Ben Clymer

But as a 25-year-old guy that used to work in finance, which is when I started Hodinkee, you make your first $5,000 bonus or whatever, and you go into the store and you buy your Submariner and like, okay, I'm an adult now.

I have a Submariner.

That doesn't exist anymore.

And I think that's a real bummer for a lot of folks.

And that certainly has made the aftermarket price of these things go in a significant way, but it really turns a lot of people off.

And

Omega, Tag Heuer, Hanarai, a lot of brands have really said, you know what?

If you can't get that Submariner, we'd be happy to sell you a watch.

And by the way, like, here's some champagne and we're going to invite you to our next party.

You might enjoy it.

Look, Rolex is an exceptional brand.

I would never say they're not.

I mean, I spent the last hour telling you why they're exceptional.

But these are just watches.

And then we have to remember that.

I'm the first person to say that, like nobody needs a watch.

There are no doctors prescribing us to buy watches.

We're not curing cancer here.

And so if somebody has worked so hard that they can afford a $10,000 Rolex and Rolex says, sorry, you can't have one.

That's a really frustrating experience.