Findings · July 2026
The waitlist era is mostly over. Here's the data.
For years, the accepted wisdom was that a steel Rolex means a years-long wait. We compiled 1,596 first-hand wait reports from real buyers (collected from public buyer accounts and direct submissions) and computed the medians. In the last 12 months (cutoff July 2025), the picture looks nothing like the folklore:
Median wait times, last 12 months
Community reports, minimum 8 per line
| Watch | Median wait | Reports |
|---|---|---|
| Rolex (all models) | 1-3 months | 621 |
| Datejust | 1-3 months | 157 |
| Submariner | 1-3 months | 151 |
| GMT-Master II | 3-6 months | 91 |
| Explorer | 1-3 months | 86 |
| Vacheron Constantin (all) | 1-3 months | 99 |
| Overseas | 1-3 months | 83 |
The GMT-Master II is the outlier that proves the data can tell watches apart: it still commands a meaningfully longer wait than its siblings. Everything else in the top of our catalog - including the Submariner, the poster child of the waitlist era - now shows a median of one to three months. About one in five Submariner buyers in our data walked in and bought same-day.
How to read this honestly
- These are medians from self-reported buyer data, not dealer statements. Every number on this site shows its sample size, and nothing is quoted from fewer than 8 reports.
- Reports from buyers still waiting are excluded from medians (they have no completed wait to report), which means our medians skew slightly optimistic. We track and publish those counts as they grow.
- Waits vary by region and by purchase history. Our answer tool lets you slice both.
Check your watch
Read the latest State of the Waitlist, or type any model into the wait checker - Submariner, GMT, Nautilus, Overseas - and get the current median, the trend, and the sample size. If we don't have your watch yet, your report is how it gets an answer:
Data: 1,596 reports as of August 1, 2026; 12-month window medians; methodology in how this works.