Swiss luxury watchmaker Rolex raises prices in the UK, leaves rates in US unchanged

Swiss luxury watchmaker has raised prices in the UK while leaving its US pricing unchanged, reported Bloomberg on Wednesday.

Citing a report from analysts at Barclays, Bloomberg added that the watchmaker increased prices at dealers by an average of about 4% at the start of the year.

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The price of a Rolex Air King model rose to £6,500 ($8,206) on January 1, up from £6,250 in 2023.

While the price-increase is not without precedence, the watchmaker typically raises prices once a year in January.

However, in 2022, major currency fluctuations spurred Rolex to raise prices twice in the UK, in January and September, as the pound fell to its lowest level against the dollar in decades.

The watchmaker also raised prices in European countries twice that year.

Luxury Swiss watchmaker Rolex looks to accelerate production to meet rising demand

Producing more than one million timepieces a year, the Geneva-based watchmaker sells more than 9 billion Swiss francs ($10.5 billion) worth of watches per year, added Bloomberg, citing data from Morgan Stanley.

Collectively, Rolex sales account for about 30% of the global luxury Swiss watch market, added the report.

Last month, Bloomberg reported the watchmaker was fined $100 million by France’s antitrust agency for an illegal decade-long crackdown on distributors selling the Swiss firm’s luxury watches online.

Last year, Rolex also amped up production, preparing to add three more facilities that will begin producing luxury watches by 2025, in an effort to meet an unexpected rise in demand for its timepieces.

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