Most of the watches on display today in Rolex stores operated by authorized dealers worldwide are not for sale.
Customers can try these exhibition-only watches and plead to be put on a waiting list, but the chances of them walking in as new customers and walking out with their long-desired Rolex are slim.
This situation prompted us to announce that replica Rolex was no longer a retail brand earlier this year. The brand does not cause the shortage of Rolexes, nor is it caused by retailers hoarding watches. 
The market has been swamped with demand for years, so watches are pre-sold to retailers’ most lucrative customers before they reach the stores.
They are kept in a safe until they are picked up by the customer rather than displayed. Customers may be frustrated, and store employees stressed by constantly letting them down, but Rolex authorized dealers have never had it so good.
The exact number of watches were assigned to them and sold at unprecedentedly high prices in record time.
“We continue to get a good supply of fake Rolex timepieces, it’s just that demand is outpacing it,” Mr. Hurley said in an interview with Yahoo Finance.
Customers have to buy more and more to have a chance to get on what is called waiting lists. These lists are entirely different from the waiting lists you get at the supermarket counter, where your numbers appear in order.
The only way to get to the top of the waiting list and get a hot watch is to keep spending on something else, preferably high-margin jewelry or a less desirable watch.
For a brand built on the reach of moderately wealthy customers – doctors, dentists, small business owners, bankers with bonuses, etc. – replica Rolex has become inaccessible to everyone but the super-rich or experts at playing the system.
“Sometimes [customers] have to wait a while, and they have to be patient, but we want to keep that dream alive that people can get the timepiece they want. We’re very fortunate that we make a lot of people very happy every day, so it’s a lot of fun,” Mr. Hurley said. Mr. Hurley is a fan. I think it’s great to have exhibition watches in stores because it allows people to try them on,” he said.