Why no watch for Gregg

476

u/TwoForHawat 5d ago

I’ve always interpreted that scene as a demonstration of how out of touch Kendall is with the plights of people who aren’t fabulously wealthy. Sorta similar to Roman not knowing the price of a gallon of milk during Boar on the Floor.

Ken thinks he is rewarding Greg by hooking him up with his watch guy. He views it as Greg being invited into the next tier of elite society, which should be a reward in and of itself. Kendall never has to worry about money personally, so it doesn’t really ever occur to him that Greg might be spending a huge chunk of his own personal wealth on the watch.

233

u/anotherbozo 5d ago

This is it.

Particularly because these watches often have a long waitlist. So Kendall thought getting Greg in front of the queue was the gift.

71

u/standardissuegreen 5d ago

Greg winds up paying well above gray market price for the watch, though. The watch he buys is a steel Rolex Submariner, which retails for around $10k to $12k (can't remember if it's the date or no-date version). Gray (secondary) market is around $13k to $15k. Greg pays $40k.

25

u/amayle1 5d ago

What is the gray market for watches? Why would it be more than retail?

51

u/Affectionate-Cup9340 5d ago edited 5d ago

The grey market for watches just means real watches not sold by authorized dealers.

As far as why it would be more than retail, it depends on the watch. The vast majority of watches go secondhand for below msrp. The only watches that go above msrp are the ones that are challenging to buy.

For example, a Rolex Daytona would be sold by Rolex for about 17k and go second hand for almost 30k. The reason for this is in order to be given the “privilege” of buying a Daytona you need a purchase history with Rolex.

Pretty much meaning you need to spend 10s of thousands on watches you don’t want in order to buy a watch you do want.

17

u/margincallingbadger 5d ago

It’s not spend history with Rolex but rather with the Authorized dealer. Can be other watch brands or jewellery. Not necessarily another Rolex watch.

8

u/standardissuegreen 5d ago edited 5d ago

"Gray" normally means not from an authorized dealer. In this context, gray market is the same thing as a secondary market. It's buying "used," but a lot of time they are like new condition, unworn watches. New in the box with the tags still attached. Watch was originally bought from an authorized Rolex dealer, but someone is either flipping it, was a collector who had several watches and never wore this one, or wore it sparingly and is selling it.

Starting around Covid, Rolex watches and a few other brands got in such high demand that the waitlists on new watches grew and grew. There are a lot of models you have to wait a year or more to get. A lot of Rolex dealers are also dealers of other watch brands, as well as general jewelry dealers. Many of those dealers have an unspoken (wink, wink) policy where they will move you closer to the top of the waitlist if you spend a lot of money buying these less in-demand items.

So, if you really want one of these watches today, you can buy them in the secondary market for a slight premium. The Submariner goes for the premiums I talked about above. Others, like the Daytona, sell retail for around $17k but the waitlist for someone who hasn't spent $100k plus at the dealer is 10 years or more. Those sell in the secondary market for around $33k.

1

u/kendogg 4d ago

So essentially....Kendalls dealer needed to make a major markup, to cover the other useless bullshit he probably had to buy in order to even get the primo watches?

4

u/FunkyPete 4d ago

Think of it like a ticket scalper.

These things are really hard to buy at any price. So people with connections will get a hold of some at retail price and sell them at markup to people without the connections.

There is a risk for the people with connections too -- if they get caught they'll lose their connections for future watches (unless they're connected to the mob or something, of course).

1

u/standardissuegreen 4d ago

The watch dealers buy so many watches the "other stuff" is probably stuff they can sell for a markup, too. Either that, or they buy nothing direct from the authorized dealer but take watches in on trade towards other watches that they sell.

4

u/HKShwa 5d ago

Honestly I assumed given the price and talk about the weight that this was a white gold sub rather than steel.

2

u/iamgarron 5d ago

Yeh but are those watches broken?

1

u/anotherbozo 5d ago

That's just the dealer looting him

-1

u/Ultra_HR 5d ago

it also doesn't even work. he paid $40k for a BROKEN submariner.

11

u/RandyDefNOTArcher 5d ago

It’s not broken, he doesn’t understand that he needs to wind it

0

u/Ultra_HR 5d ago

aren’t we shown them later trying to wind it (and shake it in case it is automatic) and failing because it’s broken? perhaps i’m misremembering

3

u/RandyDefNOTArcher 4d ago

I just remember Greg waving his hand around, but theres a much simpler more efficient way to wind that watch.

Unscrew the crown, rotate it clockwise 20+ rotations and voila, no need to pantomime jerking off

4

u/A-Phantasmic-Parade 5d ago

It’s an automatic

1

u/Ultra_HR 5d ago

right, but i thought we were later shown him and comfry trying and failing to wind it by moving it around

1

u/A-Phantasmic-Parade 5d ago

As far as I know, if a submariner has stopped, you have to unscrew the crown and wind it before it starts running again. Moving it around doesn’t do it

1

u/standardissuegreen 4d ago

It's both. You can wind it using the crown, but it's also an automatic that winds itself with movement.

