Rolex Discontinues the 41mm Oyster Perpetual in Turquoise, I mean Tiffany, Blue. Why?
Photo courtesy of @pbandwatches on Instagram.
Watches and Wonders 2022 has been somewhat of a whirlwind, especially for us covering the event. New releases from Rolex, Patek Philippe and pretty much every other brand are hard to keep up with. The buzz tends to come with the big, somewhat unexpected releases, like Rolex releasing a lefty steel GMT-Master II with green and black bezel (though, I guess I predicted it). Sometimes, albeit rarely, it’s not the watches that are released that generate the most buzz, but the watches that are discontinued. However, with the releases coming at a fast and furious pace, these discontinuations can get lost in the shuffle.
Rolex doesn’t announce when they discontinue a watch the way they announce a new release. Thus, the best way to determine whether a watch is discontinued is to do some sleuthing. And by sleuthing I mean heading to the Rolex’s website to see if a particular watch is still listed. So that’s what I did for the Oyster Perpetual yesterday almost immediately after Rolex announced their new novelties.
Well, I was somewhat surprised when I saw that Rolex no longer listed (sic discontinued) the 41mm Oyster Perpetual in turquoise blue (what everyone has been calling Tiffany Blue) on their website. Collectors can breathe a little bit of sigh of relief that the turquoise dial option is still available in 31mm and 36mm, if that’s your style. Along with the turquoise blue, the yellow and coral (red) dial options are also discontinued (the yellow and coral options were completely discontinued).
The 31mm, 36mm and 41mm variations of the Rolex Oyster Perpetual in Turquoise Blue.
This makes one wonder why Rolex decided to discontinue the turquoise 41mm OP in particular. Except for those at Rolex headquarters, nobody knows for sure. But I can put on my tin foil hat and offer speculation and conjecture.
The most cynical possible reason for Rolex discontinuing the Tiffany Oyster Perpetual is that the brand is putting its fingers on the scale, creating even greater scarcity for the watch, and thus more hype and even higher prices. You might ask me how Rolex benefits from ever-increasing secondary market prices. My answer would be that as long as the prices on they grey market are high, Rolex will remain in popular demand (and even be able to raise prices from year to year without customers flinching). Who knows how long the current bull watch market will remain, and playing into the hype of the turquoise Oyster Perpetual only helps Rolex. You may then say that Rolex still offers the turquoise Oyster Perpetual in 31mm and 36mm. I would answer that the 41mm variation is the most sought-after of the sizes by far. Indeed it reached $30,000 to $40,000 USD (for a $6,150 USD retail watch) in the weeks after the Tiffany Blue Patek Philippe Nautilus Auction.
The other possibility is that Rolex saw the Oyster Perpetual being called the Tiffany OP by resellers and collectors alike and just didn’t like it. Rolex doesn’t ride on anyone’s coattails, not even Patek Philippe’s. Discontinuing the most popular of the quote-unquote Tiffany Oyster Perpetual’s could be their attempt to put a kibosh on it. This would have the added benefit, as discussed above, of making the watch even more scarce and valuable in the marketplace.
Photo courtesy of @pbandwatches on Instagram.
I’m not sure we will ever get a straight answer from Rolex on why they discontinued the 41mm turquoise blue Oyster Perpetual. I mean, we rarely ever get any type of statement from Rolex. It’s even curiouser that Rolex didn’t discontinue the Turquoise in 31mm or 36mm. We know that Rolex won’t hurt at all from discontinuing the model. I mean, people will just buy whatever new model they produce instead, even if it doesn’t get close to the secondary market prices of the turquoise variation. We also know that not only will the price of the discontinued 41mm variation skyrocket on the secondary market (I’m seeing prices as high as $60,000 USD right now), but FOMO will start kicking in for the smaller models still in production (especially the 36mm, which is still eminently wearable for most men) and those prices will also increase.
Some current listings for the 41mm Rolex Oyster Perpetual in Turquoise.
Kudos to you Rolex for making big news by discontinuing a watch.