Think of everyone who wears a Rolex:
your ex-wife's lawyer, your boss, your boss's boss. The luxury watch brand is a magnet for
people with too much money, a need for social validation or just regular
collectors who appreciate the watches
for what they really are: exquisite
pieces of art, not symbols of wealth or power. For most people owning a Rolex is
like checking off the first item on their how to be a rich guy list, but
having a luxury watch for such a reason is really missing the point. that small tick-tocking device on your wrist
carries with it over a hundred years of history, and in this video we'll see just
how deep the rabbit-hole goes. The company Rolex is really the brainchild
of one German orphan: Hans Wilsdorf. Having lost his parents at the age of 12,
he was sent to a boarding school in Coburg by his aunt and uncle. There Hans learned to speak English and
he was so good at it that after he graduated he got a job as a translator
at a firm in Switzerland. The firm's name was Cuno Korten and it was one of the
biggest watch exporters in Switzerland at the time. While working there Hans
was exposed to some of the most influential people in watchmaking. One such acquaintance was Hermann Aegler,
who had recently inherited a large ébauche factory after his father's death. Ébauche is a French word and it refers
to the unassembled components of a watch mechanism. With his newfound friends in
high places Hans decided to move to England and in 1905 he founded his own
company called Wilsdorf and Davis. Davis was the name of Hans'
brother-in-law who had lent money to finance the whole thing. Hans' first
order of business was to get watches that he could sell. Now wristwatches
weren't very popular at the time: they were flimsy, accurate and worn mostly by women. People of the higher class preferred pocket watches, which
were seen as durable and would often be passed down generations. Hans saw a lot of
potential in wristwatches and so he got in touch with his friend Hermann Aegler.
Aegler's factory would produce high-quality wristwatches and Hans would import them
to England, where he would sell them to local retailers. Wilsdorf and Davis was
pretty successful early on mostly due to the higher quality of
their Swiss-made mechanisms. Hans had a good sense for marketing though, and he
quickly realized the importance of brand recognition. He wanted people to
associate their watches with his company not the retailers' and so in 1908 he
registered his own brand name: Rolex. The name was short and easy to
remember, and so Hans started printing it on the dials of all his watches. To give
the Rolex name some credibility Hans decided to contact two time keeping
institutes: in 1910 Rolex was awarded the Swiss certificate of chronometric
precision, and a 1914 Rolex became the first wristwatches in history to receive
a Class "A" Precision rating by the Kew Observatory in London. The real catalyst for Rolex'
popularity, however, was World War One Soldiers at the time didn't have wrist
watches in their standard equipment. As you can imagine carrying around a
pocket watch was pretty inconvenient, and Rolex ended up being a favorite among
the military. The war popularized the brand name for its quality and
durability, but it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. The British government imposed a wartime
import duty of 33% on all luxury goods, including watches. This
hit Hans' business very hard and so in 1919 he moved his company to Geneva
where he incorporated it as Montres Rolex. The focal point of the new company was
evolution, and having already popularized wrist watches,
Rolex tackled the next big challenge: making them waterproof. Now waterproof
watches had actually been around for a long time. The earliest confirmed model dates
back to 1851. They were always custom-built, however, and had never been
a commercial success Rolex changed that when they released
their Oyster model in 1926. The making of the Oyster, or any waterproof
watch for that matter, really boils down to two things: making the case hermetically sealed and preventing the crown from unsealing it. The crown by the way is that small pin
on the side of the watch that lets you the time. Back in Switzerland Aegler'
engineers found a way to fix both problems. They also invented the self-winding
mechanism in 1931. Prior to that you had to wind your clock every day using
the crown or it would stop working. Hans Wilsdorf, being the marketing genius
that he was, decided to promote the Oyster by giving it to a young girl named
Mercedes Gleitze She became the first woman to swim
across the English Channel in 1927, but when people started doubting her
achievement, she decided to make the swim again. She almost made it the second time, but
in the end the Coast Guard had to pull her out of the water barely seven miles from
