Rolex to Increase Production Before 2029

Photo credit: Jean-Christophe Bott

Rolex is moving forward with plans to set up temporary production sites, in Romont and Villaz-Saint-Pierre, until 2029, when the new 2,000-employee Bulle facility is up and running.

Renovations for the Tetra Pak halls, in Romont, began earlier this month and will top 33 million Swiss francs. The new site will have between 250 to 300 Rolex employees, who are slated to transfer to the Bulle location in six years.

Rolex getting a jump on production before the Bulle site is ready won’t help the current state of its secondary market, whose value is already in decline, according to a WatchCharts & Morgan Stanley report out last week.

Few are opposing Rolex’s move to the defunct Tetra Pak site in Romont. The Swiss non-profit bicycle organization Pro Vélo said last week the current plans didn’t include enough parking spots for bicyclists.

Premium Prices for Rolex CPO Watches Top 30%

Photo credit: Rolex

It’s been 10 months since Rolex rolled out its Certified Pre-Owned program in Europe through Bucherer.

While the program has gained momentum, especially in the U.S., sales still represent a small portion of the pre-owned inventory sold online, according to a report just out by WatchCharts and Morgan Stanley.

As of Oct. 1st, 2023, U.S.-based Tourneau totaled 1,400 Rolex watches listed online while Bucherer just over 200. This figure will likely go up as new Rolex retailers in Europe join the CPO fray: Watches of Switzerland group, for example, will soon be selling certified pre-owned Rolex watches in the U.K.

The fact Rolex’s current CPO inventory is primarily made up of references produced between 1990 and 2010 begs the question: Is there a growing demand for 13- to 30-year-old models, most of them equipped with a smaller and thinner case?

One theory is watch fashion has changed. Another theory suggests modern pieces are still more popular. But owners would rather keep their watches than accept an offer from an authorized dealer. Meanwhile, the modern pieces that are part of the CPO program tend to be snapped up at a higher rate, creating a disproportionate amount of neo-vintage Rolexes left in inventory.

Still, we continue to see a premium well over 20% when a piece is being listed through the CPO program, and that premium seems to have increased, at least in Europe, topping 30%. All that according to the report, which compares the price of each Rolex CPO listing to typical prices for the same watch sold by a non-Rolex certified dealer in the same region.

When compared to the previous quarter, Rolex CPO premiums have increased several points, from 20%-25% to 28%-30%, above non-CPO pricing, the latest sign Rolex authorized dealers involved in the program have felt little pressure from the traditional grey market.

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.

Marlon Brando’s Rolex GMT Back on the Market

Marlon Brando's unpolished Rolex GMT-Master so famously spotted in “Apocalypse Now” will be for sale — again.

The GMT-Master reference 1675, which was manufactured in 1972 and seen without a bezel on the wrist of “Colonel Walter E. Kurtz,” will be auctioned off at Christie’s on Nov. 6. Mr. Brando himself engraved "M. Brando" on the back of the watch.

It was sold by Phillips for $1,952,000 to Mohammed Zaman in 2019. Christie's pre-sale estimate: $1 million to $2 million.

Photo credit: Jake’s Rolex World