What Do You Need to Know About the 2020 Rolex Price Increase?

2020 has been an intense and chaotic year for all of us, and one of the places where the impacts of COVID-19 and other changing market trends are most visible is in the prices of luxury timepieces. In 2020, Rolex announced a price increase for all of their watches, and for reasons, we will get into later, this was honestly a long time coming, especially in the United States.

Rubber B is proud to be one of the pre-eminent manufacturers of custom rubber watch straps for luxury brands, such as Rolex, but we also believe it is important to keep our customers informed when important changes occur such as this one.

And because this is Rolex that we’re talking about, it is essential to delve into the 2020 price increase a little more deeply, because not all of their products are being increased by the same percentage in terms of pricing. This means that, depending on what watch you are trying to purchase, the pricing point increase will affect you differently. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the intricate details of the Rolex 2020 price increase and find out how it is likely to impact you.

What Do You Need to Know About the 2020 Rolex Price Increase?

Why is Rolex Increasing Their Prices in 2020 in the First Place?

It would be very easy to answer this question by saying “They’re Rolex, arguably the most trusted luxury watchmaker in the world, they can set their prices at whatever they’d like,” and just leave it at that. That would be doing a disservice to you though, dear reader, because the truth is that the mechanisms behind this are just not that, well, simple.

It is important to state upfront that the Rolex 2020 price increase, at this point in time, does not seem to have anything to do with the costs of gold, platinum, or other materials that would be used in the making of their watches. Instead, it seems that Rolex is simply doing what they’ve always done: using strategy and data to make informed decisions about how their products should be priced relative to the demand for them in the marketplace.

One of the most important factors to take into account here is the secondary watch market, or as it’s more affectionately known among collectors, the “grey market.” There is a massive disparity between what Rolex charges in terms of their retail prices and how much one of their watches goes for on the grey market – here’s an example to help drive the point home more clearly.

In 2019, the Rolex Daytona ref. 116500LN, which is a fairly new and popular watch, had a retail price of $12,400 – it will now increase to $13,150 in 2020. By contrast, this watch retails for around $20,000 on the grey market, which is almost double – almost no other product in the world has this kind of pricing system attached to it, and for good reason. This means that Rolex is losing millions of dollars in revenue when you take a moment to think about how much extra jewelers are making when they resell Rolex’s product.

In other words, a large part of this 2020 Rolex price increase can simply be viewed as Rolex attempting to play catch up and right the ship. And when you look at the example listed above, can you really blame them?

How Much Will Rolex Be Increasing Its Prices By?

This is where things get interesting, as the prices are not being recalculated equally – different styles of watches will see different percentage increases in pricing. Additionally, these increases also seem to vary by country as well.

In all honesty, it’s been almost a decade since Rolex increased their prices for the U.S. market, so this was a long time coming for them. They seem to have increased their retail prices, on average, by 7%, and the prices of sports models seem to be around closer to 10%. However, as stated by our example in the last section, these increases are actually pretty negligible if you have already chosen to purchase a Rolex in the first place.

Need Custom Rubber Watch Straps For Your Rolex? Contact Rubber B Today

One of the best things about owning a luxury timepiece is the fact that it allows you to display your personal style in an elegant fashion while still being customizable. One of the best ways to customize your collection of Rolex watches is to have a variety of different watch straps for them – when you change them out, it’s like wearing a new watch each and every time!

Rubber B is proud to carry a wide variety of custom rubber watch straps for Rolex watches, which you can see here at our website. Our watches are made out of 100% vulcanized rubber in Switzerland and are FDA and BGVV certified, which means they’re both waterproof and dust-proof. We are always updating our product line, so be sure to visit us regularly to see what great new straps we have available for you!