GAME ON

The newly launched Rolex Certified Pre-Owned Programme has us hopeful, if a little wary...

- ASHOK SOMAN

It finally happened: Rolex got into the pre-owned watch business game, with the Rolex Certified Preresponse immediately, but I wanted to wait for the dust to settle before penning a more personal version of the same story in WOW. To summarise, in a long-expected move, which some might insist is long overdue, the world's most important fine watchmaking brand made its move in December in Geneva, and the reverberations will be felt for years to come. In Singapore, we will have to wait till sometime in 2023 to see how things shake out; given that Rolex watches already form the lion's share of pre-owned sales, this is guaranteed to be a developing story, no matter where you are in the world.

Of course, Rolex's move is hardly unprecedented: Audemars Piguet has been trying to sort out its own pre-owned business model for years; Richard Mille has actually made it happen; and the Richemont Group made its own play with the acquisition of Watchfinder & Co, while taking on the challenge of pre-owned sales for some brands (Cartier and Vacheron Constantin, for example) at their own boutiques. Of course, all those names are dwarfed by the colossus that is Rolex, but the most important question has yet to be settled: there is no word on how retailers will handle pricing. That is exactly what we wrote earlier this month, and we do have an answer of sorts now - provisionally.