Rolex Retail Price Increase (from January 1st, 2022)

A new year brings hope and tons of resolutions, however, for watch enthusiasts, it brought a noticeable Rolex price increase. This hike in price is specifically applicable to the steel models.

In this post, we’ll have a look at which models suffered a price increase and by how much. Let’s dive in!

Why Rolex prices have increased?

Before we dive into the details of the price increase, let’s talk a bit about why they have increased.

The pandemic hiked almost every consumer product’s price due to inflation, the extra cost of manufacturing (taking COVID protocols under consideration), increasing wages, and multiple other similar reasons. Therefore, shaming Rolex for increasing its prices isn’t fair on our side.

It was expected that wristwatch retail prices will go up in 2022, and given Rolex is one of the leaders, this doesn’t come as a surprise. In addition to this, Rolex is approximately 25% of the Swiss watch industry, therefore, this price increase will soon be reflected in other brands as well.

Which Rolex retail prices have increased?

Overall, the price increase has been modest, however, all the current Rolex steel models (the ones that are suffering from a supply shortage) have suffered considerably larger hikes.

The steel Submariner in Oystersteel with no date has gone up from £6,300 to £7,150, which is approximately a 13.5% increase in the price. On the flip side, the 18ct white gold Submariner (ref. 116619LB) only went up by 5.9%, showcasing that Rolex is purposefully increasing prices of the watches that are more in demand.

A similar price increase discrimination has been noticed in the Daytona family. The Daytona 116500LN in Oystersteel suffered a price increase of 10.5%, whereas the 18ct white gold Submariner (ref. 116619LB) only had a 2.9% hike in its price.

The Oystersteel Batman, Rolex GMT Master II (ref. 126710 BLNR) went up by 8.4% and the gold Yachtmaster by 2.3%.

All the other price increases have been in the range of 2% to 3%.

Credits to WatchPro

What are your thoughts and theories regarding this discrimination in the price increase of different Rolex models? Do you think that Rolex is trying to cash on the shortage or do they deserve a price increase to cover the damage done by the pandemic? Whatever your thoughts, don’t forget to share them in the comments below!