Rolex stimulates demand for all luxury watches

[watchfan1845]

I tend to agree, but I also don't think I consciously notice that much Rolex advertising in my day to day.

Watches are largely irrelevant to the next generation of buyers (millenials and younger). Where the market used to think "Rolex, Omega" when talking about watches, that's been replaced by "Apple/Smartwatch".

If the watchmaking industry wants to convert the next generation into future customers, they have to compete with Apple for mindshare. Without knowing the ad spend (but I take Ariel at his word), if Rolex are outspending the rest of the market, then they ARE competing (on behalf of the rest of the industry) to keep the idea of luxury mechanical wristwatch in customers' minds. All watchmakers benefit from this because now the customer knows about mechanical watches, and if they can't get a Rolex, they'll probably look at other brands instead.