Lately, you could say the world has gone crazy. And I'm not talking about the covid madness that has been with us for a year and a half. But the Rolex watch craze. It's easy to say everyone wants a Rolex...
History of the ROLEX brand
The Rolex brand has been with us for 116 years, founded in 1905 by Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law, who registered it under the name Wilsdorf & Davis. Based in London. In 1908, the name was registered Rolex. Hans Wilsdorf said this about how the name Rolex came about..." I tried to combine the letters of the alphabet in every possible way. This gave me several hundred names, but none of them felt quite right. One morning, while riding on the top deck of a horse-drawn omnibus along Cheapside in the City of London, a genie whispered in my ear "Rolex" In 1919, he and the whole company moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where they are still based today. In 1920, MontresRolex S.A. was registered in Geneva.
ROLEX records
We all know that the Rolex brand has a lot of firsts in the watch world. Just to name a few... In 1910, Rolex was the first watch in the world to be awarded certificate of chronometric accuracy "SwissCertificateofChronometricPrecision.
1926 and the first waterproof and dustproof wristwatch. It was a groundbreaking discovery. The watch was named "Oyster - Oyster". They had a hermetically sealed case that served as optimal protection for the watch movement.
1953 and the climb Mount Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. The whole expedition wore Rolex Oyster Perpetual watches. In 1953, a new fashion, the Rolex Explorer, was created to celebrate the climbing of the world's highest mountain.
And so we could go on for a long time. But that's not what this article is supposed to be about. In this article, I want to ponder why almost no authorized Rolex dealer has almost any watches in stock, why all new Rolex watches are immediately sold on the secondary market for several % more than A.D....
Liquidity of the ROLEX brand
In order to get a good answer, it is necessary to mention another first for the Rolex brand. In 2020, the Rolex brand achieved the world's number one selling luxury Swiss watch. It achieved this as a whole group that includes the Rolex and Tudor brands. This statistic is not calculated on the number of individual watches sold but on the proportion of money earned from sales. For the first time, it surpassed the Swatchgroup, which includes Omega, Longines, Tissot, Breguet, Blancpain, Rado, Swatch, Mido, Hamilton, Harry Winston, Certina, CK Watch, GlashutteOriginal.
The Rolex brand will take 26.8% of the global total Swiss watch sales pie in 2020, with the Swatch Group in second place at 25.2% and the Richemont Group ( Cartier Watch, IWC, Jager-LeCoultre, Vacheron Constantin, Officine Panerai, Piaget, Montblanc, Van Cleef & Arpels Watch, Lange & Sohne, Baume & Mercier, Roger Dubuis ) in third place at 18.2%
And now, where did Rolex's power come from... One of the things that has certainly contributed to this is Rolex's global setup, about sticking to prescribed prices. Nowhere in the world will an authorised dealer dare to give a price other than that set by his mother in Geneva. So you can't have, for example, a Breitling that costs 220k in the Czech Republic and 170k in Germany. The most you will get as a good customer is 5%slevu.
Another aspect is the large purchasing power of Asia. In Asia, the Rolex brand is very popular because of its size (when for many Europeans, Americans etc... they are "small" ). Every day there is a new millionaire in Asia who wants his Rolex. Another aspect is the "crowd frenzy" just like during totalitarianism in our country when there was a queue somewhere, you went to stand in it just because it was there. You didn't even know what they were selling, but it was definitely something that wouldn't be around for a long time. And so it is with Rolex. The longer the wait, the more people want them. This is also helped by the secondary market, where they sell for a few % more, so a lot of people buy them on speculation... However, all this plays into the hands of the Rolex brand and reinforces its strength.
On behalf of my company luxury-used-watches I can only recommend you to buy a Rolex watch. You will certainly not make a mistake. First of all, you are buying top quality, secondly, you are buying a brand that is one of the most famous in the world. (If you ask ten people on the street if they know the Rolex brand, 9 of them will know it, if you ask the same people if they know AudemarsPiguet, Patek Philippe, there will be two of them at most, anywhere in the world). Thirdly, you are buying a watch that holds its value and, on the contrary, grows in value. Fourthly, you are buying a watch that has set direction and trends, that has achieved quite a few firsts in the watchmaking world. I'm sure you could find several more reasons. And everyone will find their own reason to buy their Rolex...
Finally, and as the icing on the cake, I can proudly say that we currently have more Rolex watches in stock in our store than any authorized dealer in the Czech Republic. So don't hesitate, make an appointment and come and buy your Rolex watch.
Pavel Pazdera
