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HAUTE
HOROLOGY
For more than a century, Rolex has been the ultimate
wearable status symbol of achievement and affluence.
How has it endured to still hold so much appeal to so many?
Gem-setting the dial

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W
hen New Zealand recruitment specialist, Gudrun Kendall,
first learned her male partner was the likely recipient of
a vintage Rolex watch, she knew she’d have to do some
fast-talking.
Selling the watch’s owner on the fact the slim design of the 80-year-
old Oyster Speedking Precision was more suited to a female wrist
than a male, she managed to convince her common law father-in-
law that it should be her – and not his son – who deserved to be the
watch’s rightful owner.
That was three years ago and, while the timepiece is brought out on
special occasions such as award events or fancy dinners, its hefty
sentimental value means more often than not, it spends its time
locked away from prying fingers in Kendall’s jewellery box.
But like thousands of others fortunate enough to own one of the
prestige timepieces, Kendall says even the thought of it is reason
to smile.
“It feels very premium and quite flash. It’s a bit like I’m in a secret
exclusive club.”
Sydney businessman Duncan Curnow is another who considers
himself lucky to be among the elite group of Rolex owners.
Having been given a Yachtmaster II as a gift from a girlfriend, he
too reserves wearing it for only the most glamorous of occasions,
storing it on a purpose-built watch shelf in his wardrobe when not
in use.
When he does put it on for public display, Curnow says the watch’s
presence always makes him feel “pretty special”.
“I always get lots of comments on it.”
Undoubtedly, Rolex founder, Hans Wilsdorf, had little inkling of just
how revered his products would become upon entering the watch-
making game in 1905.
German-born Wilsdorf was only 24 when he started a business
in London that specialised in the distribution of timepieces.
Convinced that the inconsistency displayed by early pocket
watches could be made more reliable and the bulky aesthetic
design more pleasing, he paired with a Swiss watch-making
company in Bienne to equip his wrist watches with small precise
movements to improve their accuracy.
Eager for his watches to be branded with a name that was “short,
easy to say in any language and looked good on watch movements
and dials”, Wilsdorf was alleged to have spent considerable time
searching for a suitable moniker for his business before settling on
the famous five letter R-word.
“I tried combining the letters of the alphabet in every possible way.
This gave me some hundred names, but none of them felt quite
right. One morning, while riding on the upper deck of a horse-drawn
omnibus along Cheapside in the City of London, a genie whispered
‘Rolex’ in my ear,” Wilsdorf reportedly said.
It was only five years later, when Wilsdorf’s relentless quest for
chronometric precision finally led to success, after a Rolex watch
became the first in the world to receive the Swiss Certificate of
Chronometric Precision as granted by Bienne’s Official Watch Rating
Centre. Rolex will later also be credited with producing the first
ladies chronometer certified watch. As a result of that early attention
to detail, from that point on every watch manufactured by the
company would be chronometer-certified.
Rolex today remains a privately owned company and is considered
one of the most valuable brands in the world. It produces around
2,000 watches daily.
It is believed the privately run entity has revenues in the billions of
dollars. Forbes ranked it No.64 on its 2016 list of the world's most
powerful global brands with estimated 2012 revenues of US$7.7
billion thanks, in part, to the fact Rolex timepieces are timeless,
increasing their value as time goes by.
While entry-level prices for a Rolex Explorer wristwatch in Australia
start at around $8,000, according to American news company CNBC,
the most expensive Rolex ever sold was a rare 1949 Oyster Perpetual
model with a cloisonné enamel dial that sold at auction in 2014
for $1.6 million. Rolexes which have passed through the hands of
celebrities dominate the list of the most expensive pieces with a
1971 Rolex Daytona watch owned by singer, Eric Clapton, selling for
$505,000 and a 1973 Rolex 5513 watch worn by actor, Roger Moore,
in his role as James Bond selling for $662,000.
But it’s the method in which its products are made which has
helped the heritage brand dominate the world of prestigious luxury
watch-makers.
Having shifted its manufacturing base to Switzerland in 1919 to
avoid wartime taxes levied on luxury goods, Rolex watches today
are brought to life by a team of more than 6,000 employees across
the brand’s four sites in Geneva – which also doubles as its world
headquarters - Plan-le-Ouates, Bienne and Chêne-Bourg.
Geneva is home to management, research and development,
design, communication activities, sales and after-sales service. It is
also where the final assembly of the components, delivered by the
three other sites, and final quality control of the finished watches
take place.
The Plan-les-Ouates site, its largest, brings together all the
development and production activities for watch cases and
bracelets, from the casting of the gold and forming of the raw
materials to the machining and polishing of finished components.
