Initially shocking, the Exhibition Only signs peppering window and in-store displays of Rolex watches in recent years have become a permanent fixture that, in my opinion, has become an effective part of The Crown’s marketing.
It conveys a simple message: Rolex watches are rare and hard to get hold of, despite the company making well over one million units per year and every model is available at increasingly reasonable prices on the secondary market.
The EO impact went further than that. Customers with the temerity to rock up to a Rolex store and expect to walk out with the watch of their dreams, were soon set straight.
You need a purchasing history with the authorized dealer to even begin the journey towards a Submariner, DayDate, GMT or — and you will laugh at this — a Daytona.
The impossibility of buying a Rolex without a relationship with a local AD led to boom times for other brands.
Customers may not have thought they were in the market for an Omega, Panerai, Tudor, TAG Heuer or Breitling, but they were quickly converted to the idea because these purchases were stepping stones to Rolex.
Those 2-inch, passive-aggressive, green and gold Exhibition Only notices might as well be 100 foot high billboards at the Superbowl, they are that effective.
But could their days be numbered as waiting lists shorten?
Probably not, at least not yet, but I hope so soon because an industry that strongarms customers into buying goods they do not really want is on a path to ruin.
I came across an early signal that EO could be on its way out when I visited a relatively new Watches of Switzerland showroom at the American Dream megamall in New Jersey.
Here, for the first time since 2020, I was able to walk in, part with tens of thousands of dollars, and walk out with a brand new Rolex watch.
Yes, you read that correctly, Watches of Switzerland has Rolex watches for sale to any punter capable of meeting the sticker price.
Before you get too excited, these were not the unattainable unicorn watches in the Rolex catalog, they were precious metal, gem-set DayDates and DateJusts.
These watches are no longer of any value to flippers because they are now trading at below retail prices in most cases, and they are desirable to a far smaller cohort than Rolex’s steel tool watches, particularly the smaller ladies sizes.
But it was the first visible sign that the Rolex drought is easing, and another indicator that we are returning to normality after the post-pandemic boom years.