Welcome back to another installment of Inside Watches. Today, we’re answering one of our most-asked questions – How are Rolex watches made? Shop: www.bobswatches.com/rolex/
NAVIGATE THIS VIDEO
1 00:00 INTRO
2 00:44 Rolex HeadQuarters
3 01:11 Production Process
4 02:23 Materials Used
5 03:03 OUTRO
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HOW ARE ROLEX WATCHES MADE?
Rolex is one of the most recognizable luxury brands in the world and one of the watch industry’s biggest names.
Each year the Big Crown produces over 1 million watches for over 100 countries. Each Rolex watch is completely hand-assembled in-house using almost entirely proprietary materials.
Considering all of this and Rolex’s insane standards for perfection, it’s evident that a lot goes into producing each Rolex that leaves the brand’s factory.
We hope to help you gain a new appreciation for your favorite Rolex watches with a general understanding of the entire process.
ROLEX HEADQUARTERS
It’s general knowledge that Rolex is located in Switzerland.
Production takes place in four main facilities:
Les Acacias – Rolex’s main Headquarters
Geneva Plan-Les-Ouates facility – This is where Rolex produces their cases, bracelets, and proprietary 18k gold metals, including white, yellow, and Everose gold.
Bienne – This facility is where the movements are produced.
Geneva Chêne-Bourg – All dials and gem-setting production takes place at this facility.
From start to finish, the entire process of making a single Rolex watch takes about a year to complete.
What’s also interesting about the production process is that, even though machines are used for some aspects of the process, like applying precisely the right amount of pressure to specific elements of the watch, each Rolex is, for the most part, hand-assembled.
This means that even the movements are hand-made with the precision of just a few microns, and the hour markers are applied by hand to ensure the highest quality possible.
Their production team consists of an army of watchmakers, scientists, and gemologists, each tasked with helping create the finest watches on the market.
IN HOUSE MATERIALS
Over the past several decades, Rolex has managed to bring even more aspects of its production process in-house.
Having control over the quality of nearly every part of the watch allows Rolex to become completely self-sufficient. Additionally, every watch is sure to meet the brand’s high standards of quality.
One of the most famous aspects Rolex produces in-house is the 18k gold featured in their catalog. 18k white, yellow and Everose – aka pink gold – is forged in Rolex’s own foundry using the highest-quality metals available on the market.
Rolex even boasts top-of-the-line machinery that allows them to use superior 904L-grade Oystersteel instead of the industry standard 316L steel.
The result is a handful of superior metals that keep their luster longer and don’t fade, scratch, or dull as quickly.
Other in-house materials include the lubricants used to keep their movements in perfect working order, the famous Chromalight lume on their dials, and their notoriously tough “Cerachrom” ceramic bezel material.
It’s no wonder it takes Rolex over a year to make each watch.
HIGH DEMAND
With such a long production turnaround, we also see that many of the most sought-after watches on the market are often difficult to obtain on the retail level, if not impossible. Rolex simply can’t make many of their most popular models fast enough to keep up without demand without sacrificing the quality of each watch.
That’s everything you need to know about how and where Rolex watches are made.
What do you think of Rolex’s production process? Let us know in the comments below.
Make sure to check back soon for future episodes of Inside Watches.
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