What's It Like To Buy A Rolex In 2025?

A quick trip to Mumbai retailers in 2025 shows that when it comes to Rolex—as always—access is everything

- Sharan Sanil

It began with a favour. My uncle—a Dubai-based tech executive at Mastercard— wanted a Rolex. Not just any Rolex, but something he could one day pass on to his sons. His preference? A classic steel sports model. Clean, reliable, and quietly authoritative. The kind of watch that speaks without trying to. He'd tried the Dubai Duty Free, of course, but was met with the usual response: no availability, no estimate, no clarity. So, he turned to me. I live in Mumbai. Maybe, he thought, things might be different here.

Not quite. Over the course of the last month, I visited two Rolex authorised dealers (ADs) in Mumbai, across Bandra and South Bombay. Both were immaculate. One—a more familiar storefront which I've visited before—had the usual roll call of well-groomed staff, each armed with trained smiles and neutral pleasantries; the other was quieter, manned by a single sales associate whose tone had the faint, weary cadence of someone used to the same question, asked fifty different ways.

When I mentioned the possibility of a Sky-Dweller or Submariner, the atmosphere didn’t shift dramatically—but something in the rhythm of the conversation changed.

The suggestions slowed. The eye contact softened. I was told, quite politely, that there was no stock available at the moment. There was no estimate either, no waiting period to speak of, and no sense of queue or probability. I was free to register my interest, though. They would take down my details, and perhaps, in time, something might open up.

Let’s establish one thing upfront: there is no official Rolex waitlist. Not in India, not globally. What exists instead is a series of interest logs maintained by individual boutiques. Whether your name actually goes into that log—and what chance it stands of being remembered—is an entirely different matter.