We all know how resounding the “Rolex” name is. All of us stay focused on it, regardless of the hate or love relationship we have with this brand. Regardless of our attitude towards Rolex, it’s indisputable the fact that it’s one of the most influential names in the horology realm, setting its own trends, standards, and status. Like it or not, the entire watch industry aligns with its standards because this name is always about precision, premium level, and ambition.
How much do you know about this brand, actually? I’ve asked the same question to my officemates and it was so hilarious to see that only a couple of them could barely formulate some clear definitions of the big brand’s success. Funny how we people think we know it all when actually know nothing. Either way, I thought it would be welcome to share some fun facts with our readers, once our audience is so loyal to Rolex imitations. Therefore, here are the most curious moments about the watch game changer. And I’m curious to know how many of them you already knew and which one of them was a new piece of information to you. So, long story short, let’s go!
What is “Rolex”, actually?
In one of my recent posts about the Hublot brand, I told you that watch brand names actually mean something. Some refer to the former founders, while others suggest a certain personification. How much do you know about Rolex in this regard? Nope, it has nothing to do with the founder, nor with the place of the first factory (like the Longines, for instance).
The truth is that there is very little info about the origin of the brand. The Rolex founder has never considered it appropriate to explain the “roots” of the brand name. And journalists, as well as brand lovers went on inventing their own hypotheses. From the many versions available, one seems to be the closest to the truth, as one of the CEOs has indirectly confirmed it. Turns out that the founders of the brand wanted an easily-pronouncing name, short in length and good sounding in any language. For the brand, it was critical that the name looked good on the watch’s face and could fit any part of the watch when being engraved.
If this theory is true then we must admit that the “Rolex” name makes complete sense. The engraving looks good, the pronunciation is easy, and what’s most important: the term is memorable. It’s so memorable that it even became synonymous with the “watch” term.
Still…
While there is no official confirmation of this theory, there is always room for additional interpretation. Thus, some watch enthusiasts are prone to think that the term “Rolex” actually is a compilation of two words: hoROLogical EXcellence. However, none of the Rolex founders ever suggested this theory to be true.
That’s the specific style of the brand: to tease its fans. And while there is no formal explanation, we have to still guess and believe the theory that resonates better with each of us.
Still handmade
It’s hard to disagree that all Rolex watches are about revolutionary technologies and the latest innovations. One might imagine that this brand’s factories are full of industrial machinery functioning under conveyor systems. Obviously, machinery doesn’t miss from Rolex factories, but the number one priority is the Handmade work. Human specialists and experts are those who put the watches together, assembling them to the tiniest details and making sure that the watch is built according to premium standards.
Rolex is loyal to the idea that handmade craft is the key to success and doesn’t have any intention to change this philosophy. And don’t you dare think that this only refers to some decorative tasks. On the contrary, the hardest watchmaking tasks are performed by skilled watchmakers using the “handmade technique”. This means that even movements are assembled by hand.
I don’t know about you, but for me, it’s completely mind-blowing to know that in the industrial era, the brand remains loyal to tradition, even if it has a huge amount of watches to assemble.
“…a huge amount of watches to assemble…” What does this exactly mean?
As a matter of fact, this brand follows a strict DNA protocol and it’s impossible to know exactly the number of watches released daily or monthly. And that’s what curious and hungry journalists need: to unlock some mysteries, at least approximately. Therefore, specialists in statistics estimate Rolex to assemble around 2,000 pieces A DAY. That would be about 1,000,000 pieces a year, more or less. Once again, the number is approximate, remember that. And still, that’s an imposing number for a brand that assembles its watches by hand.
What “Rolex time” is it?
The question is not incidental, simply because there is an official Rolex time, actually. Possibly you could have spotted it, or possibly not, but absolutely all Rolex timepieces show the same time in all official pictures and photos. This means that all of them indicate the 10 past 10 times. All the time indicators have a certain logic, whereas the second hand is always located at 31 seconds, and the day window suggests the Monday weekday. More than that, the date aperture will always indicate the first day of the week, which is Monday.
What’s the point of all this, you will ask. The point is to suggest perfection. Such hands positioning confers a symmetrical look and a feeling of detail attention. Random hands’ positioning would distort the whole aesthetic view, and Rolex can’t admit such a message. On top of that, the 10 past 10 times perfectly highlights the brand logo under the 12 o’clock marker, making the audience remember what it has to remember: the brand name.
One year for… one watch
Now you know how many watches the brand assembles a day. As for the long road from the main watch concept to the final assembly, it takes about one year for the whole complex process. This process involves the designers’ tasks to come up with the idea of a new model, or even collection, the technical construction of various details and components, materials, and waterproofing testing and improvements after testing.
So, next time you see a new Rolex model, please consider that the idea of the watch is actually one year old already. Also, be sure that currently, Rolex is already working on the concept you will see materialized next year.
Swiss brand, which is actually, partially Swiss
As a matter of fact, the brand has a less-known historical side. The very first “bricks” of Rolex were actually set in London, back in 1905. The ones who set the bricks of what was meant to become Rolex were Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law, Alfred Davis. After several types of watchmaking activities (assembling movements, making watches for jewelers), the factory started to contour its own voice and authenticity. Thus, in 1908, the founders registered the trademark “Rolex”.
Only in 1919, the factory relocated to Geneva, Switzerland, fully benefiting from the “Swiss” watchmaking label. A little bit later, in 1925, the brand invented its remarkable crown logo to suggest to the whole world its intention of becoming a watchmaking leader.
