I frankly don't understand how the acquisition of Bucherer (retailer) aligns with Rolex being a non-profit.

Rolex is a for-profit company. It happens to be owned by a charitable trust.

Now the charitable trust owns a for-profit company with (another) for-profit subsidiary.

I realize. Which is why I am puzzled by the acquisition of a retailer. What I mean by that is that a retailer that has such financial backing can destroy the watch luxury retail market.

Rolex has had issues for decades with authorized dealers who leverage potential buyers into buying other items, just to have a chance at buying the Rolex they want. Also dealers who sell high demand watches to friends or known resellers. A year ago if you could get a 126710BLRO on a jubilee you would pay around $14,000 after taxes, but could resell for $23,000 to gray market dealers. The prices have come down a lot, but you can still make around $6,000 if you can take delivery of this watch.

These games have hurt the brand, and Rolex is changing the game by buying a luxury retail chain that will likely specialize in getting the right watch to the right person and cut the gray market guys out. That along with their new secondary market for pre-owned Rolexs. It’s a brave move, and a lot of third party “investors” will likely lose a good deal of paper profits when the prices stabilize.

Rolex wants a cut of the second-hand luxury watch market and a leverage in negotiations with Watches of Switzerland and other retailers.

Rolex simply wants to further their control over their brand. There has been a feeling for some time that authorized Rolex retailers, by poor customer service and unauthorized practices have diminished the brand's value. By extending their reach into retail, Rolex can standardize and control customer service, reduce the unwanted stories of customers being treated poorly, and as a side benefit, control the signage, display and presentation at their retailer. It's a smart move.

Starbucks didn’t destroy Indy coffee shops and Amazon hasn’t killed bookshops (at least not in major metros).

There is always going to be space for luxury watch dealers, especially since they’re often based on long term relationships and sometimes the place that sold you a Swiss watch also sold you your wife’s (or husband’s) wedding ring.

This is a summary of the report: https://www.cs1.tf.fau.de/research/human-factors-in-security...

I will never trust Chinese electric cars for the very same reason China banned Teslas from certain areas in that country. The cars are equipped with cameras and other data gathering tech that can be coopted for different types of intelligence gathering.

This is nuts!

The process of extracting the oil from the ground as well the refining process are major contributors

As is the process of farming coca and marijuana plants and then harvesting and processing them. Going after supply or demand directly only made things worse there.

Here is hoping that this marks the point where they "jumped the shark"

Based on the article I would say that the TV documentary showcases the army's willingness to attack Taiwan. Not their ability.

That's fair, I guess you could argue that willingness is a prerequisite of ability. Without will, ability is useless.

I would go even further and say that governments should consider having their own OS. There is no reason why Windows 10 and 11, with their ever increasing number of ads and information sieve, would belong there.

If it doesn’t belong there then it doesn’t belong here.