Rolex Provides CHF 125 Million Building for Watchmaking Students

Photo credit: L’École d’Horlogerie de Genève

Starting on Oct. 30, the Ecole d’Horlogerie de Genève, a 199-year-old watchmaking school based in Petit-Lancy, will move its campus into a new building in Plan-les-Ouates, the same Geneva suburb that hosts one of the four Rolex's manufactures.

The purchase and development of the new school building was paid for by the Wilsdorf foundation, owner of Rolex S.A., for 125 million Swiss francs, one of Rolex's biggest investments in the future of watchmaking.

"It is the dream location for the School, at the center of a dense network of watchmaking companies and their suppliers," Pierre Amstutz, headmaster of the Ecole d'Horlogerie, said in an interview with Heidi.News.

The campus will host more than future watchmakers. Rolex is making the 236,000-square-foot, six-story building available to the Swiss trade school ForPro for 20 years, in an effort to boost professional training in Geneva.

Watches and Wonders Helps Buoy Palexpo Finances

L’AGEFI Suisse/YouTube

The international exhibition center that hosts Watches and Wonders in Geneva loses money annually, but not because of the watch show.

In an interview Monday for Swiss radio show “Be to B,” the CEO of Palexpo, Claude Membrez, said Watches and Wonders is a great source of revenue that has helped narrow the Swiss convention center’s annual losses. Palexpo, a porte-manteau for “Palais des Expositions,” is a semi-private foundation run by Mr. Membrez while its buildings — situated near Geneva airport — are owned by the canton of Geneva.

With the cancellation of the Geneva International Motor Show, the fourth cancellation since the pandemic, Palexpo has struggled to break even and is on track to register another loss for 2023.

Still, the increased popularity of Watches and Wonders allows Palexpo to “limit the damages,” Mr. Membrez said. Palexpo revenues have dropped from 95 million Swiss francs, in 2019, to 57 million last year and has registered a deficit of “several millions.”

The losses have shrunk thanks in part to the watch fair, according to Mr. Membrez. Started by the Richemont group and called “SIHH” until 2019, Watches and Wonders has taken on a new dimension with the full backing of Rolex and the closure of Baselworld. Rolex CEO Jean-Frédéric Dufour chairs the Watches and Wonders Geneva Foundation. The annual watch show “will grow more and more,” Mr. Membrez predicts.

In 2024, Watches and Wonders will host 55 brands, the most in its history.

Bucherer and Sotheby's Strike Deal

Photo courtesy: Sotheby’s

As Rolex announced last August it planned to buy Bucherer, Bucherer said it has just partnered with one of the oldest auction houses in the world, Sotheby’s, to create an ultra-luxury boutique experience. And it will be inside Bucherer’s flagship boutique in Zurich.

"Sotheby's Salon at Bucherer" will let customers buy (and sell) ultra-rare pieces. Situated on an entirely new third floor of Bucherer’s store in Zurich, the Salon is a 160-square meter (1,722 square-foot) space that aims to offer clients an environment with some of the rarest luxury and art items in the world, including jewellery, watches, handbags and accessories, sneakers and high-end streetwear, artworks and sports memorabilia throughout the floor, a press release said.

Rolex Website No Longer Has 'Price on Request'

From Rolex.com

In a change of policy on Rolex’s website, the brand now displays retail prices for all its watches, even the pricier ones. Before the change, pieces with price tags above a certain threshold — $60,000 in the U.S, £40,000 in the U.K. — would display "price on request."

The aim would provide increased transparency to potential clients looking to buy Rolex’s top-of-the-catalog pieces.

From Rolex.com

The change in policy reveals some interesting surprises. How much does that platinum Day-Date cost if you’d like to upgrade the bezel from fluted to diamond?

A Day-Date 40 Ice blue on platinum will set you back $63,000. The same watch with a diamond-set bezel and markers is listed at $116,300, an extra $53,300 for the upgrade.

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