Rolex is viewed by many as the Number One among major Swiss replica watches UK manufacturers. Why? Rüdiger Bucher, Editorial Director at WatchTime’s German sister magazine, Chronos, lists nine reasons for the success of Rolex.
Rolex is viewed by many as the Number One among major Swiss watch manufacturers. Why? Rüdiger Bucher, Editorial Director at WatchTime’s German sister magazine, Chronos, lists reasons for the success of Rolex in this latest visit to our archives.
Rolex is clearly the most well-known among the world’s luxury watch brands. You’ve heard of it even if you’ve never heard anything about Omega or Breitling, or even Patek Philippe. Fundamentally there are two Rolex customer groups – those who know a lot, and those who know very little. Aficionados buy Rolex for its extremely high quality. They may be less interested in extremely fine, complicated craftsmanship in favor of having the best all-around watch for daily wear. Other Rolex customers don’t know much about rolex replica watches, only that Rolex is the best. For them the primary motivator is this: if you’re going to wear a watch, it’s got to be a Rolex. And this is a huge compliment for the manufacturer – because if even a person who knows nothing about watches views one specific brand as “Number One”, the company is doing something right.
The basis for Rolex’s success is its extremely high product quality extending over the many years of its existence. Perfect fake Rolex watches show time accurately and are robust, sturdy and reliable. Maintaining consistently high quality with estimated annual production numbers of about three-quarters of a million pieces is an art unto itself. And it’s to Rolex’s advantage to omit unusual complications. It has no tourbillons, perpetual calendars or minute repeaters – not even movements with a large date display, power reserve indicator or alarm function. The company concentrates on what it does best, and improves the detail ongoing. This is true for the movements as well as for the case. You won’t find a rotating bezel that ratchets so cleanly and smoothly like the one on the Submariner or GMT-Master II from any of its competitors – even other high-end manufacturers with much more expensive products.
The significance of the Rolex name is linked to the fact that the brand introduced innovative features quite early on which have made the 1:1 Rolex fake watches well-suited for everyday wear. In 1914 Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf submitted a wristwatch movement to the renowned Kew-Teddington observatory for chronometer certification. Today the chronometer test (currently conducted by the Swiss institute COSC) has become a standard for in-house mechanical Rolex calibers. In 1927 the first water-resistant wristwatch was introduced and the automatic winding mechanism followed a couple of years later – because to ensure the water-resistance of a watch, it shouldn’t be necessary to pull the crown every day. These two features are reflected in the product name “Oyster Perpetual”, which decorates virtually every Rolex. The Datejust, introduced in 1945, was the first watch to combine all three features – automatic winding, water-resistant case and chronometer certificate. Together with its namesake date window, it has all the essentials.
The everyday wearability of a watch is a function of its design. The round shape of a Rolex contributes to its water-resistance and its superior legibility. Add to this a central sweep seconds hand and Cyclops date magnifier (another Hans Wilsdorf invention). Existing collections are maintained and continuously improved over the years. This is supported by Rolex expert Percy Christian Schoeler, founder of the German-language internet portals Luxify and R-L-X-Forum: “Only very careful modifications to the iconic design of individual watch collections over the decades have resulted in a high degree of recognition.” There are no sudden design shifts or leaps, and even case sizes are altered only very gradually. Typical design features like the grooved bezel, “Mercedes” hands, Cyclops magnifier and the Oyster bracelet are part of several different cheap Rolex copy watches and have rarely undergone change so a Datejust or a Submariner today looks very much like earlier watches. It’s why it is always easy to recognize a Rolex from a distance. Watch expert Gisbert L. Brunner calls this the “10-meter rule” – and it’s not just the specialists who recognize them.
The moment you buy a car, it drops in value by half. This fact is true to a lesser extent for watches – except for Rolex. For the high-demand sport watches in stainless steel at least (though this is a stickier situation for gold Oyster top replica Rolex watches and the elegant gold Cellini watches) it’s possible to get just a little less, or maybe even more, than the original purchase price. This is an attractive point for any customer – regardless of whether they are buying the watch for this particular reason or any other. It’s reassuring to know you’ve made a wise decision.
