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How Swiss is Rolex?

4K views 68 replies 37 participants last post by  snakeeyes 
#1 ·
Question: Is Rolex 100% in house and/or swiss made?
If they are why are they not shouting about it, as (mentioning no names) other companys clearly are not advertising they import parts at least?
If not what parts are they buying in?
I think Seiko does everything in-house, is this wrong?
 
#3 ·
Quite honestly nobody knows for sure how Swiss is Rolex. Rolex being so very secretive adds to the conundrum. However we can safely assume that close to 85-90% components is Rolex in house. I may be wrong but to me it seems a safe guess.
 
#12 ·
Is Swiss cheese 100% Swiss made? That is more interesting to me then whether a Rolex is 100% Swiss made or 100% in-house.
 
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#55 · (Edited)
Hmm, I'm not sure that's a fair comparison. :think:
If I purchased some 'Swiss' cheese from a supermarket, only to find it was made in, for example, Belgium, I wouldn't be that bothered, as long as it tasted great.
If you're buying a luxury watch, costing many, many thousands, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect, if it says Swiss made on the dial, for it to be 100% Swiss made.
On the dial of my DSSD it says, SWISS MADE.
Not, MOSTLY SWISS MADE. ;-)
 
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#14 ·
Rolex, for all practical purposes are 100% in house and/or Swiss made.

They are in fact speaking about this in a lot of detail on their own website:

https://www.rolex.com/watches/rolex-watchmaking/made-in-switzerland.html

Rolex don't need to 'shout' about anything, they tend to be low key. It's kind of their way.

As for comparing to Seiko, I don't know what it is with Internet fanboys doing this, but Seiko are a large corporation and the VAST MAJORITY of their products are incredibly cheap watches under $200 which keep horrific time. On their own website they claim accuracy to -15 to + 25 on their mechanical movements ONLY UNDER FACTORY CONDITIONS! God knows what they accomplish in the real world with actual wear!

SEIKO WATCH | Technology - Mechanical

Their watches are very vulnerable to magnetism and water:

SEIKO WATCH | FAQs - Care & Maintenance

SEIKO WATCH | FAQs - Care & Maintenance

Note that on the second link, they even tell you not to run a water resistant Seiko under a faucet or even with 'running water'!

And they tell you to service the watch every three years:

SEIKO WATCH | FAQs - Accuracy of Mechanical watches

And even the Grand Seiko has just a two year warranty AND needs to be serviced every 2-3 years:

Grand Seiko | SEIKO WATCH CORPORATION

Even if Seiko were made 100% in house, in Japan, I find the warranty, service interval, accuracy claims, and warnings about how they lack water resistance to be deeply concerning. I especially find it odd that they may sell a Grand Seiko for $6,000, yet they make a version of the watch that looks very very similar for $300, and another that looks similar to that for under $100. It's an odd business model. Imagine if Tom Ford made a suit for $10,000 and then made a very similar looking suit for $99 and sold them to Walmart.

I just can't get excited about them, and wonder what makes so many Seiko owners go online and try to compare them to a Rolex. It's like buying a VW Jetta and thinking you own a Porsche.
 
#20 ·
Even if Seiko were made 100% in house, in Japan, I find the warranty, service interval, accuracy claims, and warnings about how they lack water resistance to be deeply concerning. I especially find it odd that they may sell a Grand Seiko for $6,000, yet they make a version of the watch that looks very very similar for $300, and another that looks similar to that for under $100. It's an odd business model. Imagine if Tom Ford made a suit for $10,000 and then made a very similar looking suit for $99 and sold them to Walmart.

I just can't get excited about them, and wonder what makes so many Seiko owners go online and try to compare them to a Rolex. It's like buying a VW Jetta and thinking you own a Porsche.
The air is uppity in here. Proletariat dare not place their waterlogged trinkets on the same plinth as The Crown.

