(Source: Rolex)
Switzerland is the biggest importer of gold in the world. The Swiss luxury industry has been rattled recently by reports that large quantities of gold were extracted under questionable conditions in Africa — and that Swiss refineries are reluctant to indicate their true origin.
Though Switzerland is the second largest importer of African gold, Rolex said it doesn’t import gold from Africa. The brand also said it has put measures in place for monitoring its supply chains. These pages were the first to report Rolex had set up an alert system for anyone to register concerns regarding Rolex’s mineral or metal supply chain.
Rolex also disclosed that the management of its gold is overseen internally by the brand's Precious Materials Committee, as well as a Sourcing Committee for each refiner.
Rolex has created a closed-loop refining of its gold waste, a recycling system of sorts, in order to minimize how much Rolex needs to import from mines. Gold from Rolex production waste, for example, make up 70% of total sourcing while gold leftovers from the watchmaking and electronics industries account for 12%. Finally, just 18% of Rolex’s sourcing comes from actual gold mines, according to the brand.