The 1908 Is the Rolex To Buy — Because They’re Not Selling

The past few years have been odd for Rolex. At the peak of the pandemic speculation mania, there were few watches in higher demand than the Daytona — particularly anything with a Paul Newman look. Authorized dealers operated like a nightclub, refusing clients who weren’t quite up to snuff. Even if you had the cash on hand, the attitude was, “No sir, your money isn’t good here.” Only the luckiest, most respected clients could get onto the years-long waitlist. Reseller prices shot up multiples above retail, and the new money millionaires of the crypto and meme-stocks were happy to pay them, even for random models that had never been particularly in demand.