There is an acute shortage of Rolex watches over the last two years. Earlier this year, the Swiss watchmaker decided to come up with an official statement suggesting the reasons behind the empty shelves. It blamed the headline-grabbing shortage on unprecedented demand in the market. In usual circumstances, wealthy and influential people take help to cut to the front of the queue and grab their favourite watch before everyone else.

However, you’ll be surprised to know that even the wealthiest and most influential people on this planet are waiting to buy a Rolex. As per a Bloomberg report, you won’t be able to your hands on a Rolex even if you are an Emirati royal or a Sheikh in the United Arab Emirates.

Mohammed Abdulmagied Seddiqi, the chief commercial officer of Seddiqi Holding, owner of a retailer of Swiss watches in the UAE claimed that the Emirati royals will only get the desired watches if they want them for personal use. The watchmakers are more selective if the watches are bought to be given as gifts, Bloomberg report stated.

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Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons is the only authorised Rolex distributor in Dubai. The company is behind the world’s largest Rolex store which was opened in 2018 in Dubai Mall

For the unversed, UAE is 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.’ They don’t even ask what model. Whatever we get, they take it,” Seddiqi added.

Rolex has a list of clients who are eligible to buy certain of its highly desirable watches. The waitlist is restricted to only 4000 eligible people.

Here are the reasons behind the shortage:

There’s an issue in the demand-to-supply ratio for the Rolex watches. That’s not all, even the cryptocurrency crash also brought down the craze and hype around Rolex and similar luxury watch brands.

Other means to buy a Rolex watch:

If you genuinely want a Rolex watch, then the only way of getting it is by buying them the resellers at much higher prices than their original sticker price.