The chief executive of the one of the world’s largest luxury watch retailers has said that despite reports of a watch industry recession, demand for Rolex remains undimmed.

Brian Duffy, who has headed the Watches of Switzerland Group since 2014, was speaking at the opening of what is believed to be Europe’s largest Rolex boutique, a four-story building operated by the group that opened on London’s Bond Street yesterday.

“The amount of Rolex we do is not about demand, it’s about supply,” said Duffy. “We sell everything they give us.”

During the pandemic, demand for Rolex was so high that retailers took to displaying exhibition-only signs in windows as waiting lists spiralled, creating consumer frustration. While the market has since cooled, Duffy said he was still running waiting lists on many popular references. “The registration of interest lists that we have today are significantly higher than in 2019,” he said. Even so, he said the window signs were now a thing of the past.

Rolex has yet to adopt the direct-to-consumer model preferred by many luxury watch retailers and continues to rely on a global network of third-party sellers, such as Watches of Switzerland in the UK and the US, Seddiqi in the Middle East, and Bucherer, the Swiss-based international retail giant acquired by Rolex in 2023 in a deal some analysts have estimated to be worth 5 billion Swiss francs ($5.6 billion).

Duffy, who opened a Rolex boutique in Atlanta, Georgia in February and said a Watches of Switzerland store selling Rolex would open in Plano, Texas next week, said his allocation of Rolexes, including of in-demand pieces such as the Cosmograph Daytona chronograph and the low-volume gem-set pieces that retail for over $100,000, was worked out according to a formula that includes the number of boutiques a retailer operates. The group controls seven Rolex boutiques across the UK and US.

Even so, he said allocations were “never guaranteed…by a legal mechanism,” but that since he joined the company Rolex had never missed agreed volumes.

The new boutique, which took 72 weeks to build, includes a lower-ground floor dedicated to Rolex Certified Pre-Owned. Duffy said he was hoping sales of secondhand watches serviced and guaranteed by Rolex-approved watchmakers would soon account for 20 percent of his Rolex business, a target he said had already been met in his US outlets.

Rolex is by far Switzerland’s largest watchmaker. The private company does not disclose its figures, but according to estimates by Morgan Stanley, its 2024 sales hit 10.6 billion Swiss francs ($11.97 billion), which would give it 32 percent of the total market for Swiss watches. For comparison, Morgan Stanley estimates Rolex’s nearest competitor Cartier recorded sales of 3.2 billion Swiss francs ($3.61 billion) last year, equivalent to 8 percent market share.

Duffy declined to comment on how the 1,100 square metre (11,800 square feet) boutique had been funded, but noted that “it was a big, big investment and we’ve got to get payback on it to make sense.” He said the investment came with an agreement with Rolex to increase allocation, and that the new boutique, formerly Versace’s London flagship, would become “the best Rolex boutique in the world” and “the most successful store we have in the country”.

Watches of Switzerland operates a number of Rolex points of sale in London, including on neighbouring Oxford and Regent Streets. But Duffy said sales at his other stores would not be affected.

“The one thing we don’t worry about with Rolex is cannibalisation,” he said. “It’s just simply a non-issue.”

Watches of Switzerland Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE 250 and reported revenues of £1.54 billion ($1.99 billion) to the end of its last financial year. It is due to report again on April 28. Duffy said that more than half his business was accounted for by Rolex and Patek Philippe, and that Rolex made up “the majority” of that percentage. He said the store opening would have a “significant” impact on his business.

Watches of Switzerland Group announced a $25 million share buyback earlier this week as it looks to lift investor confidence after its share price dropped by almost 30 percent in the past month, wiping out some of its post-pandemic gains. However, the share price remains more than 40 percent up year-on-year.

“We’ve been affected by the general movement within the market,” said Duffy, pointing to the effects of Donald Trump’s trade tariffs and talk of a US recession, which have sent markets into a spin. “We were making very good progress, with an excellent Christmas sales period.”

Duffy said the buyback was a sign of the group’s confidence. “It shows how we view the value of our shares,” he said. “It makes sense opportunistically for us to buy.” He declined to comment on this year’s financial performance, ahead of next month’s disclosure.

Some analysts have said that Swiss watchmaking is currently in crisis, with reports by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry showing exports continue to slide after what it called last year’s “historic low” in volume terms. Many brands are said to have put production staff on short working hours to account for a drop in orders.

Duffy said this hadn’t affected his business. “Those that may have been too aggressive have to adjust,” he said, referring to the post-pandemic years of 2022 and 2023 when the FHS reported record export values for the industry and many brands ramped up production and sales forecasts. “But it’s about manufacturing and production, and therefore it’s local to Switzerland. It doesn’t directly impact us. Our supply has been good because we’ve engaged with our big brand partners and have a pre-agreed formula for supply and stock turnover, so we’ve come out of this pretty positively.”

One of the reasons analysts have cited for the slowdown is rapid price inflation across the sector. Duffy acknowledged the trend: “Brands that dominate the £4,500 to £9,000 category have experienced price inflation of more than 20 percent over a couple of years at a time when there have been concerns over disposable income, which created an affordability gap.” he said. “Desirability still exists, but affordability was impacted, so brands that have a better price positioning are benefitting from that.”

Switzerland is now bracing itself for US tariffs as the global trade war accelerates, but Duffy urged perspective. “We’re not unconcerned,” he said. “But Switzerland’s not in the EU and there’s a healthy trade balance between the US and Switzerland. And there’s no alternative to Swiss watches in the US, so [tariffs] are not going to increase production or employment locally; instead [they’ll] discourage retail and marketing.”

Duffy encouraged a long-term view of Swiss watchmaking. “If you look between 2019 and 2024, the CAGR is perfectly healthy,” he said, referring to the industry’s compound annual growth rate. “It was just you had a couple of years of bananas of growth and then a period of correction. If you draw a straight line, it’s as healthy as it ever has been.”