I own both Rolex and Grand Seiko. I find them comparable. To each his own.
 
#23 ·
It's always fun when the Seiko boys stop by to stir up a little trouble. ;-)
All joking aside, there is something about Seiko owners where they get really obsessed with the brand and think it compares favorably to just about anything. It wouldn't surprise me if there is a Seiko 007 owner on the Patek board trolling them right now!

I've always considered Seiko a decent watch that I might buy if I wanted a reasonable quartz beater. But as I have seen so many Seiko owners talking so highly of the brand I did some research, read the claims on Seiko's own website, and they are either the most modest company in the world, or they are REALLY not making much in the way of favorable claims about their product. When a watch company makes a water resistant watch that can supposedly dive to 100m, but they tell you not to run it under a faucet, it's concerning. When they casually tell you to send it in every 2-3 year to service it, that's a bit scary. And when they boast that under perfect conditions, not near anything electrical, magnetic, not too hot or too cold, and certainly not worn it might be able to keep to within almost a minute a day?

I don't get it.

And I really don't get a company making a $6000 watch, then making a $300 knock off of their own product, and then a $99 knock off of that. It would be like Porsche making a Smart car for $18,000 that was really slow. It's a weird branding choice.
 
#28 · (Edited)
As an owner of both Rolex and Grand Seiko, I see the strengths and weaknesses of each, and I find joy in owning both.

I find it sad that people have to hate on another brand because other (sometimes quite knowledgeable) watch lovers dare to compare it to yours. It's not a competition.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 
#29 ·
Well this has gone great.
Weve had good arguements on both sides, lots of interesting links and a car analogy.
Personally I'm a fan of Rolex and Seiko, both have their merits.
 
#34 ·
According to this: Switzerland: Mining, Minerals and Fuel Resources there is no gold mining in Switzerland. Maybe I have the wrong idea about what Swiss Made means. If I go to Trader Joe's and buy Swiss cheese, I expect the milk used to make that cheese no to come from Bulgaria (that's just an example, nothing wrong with Bulgarian milk, ha)
Really? You expected same Sub quality on a watch that is more than 50 times cheaper?
 
#45 · (Edited)
I thought this was supposed to be about Rolex's Swiss content, which is answered in the Hodinkee article.

Why are we talking about so many off-brands here? :p
People can't help themselves. You're not a real "watch guy" unless you're completely derailing a thread to pointlessly argue about this brand versus that brand.
 
#43 ·
People get weird about the definition of in-house and Swiss Made. Like most words, I think the 'man on the street' or rather 'WIS on the street' definition is instructive. The problem with Swiss Made labeling is that I do not believe it's consistent with an ordinary person's understanding of what the term should or does mean. The Swiss Made requirement is currently 60% (?). For the definition to be consistent with common sense I think it should be at least 80%, probably more like 90%.

Back to Rolex, I would bet they're at least 90% Swiss Made, probably much more. But who knows? Unless you have details about Rolex's manufacturing process and supplier chains it's impossible to pick apart. Based on what I've read around the Interwebs Rolex is probably more Swiss Made than most brands outside of Haute Horlogerie.
 
#50 ·
If Rolex was American, this would apply:

Are raw materials included in the evaluation of whether a product is "all or virtually all" made in the U.S.?It depends on how much of the product's cost the raw materials make up and how far removed from the finished product they are.
Example: If the gold in a gold ring is imported, an unqualified Made in USA claim for the ring is deceptive. That's because of the significant value the gold is likely to represent relative to the finished product, and because the gold - an integral component - is only one step back from the finished article. By contrast, consider the plastic in the plastic case of a clock radio otherwise made in the U.S. of U.S.-made components. If the plastic case was made from imported petroleum, a Made in USA claim is likely to be appropriate because the petroleum is far enough removed from the finished product, and is an insignificant part of it as well.


Thus, I guess the origin of raw materials matter, regardless if consumers care or not.
 
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