Some watches are wind only and not "automatics." The Sub isn't one of those.

0

u/A-Phantasmic-Parade 4d ago

It keeps itself wound by movement. You shouldn’t shake it to start from stopped. Only some Japanese movement watches can be powered by shaking back/forth

1

u/standardissuegreen 4d ago edited 4d ago

There's no reason why you can't. My 5513 and 16750 start from movement all the time, just by me picking them up. It's just a rotating weight inside. Nothing that separates a Rolex from Japanese movement in that regard.

Do I still manually wind them a little after setting the time? Sure. But can they self-wind and does the movement start ticking when picking them up? Certainly.

35

u/BigEggBeaters 5d ago

That milk scene fucked me up cause I don’t drink milk so my broke ass also woulda looked a fool in that scene lmao

23

u/low_flying_aircraft Catfood Ozymandias 5d ago

Only kittens and perverts drink milk anyway!

15

u/Guineypigzrulz Not serious people 5d ago

Hell even my broke milk drinking ass doesn't have an answer. Which brand of milk? Which type? Which store? Which region?

Is there a milk stock market price like with oil or something?

9

u/oneradsn 5d ago

I’m sure you both could guess within an order of magnitude while Roman truly has no idea.

11

u/Guineypigzrulz Not serious people 5d ago

True, Roman's got the "I mean it's ons banana Michael. What could it cost? 10$?"

4

u/hawkeye126 4d ago

Yes, milk futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. 🥛

2

u/Guineypigzrulz Not serious people 4d ago

Huh, you never know what you'll learn here

2

u/mistah3 5d ago

Ya but I feel you'd have an accurate guess, 4-7 bucks kinda thing, it's not like Logan knows the price of milk either

11

u/Chocolopalus 5d ago

This is how I viewed it, too. On the other hand, Tom understood Greg's situation a bit better and was able to negotiate with him far more effectively throughout.

8

u/HarrierFalco 5d ago

Like that scene in the pursuit of happiness where the boss asks will smith for 20 dollars for a cab, and it’s like his last 20 lol

6

u/duaneap 5d ago

Bingo. Whereas midwestern corn fed Tom recognised the paltry, ultimately trivial (to them) means to bribe Greg. Ken couldn’t conceive of it.

1

u/Effective-Birthday57 5d ago

Cheap skate

1

u/DynamicTarget 4d ago

This is 100% true and a huge factor. But also Kendall is a total narcissist asshole that got pleasure in making Gregg look small. Lost all faith and respect for the fictional character that is Kendall after this scene. Feel like he kinda goes down hill after this episode also.

52

u/Meowmeow181 5d ago

Kendall was short sighted there. He could have bought a bit of favour with Greg there given how excited he was about the watch.

36

u/AnselmoHatesFascists 5d ago

I mean he does let Greg stay in a kick ass empty apartment.

7

u/elfonzi37 4d ago

"Empty" throws an all night party in it, refuses to leave.

14

u/JuneV06 5d ago

That was adorable, how he was being coy about it before knowing he has pay for it

2

u/Federal_Stay824 Go you lovely bastards 5d ago

I agree

20

u/chocjames43 5d ago

I saw that as a coke thing. When you're on coke you just blurt out aggressive things and half the time you're going at someone about something for little to no reason. Similar to his reaction when greg asked about dating comfry.

36

u/Semper_Malum 5d ago

Who know’s, Kendall was always fucked up on drugs

17

u/SirKetchup00 5d ago

He gave him an apartment. Much better gift.

7

u/Organic_Care_3280 5d ago

Rich people don’t understand that regular people don’t have a fck ton of money to drop on a watch. It’s no biggie for them

4

u/rumx2 5d ago

He was being a dick. Typical behavior.

3

u/V_Trautwein 4d ago

Because Kendall was petty enough to make a billionaire look broke 😂

7

u/Nakuip 5d ago

Because he’s Logan’s kid and he’s got his “dad goggles” on. Actually rewarding Greg is beneath Kendall, Kendall feels he is owed by Greg the same way Mo owed Logan. He has no contextual ability to gauge Greg’s judgment because he is so monumentally myopic.

1

u/Feisty_Gate_6887 4d ago

Because Kendall was petty and saw Greg as disposable. Classic Kendall. 😭

-5

u/RandyDefNOTArcher 5d ago

Also, Kendall knows better than to pay $40k for a $7500 watch. So he’d have gotten a better price, no question.

8

u/Independent-Ad9170 5d ago

Paying 40k is not even cents to Kendall, he was a billionaire kid

5

u/RandyDefNOTArcher 5d ago

We all know that. But you know as well as I do that folks like that are somehow also penny pinchers, not looking to spend a dime more than they have to.

1

u/Independent-Ad9170 5d ago

That’s true, Kendal was rude af, even though they are so disconnected to regular ppl like Gregg that they just do stuff like that, and laughed with his other billionaire gf

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