The Bienne site is the main production facility for the movements of
Rolex watches.
The Chêne-Bourg site houses the development and manufacture of
the dials, as well as the gemmology and gem-setting activities.
It may sound like poor time-keeping to the uneducated but Rolex
once claimed that it takes around 12 months to make each product
in its range.
True or not, it is not entirely outside the realms of possibility. This is
largely because almost all components are made in-house. Critical
to this process is the fact that in 2003, Rolex became the only watch
manufacturer in the world to use the 904L steel – a unique type of
stainless steel, more expensive to purchase and more complicated
to machine but equally more rust and corrosion resistant than the
316L version favoured by competitors.
The Rolex workshop
Fitting the balance wheel and hairspring Gem-setting the bracelet
Escapement
CelliniDualTime18ctEveroseGold
YachtMasterII
FirstSkyDweller
FirstOyster
SubmarinerDate18ctYellowGold
Pearlmaster

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All the essential components of its watches, from the casting of the
gold alloys to the machining, crafting, assembly and finishing of the
movement, case, dial and bracelet is hand assembled and tested.
The movements are sent to Swiss Official Chronometer Testing
Institute for chronometer certification and re-tested for accuracy
after they are cased for several days while simulating wear before
they are sent out to retailers.
To ensure its products endure, the company’s manufacturing
headquarters boast their own science lab with a stress test room
where watch movements, bracelets, and cases undergo simulated
wear and abuse on custom-made machines and robots. Rolex
watches have to pass more than 20 different drop tests before their
launch, including surviving shock-testing equipment that submits
the watch to an impact equivalent to 5,000 G.
Its Deepsea divers' watch is tested in a specially designed high-
performance tank and taken to the extreme depth of 3,900 metres
while its new generation Oysterlock, fitted on Professional Rolex
models, underwent 26 different types of drop tests during its
development. It was also immersed in tanks of chlorine and salt
water with added sand, where it was opened and closed tens of
thousands of times to ensure it remained fully functional.
Meanwhile, every Rolex Oyster watch is immersed in water and
subjected to a pressure 10 percent greater than that found at the
depth to which it is guaranteed – 25 percent more in the case of
divers’ watches.
The company also boasts its own foundry where it creates the 18
ct gold alloys used for its watches – yellow gold, white gold and
Everose gold - an exclusive pink gold alloy developed by Rolex.
In addition, Rolex has it owns gemological department whose
sole focus it is to purchase, test, arrange and handset diamonds
and other precious stones to a range of Rolex models. Traditional
jewellers are brought in to create custom settings for stones in the
brand’s most exclusive watches, while only diamonds graded an IF
in clarity, and D-G in colour are accepted for use.
Its exacting standards means that in the years they have been testing
diamonds, only two in 20 million have been found not to be authentic.
In its widely acclaimed pursuit of innovation, Rolex has registered
more than 400 patents since its inception and has been widely
credited for producing the first waterproof watch, the first anti-
magnetic watch and the first watch with a rotating bezel. Yet, unlike
many of its fellow watchmakers, it has only a limited number of
models – including Submariner, Explorer, Daytona, Date Just and
Yacht Master – which are updated and then re-released.
In staying true to its popular taglines “It doesn’t just tell time, it
tells history” and “a crown for every achievement” much of Rolex’s
marketing has been based around Wilsdorf’s vision to have the
brand align itself with the world’s elite sports events, sports people
and adventurers.
Evidence of this approach can be traced back to 1927 when, just
a year after launching the world’s first waterproof wristwatch,
the Oyster, Wilsdorf equipped English swimmer Mercedes Gleitze
with the innovative watch when she swam the English channel.
Today, the tie-ins are stronger than ever with Rolex lending its
support to the sports of golf, equestrian, yachting and tennis as well
as the sports’ leading personalities including golfing superstars,
Tiger Woods and Lydia Ko, Tennis ace, Roger Federer and top tier
equestrians, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and Zara Phillips.
It is also a great supporter of the arts, having formed an alliance
that dates back to the 1970's with New Zealand soprano, Dame Kiri
Te Kanawa, and others such as Spanish tenor, Plácido Domingo,
Chinese pianist, Yuja Wang, and Canadian jazz singers, Diana Krall
and Michael Bublé.
The company says sponsorship is not only a vital part of the brand’s
DNA, but also a “perfect reflection” of the company’s inherent values
and ethos “from heritage, reliability and trust to excellence, passion
and precision”.
“Rolex is at one with the skill, timing, endurance and the perpetual
quest for perfection that characterise ground-breaking exploration,
the most prestigious sporting achievement and the greatest artistic
performances around the world.”Placing the appliques
Diamonds
Diamond set bezel
950 Platinum