Why Rolex isn’t cool anymore
Michael Girdley
303,969 views
For free and unbiased Medicare help, dial (623) 283-4902 to speak with my trusted partner, Chapter, or go to https://www.askchapter.org/girdley Paid Partnership
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In this video, I break down the rise of Rolex from Hans Wilsdorf’s early bet on the wristwatch to one of the most powerful luxury brands in the world—and why enormous popularity eventually created a surprising problem with collectors. It’s a business story about product innovation, scarcity, status, distribution, ownership, and what can happen when a luxury brand becomes almost too successful.
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@michael-girdley
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Rolex started with a contrarian bet. At a time when serious men carried pocket watches, Hans Wilsdorf believed the future belonged on the wrist. Rolex then spent decades proving that wristwatches could be accurate, waterproof, durable, and dependable. The Oyster, the self-winding Perpetual movement, and marketing feats like putting a Rolex on an English Channel swimmer helped turn technical performance into a powerful brand story.
Then quartz watches changed the industry. Japanese manufacturers could make watches that were cheaper and more accurate, while much of the Swiss watch industry struggled to compete. Rolex took the opposite path. Instead of racing downmarket, it leaned harder into luxury, raised prices, controlled distribution, and turned the mechanical watch from a functional tool into a symbol that told the world you had made it.
That strategy worked extraordinarily well. Rolex became associated with explorers, pilots, divers, James Bond, celebrities, and eventually collectors who viewed certain watches as stores of value. By the late 2010s and the COVID-era speculative boom, demand had become so intense that used Rolexes could sell for far more than their retail prices. The secondary market, dealer relationships, flipping, and artificial scarcity increasingly became part of the Rolex buying experience.
That success also created the central problem in this Rolex business breakdown. A brand built around signaling achievement became ubiquitous enough that some serious watch collectors began dismissing Rolex as a “beginner’s watch.” The company was still selling enormous numbers of watches and reached more than $10 billion in sales in 2023 according to the figures discussed in the video, but cultural status and financial performance were no longer necessarily moving together.
So what happened to Rolex isn’t a conventional corporate collapse. The lesson is about the difficult economics of luxury. Scarcity can create desire, but popularity can undermine exclusivity. Rolex’s foundation ownership gave it the ability to think in decades, yet the same structure may have made reacting to short-term changes in the collector market more difficult. For founders and operators, the Rolex story is a reminder that every strategic advantage carries a tradeoff—and even long-term thinking can create its own blind spots.
20 Comments
>Pulls phone out of pocket to check the time
In the movie Dr. No, the Rolex Sean Connery wears belonged to producer Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli, who loaned it to the actor because he felt it was what Bond would choose to wear.
My opinion of Rolex is pretentious for people attempting to flex,wouldn’t be seen with one
Why Rolex isn’t cool anymore
Michael Girdley
303,969 views
For free and unbiased Medicare help, dial (623) 283-4902 to speak with my trusted partner, Chapter, or go to https://www.askchapter.org/girdley Paid Partnership
And if you want to make sure your company can fill hard-to-fill roles with great talent, try Near: https://www.girdley.com/near
In this video, I break down the rise of Rolex from Hans Wilsdorf’s early bet on the wristwatch to one of the most powerful luxury brands in the world—and why enormous popularity eventually created a surprising problem with collectors. It’s a business story about product innovation, scarcity, status, distribution, ownership, and what can happen when a luxury brand becomes almost too successful.
Get the 2-minute cheat sheet for this video → https://girdley.com/youtube
👇 SUBSCRIBE for more business breakdowns
@michael-girdley
► Get my weekly letter to business owners: essential insights to run, grow, and stay ahead in your business → https://links.girdley.com/newsletter-yt
► For sponsorships or inquiries please reach out to: Contact@girdley.com
► Do you have a hat I should wear in a video? Send it to us: Contact@girdley.com
► Free events on all things small business: https://links.girdley.com/lectures-yt
► Deep dives on businesses for sale: @acquisitionsanonymouspodcast
► Follow me on Twitter/X: https://x.com/girdley
Rolex started with a contrarian bet. At a time when serious men carried pocket watches, Hans Wilsdorf believed the future belonged on the wrist. Rolex then spent decades proving that wristwatches could be accurate, waterproof, durable, and dependable. The Oyster, the self-winding Perpetual movement, and marketing feats like putting a Rolex on an English Channel swimmer helped turn technical performance into a powerful brand story.
Then quartz watches changed the industry. Japanese manufacturers could make watches that were cheaper and more accurate, while much of the Swiss watch industry struggled to compete. Rolex took the opposite path. Instead of racing downmarket, it leaned harder into luxury, raised prices, controlled distribution, and turned the mechanical watch from a functional tool into a symbol that told the world you had made it.
That strategy worked extraordinarily well. Rolex became associated with explorers, pilots, divers, James Bond, celebrities, and eventually collectors who viewed certain watches as stores of value. By the late 2010s and the COVID-era speculative boom, demand had become so intense that used Rolexes could sell for far more than their retail prices. The secondary market, dealer relationships, flipping, and artificial scarcity increasingly became part of the Rolex buying experience.
That success also created the central problem in this Rolex business breakdown. A brand built around signaling achievement became ubiquitous enough that some serious watch collectors began dismissing Rolex as a “beginner’s watch.” The company was still selling enormous numbers of watches and reached more than $10 billion in sales in 2023 according to the figures discussed in the video, but cultural status and financial performance were no longer necessarily moving together.
So what happened to Rolex isn’t a conventional corporate collapse. The lesson is about the difficult economics of luxury. Scarcity can create desire, but popularity can undermine exclusivity. Rolex’s foundation ownership gave it the ability to think in decades, yet the same structure may have made reacting to short-term changes in the collector market more difficult. For founders and operators, the Rolex story is a reminder that every strategic advantage carries a tradeoff—and even long-term thinking can create its own blind spots.