“Each Rolex takes more than a year to make”

[georgekart]

Originally Posted by marc2828

Weird that Ford makes an F150 every 53 seconds. Seems ironic.

Makes one every 53 seconds and it takes only 53 seconds to make one is a different thing. Let's take making a burger for example. I can make a conveyor belt machine that cooks the patties and the bacon, toasts the buns, applies sauce to top buns, puts toppings on the bottom buns, applies cheese on top of patties and then adds bacon on top and finally combines all those into a burger. That machine could output a burger every 20 seconds. So I could say it makes a burger every 20 seconds. That being said, ingredients of said burger would start their journey through the machine about 10 minutes before the burger they went into was done therefore I could claim it takes 10 minutes to make my burger from the point the machine starts to make the burger to the end. However then we can look at the age at which cows are usually slaughtered for beef and it's 3 years. Cows also take more than 9 months to be born so then I could safely say it takes about 45 months to produce the burger from beginning (conception of the cow) to the end (the moment a burger leaves the machine). 20 seconds, 10 minutes, 45 months. All very different numbers, all technically correct, all show very different things. And that's ignoring many other ways you could measure. For example, I could say 10 minutes is more like 2 hours because the machine takes meat in, grinds it, makes it into patties and then does everything else. And many others. So who knows where Rolex is counting from. It could literally be "So this material is mined, then shipped, then refined, then shipped again and it takes 11 months. Then we receive it and mill it into a case, store it and assemble the watch into this case all in a month" So yeah not hard to imagine, especially including all the testing they do.

[Redadmiral2]

It took me 50 years to buy one

[Fred48]

So how long does it take AP, VC, PP, or A Lange to make a watch; or Omega, IWC, or JLC? Is that known, or does just Rolex quote manufacture time?

[padi56]

Originally Posted by schoolboy

I saw this in an old Rolex ad.

How is that true?

Today to those who think that mechanical watches are produced by hundreds of little elves, restlessly filing, smoothing, grinding, polishing watch parts. And that they are made by grey-haired little old watchmakers, sitting bent at their tables for countless hours, somewhere in the Swiss mountains afraid they would be vastly mistaken. Sure there is still a small percentage with the hands on approach but look at the figures 750000- 900000 unit watches a year.But as only the bare uncased movement is tested at the COSC no winding rotor module date wheel,now these could be added to the movement to be finished by hand later.This was a past much advertised Rolex quote it takes 12 months to make a Rolex oyster this is what advertisement tries to sell us, but IMHO its light years away from reality and just marketing.{marketing today IMHO is mostly 90% bullst#te and 10%fact}

IMHO in today's,watch production world its now primarily an issue of engineers,computer tecs, and metallurgists,various technicians,and specially trained workers.Once you have the design and tooling for vast production you can make them by the many hundred thousands. And as the parts are machine made, in theory they should be all the same much more easy to get a first time pass rate at COSC,than a movement that's completely hand made, too many variables with a completely hand made movement and just think of the huge extra time cost.IMHO the traditional watchmaking part is all but now the very last thing in modern day mass watch production today.And then only when the movements are fully assembled in case and adjusted and finally checked again on timing machine before packed and shipped world wide.

Quote from a past magazine
Rolex launches its large-scale construction the goal of the new Rolex building project is to contain the entire watch movement making process to one building. Most of the parts distribution and much of the movement manufacturing process is totally automated by robotics.

[horseShu]

This is pure marketing speak.

I can also claim that it takes me months to make this peanut butter sandwich, since it takes months to grow and process wheat into flour, takes months to grow peanuts and process it to peanut butter, etc.


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[Onikage]

Great marketing. Imagine McDonald's citing how long it takes for blades of grass to turn into the cows in their burgers. Perhaps if their burgers cost more it might soften the blow a bit when you buy one?

[Speedbird-1]

Time, it's SO relative......isn't it?

[schoolboy]

So what I gather from most responses to the thread is that Rolex is kinda stretching the truth, and over exaggerating for marketing purposes

Isn’t that kinda cheesy? Kinda lame ?

It would be cheesy if McDonald’s did it.

So why does Rolex get away with it instead of getting laughed at like McDonald’s would?

[AJMarcus]

Originally Posted by 911991

Based on that its hard to understand how they make 1 million watches per year?

It’s actually not inconsistent at all. It’s all about process.

[AJMarcus]

Originally Posted by Onikage

Great marketing. Imagine McDonald's citing how long it takes for blades of grass to turn into the cows in their burgers. Perhaps if their burgers cost more it might soften the blow a bit when you buy one?

Not quite an accurate analogy.

[Thuilln]

Originally Posted by askdanny

And Boeing makes a 737 in eleven days. And it has two clocks.

Not these days ..

[Abmatt2002]

Originally Posted by 911991

Based on that its hard to understand how they make 1 million watches per year?

Err, no. Last figures were 750-800k iirc.

[Rolexatlast]

Originally Posted by marc2828

Weird that Ford makes an F150 every 53 seconds. Seems ironic.

But it doesn’t take 53 seconds to make a F150

[Harry-57]

This comes up regularly. It congers up visions of a watch taking 52 consecutive weeks to manufacture. Which is probably not the case.

Given that Rolex smelt their own raw materials and use a minimum of bought in components, the one year time frame for the production of a watch sounds realistic, if you add all the processes together.

To assemble from all the parts laid out will be the shortest stage of the whole process.

[Swashplate]

Originally Posted by Rolexatlast

But it doesn’t take 53 seconds to make a F150

Bingo. There is much confusion between manufacture and assembly.

[vintagewatch]

The scan below is from a 1992 Rolex Talking Points, an employee pamphlet to assist in the selling of Rolex watches. Refer to 2nd sentence.

[Xenon]

"Each Daytona takes more than 3 years to purchase"

[Bulldozer]

It takes exactly 365 days for the steel sports models to get from the factory to the dealer.

[Harry-57]

Originally Posted by Xenon

"Each Daytona takes more than 3 years to purchase"

LOL!

That's probably a more realistic claim (although 3 years strikes me as a bit short). But I doubt the marketing department have ever considered it, let alone trialed it.

[Brny11]

Maybe... Making the following up... but hypothetically it takes 10 days to make 904l steel, 10 days to shape the crystals, 10 days to make a dial = 30 days but since it all happens simultaneously, 30 days accomplished in 10. So 365 days of effort simultaneously completed in days.

[173rdabn]

I suspect the FTC might have a word or two on the claim.

[csaltphoto]

"We will sell no wine before it's time" Gallo wine. Really?

"Tylenol, the brand you trust" After all the poisonings.

What?!?!? Companies exaggerate or straight out make things up?

[shipitfresh]

Originally Posted by Xenon

"Each Daytona takes more than 3 years to purchase"

That's funny!!!!!

[brandog]

That's simply a marketing pitch, which has stuck around for years and thus proven its success.