re: The Rolex business model is dumb

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They publish their Financials?

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They absolutely do not

I've been on the wait list for 3.5 years. It is what it is.

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Think it was a sarcastic post. Rolex owns a pretty big share of the luxury watch market, really don't think they care about losing a few casuals in order to maintain brand image.

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According to Morgan Stanley, which does the most comprehensive and best-sourced yearly Swiss watch report, they still own the segment. Their estimated 2025 turnover was over $12.5 Billion. The second on the list was Cartier at $ 4.35 billion; third was Omega at $3.25 billion.

They sell more watches than any of the mid-tier or higher brands; Swatch (the brand, not the group), Tissot, and Longines (China loves them) sell more units but they are a tier or 2 (in the case of Swatch) lower than Rolex.

@Obtuse1 I recently purchased a Oris Aquis preowned made in 2015. Seems to be functioning fine. Looks great but unsure if had a service and interested in getting one done. Here in ATL we have a couple ADs and will most likely swing by one and see what they’ll charge. What do you think is realistic?

Hahahaha the most noticeable brand in the world. Such an absurd claim.

You put that crown logo in front of 1000 people and 40% of them will think it’s the Burger King logo.

Now put Nike’s Nike check, Apple’s Apple, McDonald’s “M” Golden Arches, Adidas’ 3 stripes, Instagram’s logo, Netflix’ “N” Shell’s Shell logo etc. need I go on?

The Rolex name might be recognizable but the brand itself, including the logo, isn’t even sniffing the top 25 brands in the world

The catch here is that you bought a Seamaster, when you wanted a Sub or a GMT.

Short term, you got a nice watch. Long term, you still don't have the crown on your wrist.

I know you don't think this right now, and you're bitter about the whole situation, but you will one day own a Seamaster and a Sub or GMT.

It's just how it works.

Got lucky with my Yacht Master. Have a friend in the jewelry market, told him what I was looking for. He traded something he couldn't move for the exact Rolex I wanted, got it in a few weeks.

I'm not the biggest Rolex fan, but the Rhodium YM caught my eye. I see subs seemingly every time I go out, but I've never seen someone wearing a Rhodium YM in the wild.

Congrats on the Omega, great watch. Wear the hell out of it.

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You keep telling yourself the Seamaster is better looking than the Submariner or GMT, lol.

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I have two Submariners a 16610 and a 126610 as well as an Omega Seamaster Diver 300m.

I wear the 300m probably 2x more than both submariners combined. Great dial with the waves and wears great. I enjoy them all, but the Omega holds up with the Subs in every aspect.

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@Obtuse1 I recently purchased a Oris Aquis preowned made in 2015. Seems to be functioning fine. Looks great but unsure if had a service and interested in getting one done. Here in ATL we have a couple ADs and will most likely swing by one and see what they’ll charge. What do you think is realistic?

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That watch has a Sellita SW200 which is a (legal) copy of the ETA 2824, together they are the workhorses of Swiss watch movements. This means any professional watchmaker will have services bunches of these and they will keep all the routine service parts in stock or at worst can get them in a few days. One note about taking watches to dealers if they don't have a watchmaker in-house (not talking about just bracelet adjustments and battery replacement) they outsource service. If it goes to the manufacturer, that usually means more expense and more wait time, if it goes to an independent, it should be cheaper BUT keep in mind you are paying for them to be the middleman. I haven't used anyone in Atlanta but I have seen good reviews on watch forums re Watch Masters.

Since that is a movement I would service myself I don't stay current on service pricing but I would guess at a good indy shop it would be in the $500 range but don't "quote me" on that. You might call Watch Masters and see if they will give you a general idea over the phone to service a 2015 Qris Aquis with a Sellita SW200 movement that is funtioning properly. You probably won't be able to pin them down (understandable) until they get inside it but you might get a decent idea.


For some the following is a hot take for others it is SOP.

I would not service that movement until I could see some objective performance changes, To do that you need to do some objective tests. It would be nice if you had a Timegrapher (cheap Chinese ones listed as a Weishi 1000 are under $140 and are fine for your purposes, under $100 if you buy from AliExpress and willing to wait a couple of weeks). These are all the same and fine for your use, but they are just a geeky tool. You can also investigate phone app based versions, I know little about them but plenty of people use them. You don't need it to be super accurate just realtively precide (repeatable). If you are interested in one of these I will be glad to talk to you about how to use them as a general gauge of movement health or at least how the health is trending. Using them you can test rate, beat error and amplitude.

If you don't get a Timegrapher there are two simple tests you can do over time, maybe every 6 months and record them and compare. One you can test the rate, fully wind the watch 30 stem rotations is usually enough if the watch is already running. Often you can perceive the mainspring slipping when an automatic watch is fully wound but if you don't know what that sound/feels like just "over wind" it. Then check the time on the watch over 24 hours (best to leave the watch sitting on one position) against an atomic clock. The easy way is to hack the watch (stem position 2) at 12:00 even and press the stem to start the movement when it matches with a whole minute on the atomic clock, record the time on the atomic clock and compare it exactly at the 24 hour mark. Record how far the watch is off and check it every 6 months or so when you see the rate change more than say 5 seconds (not just over 6 months but from the first time you tested) that is an indication of needing service.

The other thing is check and keep up with the power reserve. As the friction builds in the train of the watch due to multiple things the power resrve will go down. The PR for your movement new is 38-41hr, most sit right at 40. Fully wind the watch, set it to 12 o'clock and record the actual time. Note it should be left stationary during the entire test and each subsequent test needs to be done with the watch in the same position. Make sure it is still running ~30 hours later. Then use the time it stops to determine the total run time. Compare this every 6 months or so and if you start seeing a significant drop off (say 5 hours total) or it gets below 33-34 hours then get it serviced.



Note I have been busy and have been going and cominng from this reply for several hours and over a dozen times. It might be completly unintelligible. If it doesn't make sense just reply and I will reply this evening when I have more time.

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Rolex is in the top 5 for consumer goods, per Claude. Nike, Vuitton, etc.

That's pretty strong.

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I bet Rolex is still the only consumer good for which if you ask the random man on the street what's the best brand of that consumer good (here, watch, of course) in the world, and at least 90% of people would name it.

What other product brand would even come close to that?