The announcement that Rolex intends to acquire the famous luxury retail chain Bucherer took the watch industry by surprise today. Although regulators still haven’t approved Bucherer’s acquisition by Rolex SA, collectors are already speculating about how this move will affect the world of Rolex and luxury watches in general. Bucherer is one of the largest multi-brand retailers of high-end jewelry worldwide, and American watch fans may be more familiar with a retailer they purchased in 2018–Tourneau, who sells Rolexes at 21 locations in the US.
The Bucherer acquisition is a bit shocking coming from Rolex, who has never directly dabbled in retailing aside from the Rolex boutique in Geneva on Rue de la Fontaine, which is the only Rolex boutique in the world that they actually own (as of now). Having an authorized dealer network gives Rolex a built-in “excuse buffer” of sorts–customers who can’t get the Rolex models they want in a timely manner can blame their jeweler instead of putting all their anger towards Rolex. That will be tougher if Rolex is the one running the “waiting lists” at the ground level.
Ostensibly, though, Bucherer will remain a separate entity. It will continue to operate as its own separate company under the Rolex corporate umbrella. Bucherer and Rolex have deep roots together.
Relationship Between Rolex and Bucherer
Long before Rolex SA acquired Bucherer, Bucherer’s website proudly noted that “Ernst Bucherer and Hans Wilsdorf, the founder of Rolex, began a successful partnership after their paths crossed at the turn of the 20th century.” This resulted in Bucherer becoming an authorized Rolex retailer in 1924–when the famous Rolex Oyster was still two years away.
Bucherer Launched Rolex’s Certified Pre-Owned Program
Another sign that Bucherer’s relationship with Rolex was special was that Rolex’s Certified Pre-Owned program–another development that took the watch world by surprise in 2022–was rolled out to Bucherer locations first. No other dealers gained the Rolex CPO program until this year, and it’s still a relatively rare privilege.
Why is Rolex SA acquiring Bucherer?
Well, on the surface, the driving force behind the acquisition of Bucherer by Rolex SA seems to be the fact that Jörg Bucherer has no heirs, and has decided to sell his company. According to Rolex, “Jörg Bucherer is the last person still in activity to have known and worked with Hans Wilsdorf.”
Poetically enough, Wilsdorf himself was a man with no heirs, which is why upon his death Rolex became part of the “Hans Wilsdorf Foundation.” Thus it seems fitting that Bucherer will be acquired by Rolex SA.
From a business perspective, Rolex can also now take the future of its brand new certified pre-owned program into its own hands.
This move positions Rolex further down the luxury watch value chain. It enables them to capture not only the retailer’s margin but also the secondary market value of their most coveted watches through their own certified pre-owned program.
This may be the beginning of Rolex removing the “middlemen”, i.e. the authorized dealers, and taking the route that Audemars Piguet and many other watch manufacturers have toward prioritizing company-owned boutiques.
Roman Sharf, CEO of Luxury Bazaar
Will Bucherer keep its name?
Yes. According to the press release, “the watch retailer will keep its name and continue to operate independently.” No mentions have been made of closing, nor opening, any locations at this point.
What happens now?
Probably nothing much in the short term. Some Rolex fans (and would-be Rolex fans) have derided Rolex for their scarce availability in recent years, sometimes saying “Rolex should sell direct and stop this nonsense!” Well, now’s our chance to see if this will make a difference–but it’s unlikely for now.
According to Rolex’s largest retail partner, Watches of Switzerland, it has been “confirmed by the highest level of Rolex management” that “there will be no change in the Rolex processes of product allocation or distribution developments as a consequence of this acquisition.” Although some are cynical about the truth of that statement, it could very well be true. Many of Rolex’s 1,000+ authorized dealers recently paid for expensive Rolex-mandated renovations, so it would be extremely uncool for Rolex to turn around and start messing with their allocations.
Although Bucherer/Tourneau sells Rolex at 53 locations (and Tudor at 48), that only represents about 4% of Rolex’s worldwide authorized dealer network! So it seems that for now, authorized dealers will continue to be crucial partners for Rolex and business will mostly continue as usual. Funnily enough, although Bucherer does sell Omega at several locations, Bucherer.com no longer lists “Omega” in their main “watch brands” tab. We’ll have to wait and see what bigger changes this acquisition brings!