Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

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

0:00
0:00
Close
Unelected PM of the UK holds an emergency meeting because a candidate got voted in… which he says is a threat to democracy…
Farmers break through police barriers in Brussels.
Ukraine Arrests Father-Son Duo In Lockbit Cybercrime Bust
US Offers $15 Million For Info On Leaders Of Cybercrime Group Lockbit
Apple warns against drying iPhones with rice
Alexei Navalny: UK sanctions Russian prison chiefs after activist's death
German economy is in 'troubled waters' - ministry
In a recent High Court hearing, the U.S. argued that Julian Assange endangered lives by releasing classified information.
Tucker Carlson says Boris Johnson wants "a million dollars, in Bitcoin or cash, from Tucker Carlson to talk about Ukraine.
Russia is rebuilding capacity to destabilize European countries, new UK report warns
EU Commission wants anti-drone defenses at Brussels HQ
Von der Leyen’s 2nd-term pitch: More military might, less climate talk
EU Investigates TikTok for Child Safety Concerns
EU Launches Probe Into TikTok Over Child Protection Under Digital Content Law
EU and UK Announce Joint Effort on Migration
Ministers Confirm Proposal to Prohibit Mobile Phone Usage in English Schools
Avdiivka - Symbol Of Ukrainian Resistance Now In Control Of Russian Troops
"Historic Step": Zelensky Signs Security Pact With Germany
"Historic Step": Zelensky Signs Security Pact With Germany
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has died at the Arctic prison colony
Tucker Carlson grocery shopping in Russia. This is so interesting.
France and Germany Struggle to Align on European Defense Strategy
‘A lot higher than we expected’: Russian arms production worries Europe’s war planners
Greece Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage and Adoption Rights
Russia "Very Close" To Creating Cancer Vaccines, Says Vladimir Putin
Hungarian Foreign Minister: Europeans will lose Europe, the Union's policy must change drastically
Microsoft says it caught hackers from China, Russia and Iran using its AI tools
US Rejects Putin's Ceasefire Offer in Ukraine
The Dangers of Wildfire Smoke and Self-Protection Strategies
A Londoner has been arrested for expressing his Christian beliefs.
Chinese Women Favor AI Boyfriends Over Humans
Greece must address role in migrant vessel disaster that killed 600: Amnesty
Google pledges 25 million euros to boost AI skills in Europe
Hungarian President Katalin Novák Steps Down Amid Pardon Controversy
Activist crashes Hillary Clinton's speech, calls her a 'war criminal.'
In El Salvador, the 'Trump of Latin America' stuns the world with a speech slamming woke policing after winning a landslide election
Trudeau reacts to Putin's mention of Canadian Parliament applauding a former Ukrainian Nazi in his interview with Tucker Carlson.
The Spanish police blocked the farmers protest. So the farmers went out and moved the police car out of the way.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy fires top Ukraine army commander
Tucker Carlson's interview with Vladimir Putin raises EU concerns
Finnish Airline, Finnair, is voluntarily weighing passengers to better estimate flight cargo weight
Russia's Economy Expands by 3.6% Due to Increased Military Spending
Ukraine MPs Vote To Permit Use Of Dead Soldiers' Sperm
German Princess Becomes First Aristocrat To Pose Naked On Playboy Cover
UK’s King Charles III diagnosed with cancer
EU's Ursula von der Leyen Confronts Farmer Protests Amid Land Policy Debates
Distinguishing Between Harmful AI Media and Positive AI-Generated Content: A Crucial Challenge for the EU
Tucker Carlson explains why he interviewed Putin
Dutch farmers are still protesting in the Netherlands against the government, following the World Economic Forum's call for 'owning nothing.'
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stands up for European farmers and says, 'Brussels is suffocating European farmers.
×