Rolex cancellations in Germany: Will Bucherer sooner or later replace the classic jeweller?
This question has Rob Corder from WatchPro and answered in his column. The background to this is Rolex's confirmation to Insight Luxury that it will end its collaboration with jeweller Rüschenbeck at the end of next year and the rumoured termination of other authorised retailers in Germany. There is talk of a total of 40 PoSs losing their licence by the end of this year.
The Rolex website currently lists a good 100 jewellers' PoSs in Germany - including Bucherer branches - with Rüschenbeck appearing eight times.
Beyond Rüschenbeck, Rolex has made no official statement on a wave of redundancies in Germany. The Swiss magazine Balance sheet asked industry expert Oliver Müller: "Rolex is closing up to 40 locations in Germany. Did you expect that?" His answer: "Of course." The answer was predictable, as Müller had already predicted in 2015 that the brand with the crown would sooner or later take over distribution itself: full margin with full control.
Finally, in 2023, Rolex bought the international jewellery chain Bucherer. And with it the world's largest watch retailer. Until then, the company had operated just one shop on its own, at its headquarters in Geneva.
"In the last five years, Rolex has already reduced its dealer network by around 20 per cent to the current 1,240 points of sale," the Handelszeitung quotes Oliver Müller as saying. And there will be even fewer, the industry expert is certain. Müller believes that a maximum of 800 points of sale will remain: "A good half of these will be operated by the company itself."
In Düsseldorf on the luxury shopping mile Königsallee - where Rüschenbeck also operates a shop - the time may soon have come. Rolex Immobilien GmbH has purchased units 52-54 there.
Was that it for the classic jeweller as a Rolex dealer?
Will Rolex handle the business solely or exclusively through its subsidiary Bucherer in the future? Rob Corder from WatchPro says: No! At least the big and good jewellers have nothing to fear. He is certain:
"Bucherer, which is part of Rolex, will not replace a global network of the best jewellers."
In doing so, he categorises the facts and assumptions described differently to most other market observers: "From these facts and the speculation about the closure of 40 Rolex shops, commentators conclude that Rolex is abandoning its wholesale model, which currently accounts for 92 per cent of global sales. The remaining eight per cent will be handled by Bucherer, which is 100 per cent owned by Rolex," he writes in his column for WatchPro UK, stressing: "I disagree."
He believes that Rolex has learnt from its experience with Bucherer that the retail business is not an easy one to give up its successful wholesale model and partnerships with the world's best luxury jewellers and watch retailers for.
Rolex in the USA and Great Britain
"In the UK and the US, the two markets I know best, Rolex seems to have learnt that retail is a highly specialised discipline best left to the experts. It's expensive, complicated, incredibly competitive and requires constant investment to keep pace not only with competing jewellers but also with all the other luxury companies vying for the same customers' money," explains Corder.
And he calculates that Bucherer has lost market share in the USA under Rolex, including to the watch retailer Watches of Switzerland, which operates almost 50 PoS in the USA, including monobrands, WOSG boutiques, Mayors and Betteridge.
"And Rolex obviously likes to see this, otherwise the company would have shifted the product allocation to its own jeweller and blocked the growth of the competition."
This also applies to independent family businesses, which have increased their investment in Rolex enormously, says Corder: "Companies such as London Jewelers, The 1916 Company, Reeds, Polacheck, Hing Wa Lee, Geary's, De Boulle, Eiseman and many more have modernised and expanded their Rolex range."
Rolex is currently building a new headquarters on 5th Avenue in New York, which will house one of the world's largest Rolex boutiques from 2027. It is likely that Bucherer will take over the management, but confirmation is still pending. Bucherer currently operates 33 shops in the US, including monobrand boutiques, Bucherer itself and the remaining Tourneau shops (Bucherer bought the watch retailer in 2018).
Rob Corder is observing a similar trend in the UK.
"Since the turn of the century, Rolex sales in the UK have changed dramatically and many shops have had to close. Berry's in Leeds lost the brand in 2012 and Ernest Jones, owner of Signet Jewellers, lost the brand in the same year. Fraser Hart and Rolex parted ways in 2019 and Wempe was dropped in 2023. These are all large retailers, similar in size to Juwelier Rüschenbeck, but the loss of Rolex never resulted in a gain for Bucherer."
If jewellers are now losing their Rolex licence, he concludes, it is because they are in the wrong location or because they are not presenting the brand "as it demands today. That's why they're closing, and that's very much in line with Rolex's long-standing commitment to working with the best retail partners in the world."
