London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 11, 2025

Even Royal Family Members Can Struggle To Buy Rolex Watches In Dubai

Even Royal Family Members Can Struggle To Buy Rolex Watches In Dubai

Roughly three-quarters of the company's clients are UAE nationals and resident expatriates, including people from India, China, Germany and the UK.
When a sheikh or a royal family member wants a Rolex, you might imagine they'd get bumped to the top of the 4,000- strong waiting list in the United Arab Emirates. Right?

Not always, says Mohammed Abdulmagied Seddiqi, chief commercial officer of Seddiqi Holding, owner of a retailer of Swiss watches in the UAE. If a royal wants a watch for personal use, they'll get it. But if they're looking for watches to give as gifts - to dignitaries, perhaps royalty from other countries - the company may be more selective, Seddiqi says.

"Some people really take it personally," he says. "We have to be fair to clients and make sure we give it to the right people."

This is just one of the happy problems now facing Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, the only authorized Rolex distributor in the emirate of Dubai and the company running the world's largest Rolex store. The Swiss watch industry has experienced surging demand over the past two years and is on track for its best year ever, by value of exports.

Through October, the value of Swiss watch exports in the sector's 30 largest markets was 13.3% higher than in the same period last year, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. Growth in the UAE slightly exceeded that, at 13.8%. This makes the country of only about 10 million people the world's ninth-largest market for Swiss watches.

"We've reached to a point where we'll have a watch available, and we call a client and say we have a watch, and they say, 'Yes, I am coming,'" Seddiqi said. "They don't even ask what model. Whatever we get, they take it."

Seddiqi & Sons, which opened its first store in the UAE in 1960, now runs more than 50 stores in the country, including four Rolex boutiques. The world's largest Rolex store is three stories and one of two Rolex stores in the immense Dubai Mall.

At the Rolex boutiques, most watches shown are for display only, not for sale. Any in the store remain in stock a day or two at most, say sales associates.

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the stores shut down. Soon, delivery orders started rolling in from bored clients at home, spending their money on luxury goods, sight unseen. People who didn't know anything about watches wanted one because everyone else was buying them.

"I was with a client a week ago, and he was wearing a Rolex Daytona, and he didn't know the function of the watch," Seddiqi says in disbelief. (The Daytona is a chronograph, a type of watch that combines regular timekeeping with a stopwatch; it's one of the most coveted models among collectors.) "It's not a matter of functionality. It's a matter of being hot. That's the only reason they want it."

The company maintains lists of clients who get certain watches and lists of those who don't. The company limits its waitlist for Rolexes to 4,000. The limit for Patek Philippes, which makes a fraction watches Rolex produces each year, is about 20 to 30. customers. When watches become available, they are offered to customers based in part on previous buying habits: The company might avoid offering a model similar to one the client recently purchased.

One thing that's sure to get you shadow-banned, or quietly dropped from the list: watch flipping. The Seddiqi company has to sell the watches at the suggested Swiss retail price. Seddiqi says he's seen people-some with more wealth than you'd know what to do with in a lifetime-flip a watch to make a couple of thousand dollars. How does he know? Over decades in the business, he has acquired contacts who inform on flippers, he says.

Roughly three-quarters of the company's clients are UAE nationals and resident expatriates, including people from India, China, Germany and the UK.

To turn all these new customers into lifetime watch enthusiasts, Seddiqi is taking on something of an educational mission. He says he's thinking of turning the second floor of the Rolex store in the Dubai Mall-which used to hold many more watches made with gold and precious gems-into a place where customers can learn more about watchmaking. The company could fly in experienced horologists to open up watches, hold demonstrations, and explain such aspects as the technical movement of the gears, he says.

The process, Seddiqi says, would help customers understand why it takes so long to get a watch in hand. Recently, he flew some loyal clients to Switzerland to witness watchmakers in action.

"They came back saying, 'If you can't give us watches now, we understand why,'" he says.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
ChatGPT CEO signals policy to alert authorities over suicidal youth after teen’s death
The British legal mafia hit back: Banksy mural of judge beating protester is scrubbed from London court
Surpassing Musk: Larry Ellison becomes the richest man in the world
Embarrassment for Starmer: He fired the ambassador photographed on Epstein’s 'pedophile island'
Manhunt after 'skilled sniper' shot Charlie Kirk. Footage: Suspect running on rooftop during panic
Effective Protest Results: Nepal’s Prime Minister Resigns as Youth-Led Unrest Shakes the Nation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
King Charles and Prince Harry Share First In-Person Moment in 19 Months
Starmer Establishes Economic ‘Budget Board’ to Centralise Policy and Rebuild Business Trust
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
Poland Shoots Down Russian Drones in Airspace Violation During Ukraine Attack
Brazilian police say ex-President Bolsonaro had planned to flee to Argentina seeking asylum
Trinidad Leader Applauds U.S. Naval Strike and Advocates Forceful Action Against Traffickers
Kim Jong Un Oversees Final Test of New High-Thrust Solid-Fuel Rocket Engine
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Macron Appoints Sébastien Lecornu as Prime Minister Amid Budget Crisis and Political Turmoil
Supreme Court temporarily allows Trump to pause billions in foreign aid
Charlie Sheen says his father, Martin Sheen, turned him in to the police: 'The greatest betrayal possible'
Vatican hosts first Catholic LGBTQ pilgrimage
Apple Unveils iPhone 17 Series, iPhone Air, Apple Watch 11 and More at 'Awe Dropping' Event
Pig Heads Left Outside Multiple Paris Mosques in Outrage-Inducing Acts
Nvidia’s ‘Wow’ Factor Is Fading. The AI chip giant used to beat Wall Street expectations for earnings by a substantial margin. That trajectory is coming down to earth.
France joins Eurozone’s ‘periphery’ as turmoil deepens, say investors
On the Anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s Death: Prince Harry Returns to Britain
France Faces New Political Crisis, again, as Prime Minister Bayrou Pushed Out
Murdoch Family Finalises $3.3 Billion Succession Pact, Ensuring Eldest Son’s Leadership
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Court Staff Cover Up Banksy Image of Judge Beating a Protester
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
Elon Musk Poised to Become First Trillionaire Under Ambitious Tesla Pay Plan
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
Burning the Minister’s House Helped Protesters to Win Justice: Prabowo Fires Finance Minister in Wake of Indonesia Protests
Brazil Braces for Fallout from Bolsonaro Trial by corrupted judge
The Country That Got Too Rich? Public Spending Dominates Norway Election
Nearly 40 Years Later: Nike Changes the Legendary Slogan Just Do It
Generations Born After 1939 Unlikely to Reach Age One Hundred, New Study Finds
End to a four-year manhunt in New Zealand: the father who abducted his children to the forests was killed, the three siblings were found
Germany Suspends Debt Rules, Funnels €500 Billion Toward Military and Proxy War Strategy
EU Prepares for War
BMW Eyes Growth in China with New All‑Electric Neue Klasse Lineup
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
US Justice Department Launches Criminal Mortgage-Fraud Probe into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
Escalating Drug Trafficking and Violence in Latin America: A Growing Crisis
US and Taiwanese Defence Officials Held Secret Talks in Alaska
Report: Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission in North Korea Ordered by Trump in 2019 Ended in Failure
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Florida Murder Case: The Adelson Family, the Killing of Dan Markel, and the Trial of Donna Adelson
×