Rolex SA has raised the price of some of its precious metal watches in the UK by 4% after the price of gold rose to a record high.
The retail price of a white gold Rolex Daytona chronograph rose 4% to 38,700 pounds ($49,312) from 37,200 pounds as of June 1, according to information on the Swiss watchmaker’s UK website tracked by Bloomberg News.
The price of the GMT Master II in yellow gold has jumped to £35,400 from £34,000.
The prices of watches produced by the Geneva-based Rolex company in a particular country can be seen as an indicator of the country’s economic strength. The world’s leading luxury watch brand produces more than 1 million watches a year with sales exceeding CHF 10 billion ($11.08 billion).
The price of gold has risen 14% this year, reaching an all-time high of $2,450 an ounce in May amid optimism that the US Federal Reserve will begin cutting interest rates. The British pound rose last month to its highest level against the euro since August 2022.
A Rolex spokesman in Geneva declined to comment on the price change.
Rolex usually increases the price of its watches once a year, in January. At the time, prices for some models in the UK rose by about 4%, including some steel watches, but prices in the US remained unchanged.
Large currency swings prompted Rolex to raise UK prices twice in 2022, in January and September, as the pound fell to its lowest level against the dollar in decades. That same year, Rolex raised prices twice in European countries.