The sensitive side of Rolex
The history of this remarkable brand was not without obstacles. One of the founders, Hans Wilsdorf to be more specific, has lost his wife. To transform his pain into community value, he opened the Hans Wilsdorf Charity Foundation, which is closely tight to Rolex ownership. There is little information available regarding financial inflows and outflows within the charity organization, as Swiss law prohibits any information disclosure. Either way, the watch community embraces Rolex for being open to charity projects.
Being to the top and the bottom: it’s a Rolex style
I really don’t think the following piece of information will surprise you, as you probably already know it. But, since we are talking about curiosities and fun facts here, it’s worth mentioning it once again. Rolex is the only watchmaking brand to have conquered the top and the bottom of the Earth. It’s about Sir Edmund Hillary who reached Everest with a Rolex and about the Trieste Bathyscaphe team who explored the depths of the Mariana Trench. In both cases, the watches were exposed to extreme conditions and in both of them they “behaved” outstandingly reliably.
Should I say more about the courage of the brand, along with its huge quality standards?!
Prison security-safe? Wait to see the ROLEX headquarters’ security
You have surely seen movies with characters trying to escape complex security systems. So, these are nothing in comparison to the Rolex security ones. Plenty of employee fingerprint scanners, iris scanners, bank vault doors, and many other fantastic tools to keep the time-keeping treasures away from bad intentions. In fact, it makes complete sense, considering the precious materials and metals the brand possesses. Only the Everose gold bars kept in the Rolex headquarters are worth about 1,000,000 USD. So all the ultra-secured technology makes complete sense.
A multi-language brand
Every watch brand makes an effort to bring its customer as close as possible. To give you a fixed example of this idea, many watchmaking factories began to release right-hand watches to comfort the left-handed segment of the public. So happens with the “communication” between the brand and the audience. To facilitate it, Rolex has adapted its “day” wheel into 26 languages. Perhaps, it would be much easier to limit to only a couple of the most-spoken languages in the world like Spanish, English, and Chinese Mandarin.
Still, when you want to make the distance with your customer as short as possible, you neglect any obstacles and find all solutions required. Thus, the day wheel is available in 26 languages including Arabic, Basque (a Spanish dialect), Catalan (like the Basque), Hebrew, Latin, Turkish, and Greek among others. That’s what it takes when you respect your customer.
The first means the first in all
I’ll be laconic here, as the facts speak more than words. The brand was the first watchmaker to obtain a COSC certificate for a wristwatch, meeting all required standards. This took place back in 1910. Until that period, pocket watches were the only ones to meet the precision criteria required by the Swiss Official Control of Chronometers.
Collaborating with scientists? No, owning them!
With the evolving watchmaking progress, brands take the challenge to invent as complex functions and complications as possible. For that purpose, they usually partner with scientists from diverse fields like astronomy, geography, and physics to drive functions like Perpetual Calendars.
In this context, Rolex found another solution for long-term success: it hired a whole gemology team whose primary function is to obtain and integrate into watches the highest-quality gemstones. The tram works on a long-term contract and is responsible for how the gemstones and diamonds look on watches.
Revolution over evolution, or vice versa?
Personally, I don’t see Rolex as a revolution-focused brand. It has always taken its time to research, analyze, and create in its own rhythm, even if competitors were much faster than it. This brand is more like a “marathoner” rather than a “sprinter”. It remains true to its philosophy and that’s great, actually, because the best to compete with is yourself.
Even if it seems to keep pace with the watchmaking trends, it remains conservative in a way. If we look at the latest collections, we see the same ones as those from decades ago, only in iterated versions. And for comparison, the competitors are obsessed with building the thinnest, thickest, largest, smallest, most complicated, lightest, etc… watch. Rolex, in contrast, has its own rhythm and looks to improve to perfection its previous models.
Many watch enthusiasts don’t understand this approach, saying that the brand lacks a competitive spirit. But, is it so? No, by no means. It has a clear target: to become better than it was yesterday. And considering the watch “laboratory” it has in its headquarters, the brand brilliantly reaches its target.
And it has all the right to set its own standards, just because it made itself from scratch, alone, without anyone’s support. So, it doesn’t owe anything to anyone, except for its loyal audience. And the brand takes all the necessary time to offer perfection to its audience, as a loyalty bonus. In Rolex’s “eyes”, only dependable brands compete with each other. It doesn’t need competition, as it doesn’t need to prove anything. Instead, it just creates magic in the laboratories it created over years.
So, to answer the main question, Rolex is all about evolution over revolution. In other words, revolution comes as a “complementary effect” from the brand’s evolution.
Final notes
This article was supposed to be short, actually. And yet, there is so much I skipped from it. I didn’t tell a word about the role of Rolex during World War II, or about the first waterproof watch to 100 meters made by Rolex, or about the very first watch to automatically change the date. There is a lot to add to this list, believe me. I think the material about Rolex would be enough to write a whole book, not only an article.
Either way, knowing more about the big brand makes us understand that its value is actually much higher than we tend to think. At the same time, we understand that the Rolex we currently know hasn’t always been like that. It underwent a hard and severe metamorphosis to become what it is today. And let’s admit it: this brand is not about watchmaking only. It is about insatiable ambition, focus no matter what, self-challenge and self-competition.
Nota BENNE
I’ve been into the watch hobby for more than a decade. During this period, I realized that people are influenced by several reasons when choosing a watch for themselves. Some pay attention to the design, whereas others to the number of complications. A curious thing happens with Rolex according to my observations: people aren’t even interested in how many complications the watch has. If it is a Rolex, that’s more than enough. And that’s a dream scenario for every watch brand, I suppose.
Either way, if this brand sounds fabulous to you and you align with its philosophy, history, and concept, our Rolex imitations can be great symbols of the big brand on your wrist. We invest all the effort possible to offer only high-quality Rolex imitations, to never compromise the value of the genuine models. Welcome to our store, the place where we honor Rolex!