Rolex: Mass Produced, or Inflated Figures?

[NewYorker]

It's fairly widely reported that Rolex produces around 600,000 watches per year, and this is a popular fact for Rolex bashers to throw out to devalue the prestige of the brand. Does anyone know if Tudor is included in this total, and if so any guesses as to what percentage of the total they constitute?

If Tudor is even 1/4 of the total, that leaves only 450,000 Rolexes produced annually, or roughly 1232 sold per day which is really not that high when one considers that most of the world's 6.8 billion people wouldn't turn one down

[padi56]

Units for Rolex alone now are approaching 900000 a year,but like most of the mass produced watches today highly automated .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 percentage with the hands on approach but look at the figures 900000 watches a year.But if the production figures are correct and I believe they are, a big part of production must be highly automated

Today, watch production primarily is an issue of engineers,computer tecs, and metallurgists,various technicians,and specially trained workers. The traditional watchmaking part is all but now the very last thing in modern watch production today,and then only when the movements are assembled and adjusted and finally checked on timing machine.

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.

[moviefreak]

What about Patek... are they more sort of hand made than Rolex? Is that reflected in the prices?

[al_bongo]

Thanks Padi. Nicely answers the Rolex as an investment threads and the will (insert model no here) become a a collector's item because of it's relative "rarity" questions as well.

For the majority of us on here to be able to afford a product, even one as exclusively priced as a luxury watch, it has to be mass manufactured. That's what Henry Ford did for us.

[Tools]

Rolex figures are for the entire line, so it is split amongst them all.

So, for the V release, for example, every number in that release could be anyplace in the line... A ladies Pearlmaster may have the next number in sequence from a solid gold Sub.