First Rolex: new vs pre-owned?

[chicsylvie]

I was initially going to choose the stainless steel Oyster Perpetual as my first Rolex, but the white gold bezel Datejust with the jubilee band caught my in the store. It’s really beautiful, but much more than I had anticipated spending. I’ve been scouring pre-owned models and can get a similar Datejust in the same price range as a new Oyster Perpetual. There seem to be slight differences with how the Roman numerals look, however—they seem smaller with the older watch.

When choosing your first watch, would you go with simple and new, or something with more embellishment but not exactly what you had wanted? I don’t think I’d have FOMO, but I likely wouldn’t be collecting additional watches.

 

[jellyv]

Just be aware that the secondhand market for Rolex is very tricky. You have to have complete trust in the seller because without you knowing, it's possible to switch out internal parts, and it can be a "Rolex" that's got non-Rolex things in it. If you ever submit it to Rolex for repair, they'd replace, at your expense, faux parts with correct parts.

There are band changes over time, too--for ex.., the Jubilee bracelet of today is much better functionally than the older style. So you really have to know what you're looking at.

I would suggest if you go preowned to go to a Rolex authorized dealer and see what they've taken in on trade and are reselling. There are a few notable resellers out there too: check out rolexforums.com for some sellers with reviews.

These are expensive watches, but there's a lot to be said for buying new from the retailer.

 

[sooyang]

I didn’t want to take risks about watch having non-rolex parts but also damages it could have experienced(dropped / not waterproof anymore, time becomes inaccurate faster than it should, etc) so I ended up saving more and bought a watch from a rolex dealer. I guess a Rolex dealer could have sold me a faulty/damaged watch as well but the likelihood of the new watch being damaged is probably a lot less than a used watch.

 

[nvie]

I was initially going to choose the stainless steel Oyster Perpetual as my first Rolex, but the white gold bezel Datejust with the jubilee band caught my in the store. It’s really beautiful, but much more than I had anticipated spending. I’ve been scouring pre-owned models and can get a similar Datejust in the same price range as a new Oyster Perpetual. There seem to be slight differences with how the Roman numerals look, however—they seem smaller with the older watch.

When choosing your first watch, would you go with simple and new, or something with more embellishment but not exactly what you had wanted? I don’t think I’d have FOMO, but I likely wouldn’t be collecting additional watches.

I would bite the bullet the go for what you want. Then simple watches for the subsequent ones. Datejust is always a good choice for first Rolex. I’m not comfortable with a pre-owned watch, never know the history of watch has been water damaged or dropped etc. I would save a bit more and buy new.

 

[lilsweetie]

I have purchased 2 new and 2 preowned - check out therolexforum.com for trusted sellers and a great community of knowledge. I would go pre-owned. One of mine is still under warrranty 5 yrs. Save the $$ by pre-owned or grey market and don't take as much of a hit on the depreciation from buying new.