tactic of 'receiving the call' and talks about the various negatives of having one.
One thing I'm surprised about is that they're apparently... finiky? As in, need regular maintenance. Rather disappointing. Give some of the videos of watch restoration of Rolexs that were worn as a daily beater for decades, I wonder if that's a more recent development.
Still, having one isn't on my to-do list, ever. If I wanted a high-end watch, I'd just buy an Omega Speedmaster and be done with it.
"I own three Rolexes" --> makes a video on why you shouldn't by Rolexes.
I agree with most of what he says about the price-gouging, luxury branding, and artificial or prestige pricing. When Sean Connery would have bought his submariner 6538 it would have cost around 2-300 bucks, which in today's dollars would be maybe 2K ish. A submariner today MSRP is anywhere from 10K-40K+. Plus the hoop-jumping for the AD. It's absurd. You can get a Rolex on the grey market with box and papers for 2K USD depending on the version (not a new one, a new one will be considerably more).
I still think they're good watches, and I've never heard about any problems with quality control as long as the watch isn't routinely abused. Certainly not in terms of mechanics. I don't love all their styles, but I would probably prefer any Rolex to, say, a Hublot, where the average price is like 20K and more often than not they look like garbage (this is just my opinion).
I happen to have a Speedmaster and endorse your choice.
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