Will 2020 End the German CC100 hype? Rolex Introduces New Warranty Card

The Rolex cosmos is full of oddities. The smallest details, which must seem insanely trivial to outsiders, decide for others whether to take or toss. For example, why are vintage Daytonas with a 225 on the bezel so expensive? What the heck is a Flat 4? What is the reason that a Rolex with “CC 100” in the description costs more in Germany than other comparable models?

The first question can be answered by one of our articles here and the second by a brief Google search. However, we will shed light on the third question now in more depth, explaining you why it might become obsolete in the near future anyway.

Rolex and its Country Codes

The whole point of the CC 100 abbreviation is fairly simple. CC stands for country code and indicates on the Rolex warranty card to which country the watch was initially delivered. There is in fact a huge range, all the way from “010” for Switzerland to “907” for the former NATO headquarters based in Rheindahlen near Mönchengladbach.

One particular country code has always been of particular interest to German Rolex collectors: CC 100. While Switzerland, for example, counts 23 country codes, Rolex has only assigned a single one to Germany: CC 100.

Naturally, this fact makes Rolex watches with said CC popular among German collectors, also because these watches come with German papers. This alone is worth a considerable surcharge to many aficionados on the secondary market.

However, this could now change with a new warranty card.

Rolex in the Role of a Laggard?

Breitling introduced a first electronic version as early as 2013, but also other brands continued to refine the seemingly so boring subject of “warranty cards” in the meantime. Hublot’s Hublotista programme, for example, gives access to exclusive events, and anyone who registers their warranty card with IWC Schaffhausen’s “Care Program” is covered against any mechanical defects of the watch for a whopping eight years.

It was only a matter of time before Rolex would update its own warranty card. In 2015 the last generation came on the market, which showed the following information:

• Name of the Rolex AD
• Blank space for the date of purchase
• Blank space for the buyer’s name
• Country Code (CC)
• Reference number
• Serial number
• Further information about the watch, such as the type of bracelet, if needed

All Digital: 2020 Brings a New Rolex Warranty Card

Rolex seems to have made good use of the time of production shutdown. The newly developed warranty card, of which the first pictures are now circulating on the Internet, apparently only shows the following information:

• Reference number
• Serial number
• Blank space for the date of purchase

With the removal of the country code and the concessionaire’s name, the “CC 100” sales argument should henceforth be a thing of the past – at least in Germany. In the future, no one will be able to really find out this sort of information without having the card digitally read by an AD.

It will also be interesting to see how the new warranty card will affect the resale of Rolex watches and whether the grey market will be affected. Only time will tell.