The watch market will continue to sag mainly due to China, where demand has plummeted in recent months, and in Europe, where consumer morale is low with war raging on its borders, watch executives at Geneva's Watches and Wonders said last week.

“2024 will be a challenge. A phase in which all manufacturers were doing well is coming to an end,” Rolex CEO Jean-Frédéric Dufour said in an interview for the Swiss newspaper NZZ before the opening of the fair.

In declining sales, multi-brand dealers might continue to push hard-to-sell pieces as a condition to own a new Rolex even if Rolex supply has picked up. But a representative for Rolex in Geneva said those sales tactics are being curtailed by the brand.

“There's been a real witch hunt by Rolex which clearly condemns this kind of practices,” the representative said.