the other shore. She was still wearing her Oyster and it had
perfectly tracked her swim down to the minute. It was an enormous marketing
victory for Rolex and they used this event for advertisement well into the 1950s. This was the first time celebrity
testimony was used to promote a watch, but Rolex didn't stop there. Lord Clydesdale became the first man to
fly over Everest in 1933. He was wearing a Rolex. Malcolm Campbell became the
first man to reach a speed of 300 miles per hour on land in 1935. He was also
wearing a Rolex. The Trieste became the first manned vessel
to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench in 1960. It had a Rolex
attached to its outside surface The list goes on and on and it shows
just how good Hans Wilsdorf was at maintaining his brand. He also wanted to expand his company's
client base and so he created the Tudor brand in 1946. Tudor watches are pretty
close to Rolexes in terms of reliability, but they're less expensive and are
generally marketed to the upper middle class. Hans Wilsdorf's death in
1960 marked the end of an era for Rolex. The ownership of the company was transferred to the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, which still owns it to this day
and uses its income for charity. Hans' death couldn't have come at a
worse time, since the late 1960s and the early 1970s were the beginning of the
Quartz Revolution. The invention of quartz clocks, you know, the ones that run on batteries,
was a devastating blow to the Swiss watch market. Cheap quartz watches from Japan and the
US flooded the global marketplace and by the end of 1983 two
out of every three Swiss watchmakers had gone bankrupt. Mechanical watches
couldn't compete with the low weight and high precision of their quartz counterparts
and so most of them fell out of favor. Rolex managed to survive the Quartz
Revolution by relying on its brand and reputation. It didn't matter if a mechanical Rolex
was less accurate. The amount of effort put into creating and assembling the Rolex,
most of which is done by hand by the way, gives it a collectible value that no mass
produced quartz watch will ever have. The time it takes to produce a single Rolex
is over a year and unlike most companies Rolex doesn't
outsource any of its production. Quality is everything to them, and when you look at
some of their recent models it's hard not to think of them as works of art. Hell, I'd buy one just to put it in a
frame if it wouldn't cost me a kidney. Even today Rolex is the biggest watch
producer in Switzerland, and although they account for only 1% of all
watch sales across the world, they represent 1/4 of the global
market's value. They're the official timekeeper for two of the four Grand
Slams, two of the four golf majors, the Formula
One championship and the 24 Hour Le Mans race. It's truly impressive how Rolex has
managed to stay on top of the luxury watch industry for over a century. They've become more than just expensive
watches: they're a symbol of wealth for both self-entitled rich kids and
powerful men alike. I hope you enjoyed a Rolex' story. If you
did hit that like button and check out my other videos for the stories of more
cool companies. Tell me in the comments below which
company you'd like me to feature next and as always: stay smart.
"Documentary"
FYI, most swiss people regard Rolex watches as kinda bling bling, vulgar, aimed at nouveau-riche with little culture. My buddy's friend has been working for rolex for 25 years, they're great watches, but he assures me they are just Tudors with the Rolex crown logo on it.
not a documentary. please remove.
videos like this should be posted to /r/videos or /r/mealtimevideos.
The title makes out like Rolex is a high end luxury brand. It's actually mid tier in the watch world.
I would also say the majority of Rolex owners pay around $4-12k for their Rolex.
Anything over that watch enthusiasts want movement decoration.
Two decades ago shitty presentations like this were made with powerpoint and clipart. Good to see the traditions being kept alive.
Good resale on Rolex too. I don't wear jewelry
The point is that they have a decently wide price range (from ~5k to over 50k) and the effort put in the chapest models is the same ad in the most expensive ones!it's a pleasure to wear such pieces everyday,even for field-working because they are almost undestructible (a Submariner saved my hand from a 100% mutilation with only a little slice in the sapphire cristal!). They don't have multiple complications as tourbillons and calendar for knowing whats the day on Mars but every Rolex is an incredibly fierce piece of engineering.
This a rollie not a mueller!
The plus side to spending a kidney on a Rolex is that it will probably be worth a kidney and a half if/when you're ready to sell it.
Edit for typo.