When it comes to watches, the Middle East is a region that’s perpetually associated with Rolexes and bling – and the place takes a lot of stick for both.
For many people all over the world, what you wear on your wrist is the ultimate status symbol, and it’s true that big and shiny is often what rules in the Emirates too. So nothing unusual there.
But there are a few perceptions that don’t quite fit the reality. Not everything is all about Rolex, and it’s not actually that common to find watches encrusted with diamonds either. Nonetheless, you suspect that some well-known models are specifically created for the Middle Eastern market: Rainbow Daytona, anyone?
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For the most part, the love of watches in Dubai and its surroundings is driven by three factors: the shopping culture, the proliferation of wealth, and the safety of the Gulf states. If you wear a nice watch in the Emirates, you can be pretty sure that nobody will ever try to forcibly remove it from your wrist.
The Middle East has always been a melting pot of cultures – and the hugely disparate tastes of everyone dropping by has led to a real mix of styles available. Quite literally, there’s something out there for everyone, and it doesn’t necessarily have to cost the earth either.
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Dubai Airport - Biggest Watch Retailer
In the past, one of the biggest watch retailers in the world was Dubai Airport – where stories abound about how you could buy a gold duty free Rolex (with an additional discount) back in the 1970s just by wandering in and putting your cash on the counter.
Thanks to those sorts of long-gone deals, the watch smuggler came into being as a thing, with an arm full of Switzerland’s finest, regularly toting a briefcase full of similar items across international borders. These days, scarcity and rising prices has practically put the watch smuggler out of business, another extinct species alongside the dodo and the travel agent…
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Still now though, bartering in the Middle East is the norm – which always takes visitors to the region by surprise. Yet no dealer will ever be offended if you ask for a discount, and that’s one of the joys of watch shopping in the Middle East. You just need to have a bit of a brass neck and not be afraid of haggling hard, even though the salesman might say that his children will starve to death as a result. That’s all part of the game, which everyone secretly enjoys.
There’s a huge number of authorised dealers around as well as independents, and the fierce competition is something else that helps to drive prices down, as the key players buy in bulk. Seddiqi and Sons is almost certainly the region’s biggest distributor, representing around 60 or more well-known brands. But there are hundreds of others: and a burgeoning scene in the pre-owned watch market too, which has really taken off in recent years thanks to some dedicated vintage stores.
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Dubai Watch Week 2023
One of the events that has really helped to drive local interest in watches is Dubai Watch Week, held every other year and scheduled to take place this year from 16-20 November with more than 55 brands taking part (the highest participation seen so far). And for those who think that everything in the Middle East costs a fortune, admission is actually free.
Often the biggest problem with shopping for watches in the region is knowing where to start. One of the best places to head for is the Dubai Mall, but there’s also the Mall of the Emirates. This way, you also stay clear of what is euphemistically known as the ‘replica watch’ scene: not unheard of in a place where keeping up with the Joneses (or Kardashians, or which other influencers are flavours of the month) is essential. By and large though, what you see is what you get.
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If you really want to bag a bargain, try just looking in the sea. Dubai police recently recovered a Rolex worth $250K from the seafloor, after a visitor who had gone swimming off a yacht reported it missing. Rather than laugh at his misfortune (or trying to recover it for themselves) the police swung into action, returning it within half an hour to its grateful owner. Now that’s what you call service.
