TIMES.KY

Cayman Islands, Caribbeanand International News
Sunday, Dec 08, 2024

Even Royal Family Members Can Struggle To Buy Rolex Watches In Dubai

Even Royal Family Members Can Struggle To Buy Rolex Watches In Dubai

Roughly three-quarters of the company's clients are UAE nationals and resident expatriates, including people from India, China, Germany and the UK.
When a sheikh or a royal family member wants a Rolex, you might imagine they'd get bumped to the top of the 4,000- strong waiting list in the United Arab Emirates. Right?

Not always, says Mohammed Abdulmagied Seddiqi, chief commercial officer of Seddiqi Holding, owner of a retailer of Swiss watches in the UAE. If a royal wants a watch for personal use, they'll get it. But if they're looking for watches to give as gifts - to dignitaries, perhaps royalty from other countries - the company may be more selective, Seddiqi says.

"Some people really take it personally," he says. "We have to be fair to clients and make sure we give it to the right people."

This is just one of the happy problems now facing Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, the only authorized Rolex distributor in the emirate of Dubai and the company running the world's largest Rolex store. The Swiss watch industry has experienced surging demand over the past two years and is on track for its best year ever, by value of exports.

Through October, the value of Swiss watch exports in the sector's 30 largest markets was 13.3% higher than in the same period last year, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. Growth in the UAE slightly exceeded that, at 13.8%. This makes the country of only about 10 million people the world's ninth-largest market for Swiss watches.

"We've reached to a point where we'll have a watch available, and we call a client and say we have a watch, and they say, 'Yes, I am coming,'" Seddiqi said. "They don't even ask what model. Whatever we get, they take it."

Seddiqi & Sons, which opened its first store in the UAE in 1960, now runs more than 50 stores in the country, including four Rolex boutiques. The world's largest Rolex store is three stories and one of two Rolex stores in the immense Dubai Mall.

At the Rolex boutiques, most watches shown are for display only, not for sale. Any in the store remain in stock a day or two at most, say sales associates.

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the stores shut down. Soon, delivery orders started rolling in from bored clients at home, spending their money on luxury goods, sight unseen. People who didn't know anything about watches wanted one because everyone else was buying them.

"I was with a client a week ago, and he was wearing a Rolex Daytona, and he didn't know the function of the watch," Seddiqi says in disbelief. (The Daytona is a chronograph, a type of watch that combines regular timekeeping with a stopwatch; it's one of the most coveted models among collectors.) "It's not a matter of functionality. It's a matter of being hot. That's the only reason they want it."

The company maintains lists of clients who get certain watches and lists of those who don't. The company limits its waitlist for Rolexes to 4,000. The limit for Patek Philippes, which makes a fraction watches Rolex produces each year, is about 20 to 30. customers. When watches become available, they are offered to customers based in part on previous buying habits: The company might avoid offering a model similar to one the client recently purchased.

One thing that's sure to get you shadow-banned, or quietly dropped from the list: watch flipping. The Seddiqi company has to sell the watches at the suggested Swiss retail price. Seddiqi says he's seen people-some with more wealth than you'd know what to do with in a lifetime-flip a watch to make a couple of thousand dollars. How does he know? Over decades in the business, he has acquired contacts who inform on flippers, he says.

Roughly three-quarters of the company's clients are UAE nationals and resident expatriates, including people from India, China, Germany and the UK.

To turn all these new customers into lifetime watch enthusiasts, Seddiqi is taking on something of an educational mission. He says he's thinking of turning the second floor of the Rolex store in the Dubai Mall-which used to hold many more watches made with gold and precious gems-into a place where customers can learn more about watchmaking. The company could fly in experienced horologists to open up watches, hold demonstrations, and explain such aspects as the technical movement of the gears, he says.

The process, Seddiqi says, would help customers understand why it takes so long to get a watch in hand. Recently, he flew some loyal clients to Switzerland to witness watchmakers in action.

"They came back saying, 'If you can't give us watches now, we understand why,'" he says.
Newsletter

Related Articles

TIMES.KY
0:00
0:00
Close
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Israel: Unprecedented Civil Disobedience Looms as IDF Reservists Protest Judiciary Reform
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
Europe is boiling: Extreme Weather Conditions Prevail Across the Continent
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Italian Court's Controversial Ruling on Sexual Harassment Ignites Uproar
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
BBC Personalities Rebuke Accusations Amidst Scandal Involving Teen Exploitation
A Swift Disappointment: Why Is Taylor Swift Bypassing Canada on Her Global Tour?
Historic Moment: Edgars Rinkevics, EU's First Openly Gay Head of State, Takes Office as Latvia's President
Bye bye democracy, human rights, freedom: French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
Unilever Plummets in a $2.5 Billion Free Fall, to begin with: A Reckoning for Misuse of Corporate Power Against National Interest
Beyond the Blame Game: The Need for Nuanced Perspectives on America's Complex Reality
Twitter Targets Meta: A Tangle of Trade Secrets and Copycat Culture
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
The New French Revolution
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
×