The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Operational decision · 2026
Rolex pulled distribution from two family shops, 83 and 55 years of trading gone in March
Rolex moved toward fewer, larger authorised dealers. Two independent family-run Hong Kong watch shops lost the agency and closed within 11 days of each other.
Fung Leung Kee Watch Company · Tai Hing Watch Co. · 2026-03-30
What happened
Fung Leung Kee started in Wan Chai in 1943, repairing watches street-side before its founder's wife suggested stocking timepieces to sell — the shop eventually became an authorised Rolex agent and traded for 83 years. Tai Hing Watch, in Tsuen Wan, had carried Rolex and Tudor for 55 years.
Both were independent, family-run agents rather than chain retailers. In March 2026, Rolex moved to consolidate its Hong Kong distribution into fewer, larger authorised channels rather than a wide network of small independent dealers. According to the founder's grandson, Rolex's headquarters told Fung Leung Kee it was taking back distribution and would no longer sell through agents — leaving the shop, in his words, no choice but to close 'honourably.'
Tai Hing Watch closed on 19 March 2026, Fung Leung Kee eleven days later on 30 March, each with a farewell message thanking customers rather than any dispute with the brand. Neither closure was a bankruptcy or a scandal — both stores simply lost the one product line their business had been built around.
Why it happened
- A retailer's business can rest entirely on someone else's decision to keep selling through it — Rolex chose fewer, larger authorised channels, and an 83-year agency ended without any mismanagement
- family shops that survived occupation, financial crises and pandemics had no answer for a supplier simply changing its distribution strategy
- two closures 11 days apart, both citing the same cause, showed this was a channel policy rather than either shop's individual failure
The lesson
An authorised dealership is a lease on someone else's brand, not an asset the retailer controls — when the supplier redraws its map, decades of trading end on the supplier's schedule.
Aftermath
Both shops closed with clearance and farewell messages rather than protest. Coverage framed the pair as the end of an era for Hong Kong's independent watch retailers, amid a wider slump for the sector's listed players.
Sources
- am730 — 兩間賣勞力士表行3月結業 馮良記創辦人後代揭退場原因
- Dim Sum Daily — Tai Hing Watch in Tsuen Wan closes after 55 years following Fung Leung Kee
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