How many Rolex watches will it take to fill Odd Fellows Hall? The drumbeat of village chatter tom-toms the news that one of the few freestanding Rolex boutiques on the continent will soon open at 28 Newtown Lane, filling the luxury gap left when Chanel decamped. That a quaint, historic, two-story landmark building designed by the same architect who created Grey Gardens is necessary, square-footage-wise, as a sales floor for the world’s most famously expensive watches may not be entirely true in the practical sense, but we do believe that the business folk behind Bonac’s latest mega-label know exactly what they are doing.
Despite the wild gyrations of other investment markets, Rolexes remain big business. We read with interest about a show-and-tell hosted last month by Glenn Bradford, a well-known Southampton jeweler, who convened watch collectors to ooh and ahh at a few million dollars’ worth of the coveted Swiss timepieces at Casa Cipriani in Manhattan. Rolexes are, it turns out, a neat way for the ultrarich to squirrel away morsels of their fortunes. See: the hit streaming series about a hedge-fund manager turned cat burglar, “Your Friends and Neighbors.” See also: Jay-Z reportedly sporting a $4.2-million Rolex Daytona also known as the “Sultan of Oman” at a Fourth of July bash in Water Mill last summer.
We’re confident that those who hold the local Rolex franchise (if we can call it that) are canny indeed. Locals often point out that the real value of retail space here isn’t so much to sell things but as a marquee marketing moment for international luxury companies. That’s true, but this store will make big bucks. Would we, personally — as Timex people — prefer that Odd Fellows house a business that would unite the community, maybe a general store or bakery-cum-bookstore? You betcha. But just think of the Instagram firestorm that will be fired off in front of the rose-covered shop entrance come August!