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Rolex don't do artificial scarcity and hype campaigns around limited runs like other brands have taken to do. They're at max capacity and if you want to buy one
by Bayart 3y ago
Rolex don't do artificial scarcity and hype campaigns around limited runs like other brands have taken to do. They're at max capacity and if you want to buy one you've just got to get on the list, no short cuts.
- phamilton 3y ago> max capacity As determined by what? Probably the current manufacturing facilities that they have strategically chosen not to expand.
- yardstick 3y agoAn element of the decision may also be around quality control. Especially if a lot of the work is highly skilled but still manual human labour.
- Bayart 3y agoThey are expending manufacturing as much as they can. The constraint is really the workforce.
- llamaInSouth 3y agoGlad they are not the main producer of high tech chips then (AKA TSMC)...
- zappb 3y agoIf mechanical watches had nearly the order of magnitude of demand that ICs do, then maybe they’d be faster at it.
- llamaInSouth 3y agoThat doesn't make any sense... The only reasons why you would think they are not restricting supply would be if demand varies randomly widely or if the people planning production and/or purchasing are incompetent.
- ipqk 3y agoYou can't just expand willy-nilly. It takes tons of investment, money, and you need to find a labor force. And what happens if demand softens (like it's doing at this very moment)? Then you're stuck with a bunch of extra capacity doing nothing.
- phamilton 3y agoDigging a bit, it seems the wait-list really started to be a thing in 2019. > It takes a ton of investment. I'm not an expert, but for an "assembled by hand" luxury product it seems like incremental capacity is much lower risk. They don't need to stand up a factory. Couldn't they hire and train 10% more technicians for assembly? And when demand softens, scale back?
- nicoburns 3y agoI suspect you’re underestimating what it takes to train a technician for his kind of work. I imagine that could easily be a multi-year process (10 years even), and require a lot of attention from your highly skilled and already in-demand master practitioners.
- benhurmarcel 3y ago> Rolex don't do artificial scarcity That is absolutely not true. They have entire warehouses of “rare” watches that they let drip little by little in the market to keep their value up.