
Inside Rolex's Manufacturing Facilities (2015) - Inconel
https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/inside-rolex
======
chrissnell
I treasure my Submariner. It's the one article of fashion I have that goes
perfectly with every outfit; it looks great with a tuxedo and it looks just as
good with shorts and a t-shirt. It's incredibly well-made: I wear mine every
day and after nine years together, it still looks better than the year-old
iPhone in my pocket. It's also understated--at least, my stainless steel,
black-bezeled Sub Date is--and it doesn't scream "expensive" or "showy" like
many watches on both ends of the price spectrum often do.

There are a few advantages to owning a Rolex that may not be so obvious: For
starters, it's quickly exchangeable for a high percentage of its value in cash
in virtually any major city in the world. Because you're always wearing it,
that's $8,000+ in cash that you can have in short order if you needed it badly
and circumstances prohibit you from accessing your bank account.

Another advantage: they almost always appreciate in value over time. Very few
physical assets can claim similar long-term value. People have been coveting
these watches for nearly a century and that's unlikely to change. I will
surely give mine to one of my sons someday.

If you can afford it, I highly recommend you treat yourself to one. I get
enjoyment every day when I put mine on. I can barely remember any of the cars
and trucks I've owned but I spent less on my Sub and I'll never forget it.

Thanks for the article, OP.

~~~
elorant
The drawback is that you make it crystal clear to everyone that you have
money. That's the one thing that always troubles me with luxury items. How do
people who own Porsche's or Ferrari's cope with unwanted attention, assuming
that they don't want it. It's one thing wearing a $3k Burberry coat which few
could really tell its value and quite a different one wearing an $8k Rolex
watch which everyone and their dogs could tell it's a luxury item.

Other than that, I agree with your sentiment. I own a couple of Longines and
they're masterpieces of engineering. But they're a bit more discreet than
Rolexes :)

~~~
Inconel
Not to be facetious, but fake Rolexes are so widespread now that I actually
wonder what the chances are that a random robbery will yield a real versus
fake Rolex.

~~~
anjc
Even a good fake with a Swiss movement could cost $500-1000. It might still be
worth robbing.

~~~
roflchoppa
I own one, it's a datejust, uncle grabbed it for me in Singapore maybe 10
years ago? It still one for my favorites, except the stem mechanism does not
work correctly. My Apple Watch ended up replacing it for everyday use. I
should open it up....

~~~
anjc
I don't know anything about movements other than what I can see through
transparent backs and Wikipedia articles, but...they look sensitive to
experimentation

~~~
roflchoppa
It has a sweeping pattern, opposed to the "tick-tock", It's already broken,
worst case its broken more :p I'll post some pictures later.

~~~
anjc
Automatics do sweep though right? Rolex do anyway

Could be a good project if you could make headway

------
Animats
Now that's an ad.

"We are not in the watch business. We are in the luxury business" \- Rolex
CEO.

Rolex today only gets chronometer certification for about 3% of its output.
Any decent quartz watch is more accurate than the best mechanical watches.
Chronometer certification for a mechanical watch only requires -4/+6 secs/day.
The best quartz watches are good for 5 seconds a _year_.

Unless you also have a boat, a sextant, and a nautical almanac, but no GPS, a
chronometer watch isn't going to do you much good.

~~~
DavidWanjiru
My guess is buyers of mechanical watches know this already. I've never seen a
luxury watch advert whose main selling point was the accuracy of the watch.

~~~
Lio
I remember Rolex adverts "from back in the day".

I destinctly remember them stating that all their watches were COSC
Chronometers and explaining what that meant in terms of accuracy.

Now I'm 41 but even then it was post quartz so people weren't buying Rolex
watches for their absolute accuracy.

Personally, I have an Omega Speedmaster Professional that I've worn almost
everyday since my 30th birthday. It's manual wind and keeps even worse time
than any Chronometer but I love it and don't covert any other (smart)watch.

Owning a mechanical watch is ...odd, I guess. :)

------
wyager
Based on my in-depth knowledge of several obscure product fields, I've
developed an instinctive skeptical reaction to believing that whatever a
layperson thinks of as "the best" is _actually_ "the best".

When it comes to watches, Rolex is obviously the high-end brand that the
layperson will be familiar with and will believe to be representative of high
quality.

Can someone who is well-versed in high-end watches tell me if they are, in
fact, leading the game when it comes to engineering and quality? I seem to
recall reading a few years back that Rolexes had abnormally high maintenance
costs, but this article directly contradicts that, so perhaps I'm mistaken.

~~~
RobertKerans
A Rolex is a [fairly ostentatious] signal that the wearer has a very great
deal of disposable income: is the engineering quality particularly relevant?

~~~
mychael
If you're not a watch person, Rolexes might look like ostentatious status
symbols. However, the flagship watches that they are most known for (like the
Submariner, Milgauss, Daytona etc) are all tool watches first and foremost
made mostly of stainless steel.

Like watches, some people buy BMWs because they’re actually very passionate
about cars and quality. Spend any amount of time on watch forums and you’ll
soon appreciate the engineering involved and the passion that people have for
these things.

------
Inconel
I wasn't sure how this article would fair on HN but some seem to be enjoying
it, and since crdb brought up Seiko elsewhere in the comments, here is a
similar tour of some of Seiko's facilities[1]. It might be worth taking a
particularly close look at the part about the Micro Artist Studio.

[1][http://www.fratellowatches.com/seiko-factory-visit-trip-
repo...](http://www.fratellowatches.com/seiko-factory-visit-trip-report-
part-1/)

------
mrbill
I own an Omega Seamaster (James Bond Special Edition) - the last thing given
to me by my wife before she passed away... However, my dream is to one day be
able to afford a used stainless-steel Rolex Sea-Dweller or Submariner.

~~~
ConroyBumpus
Don't discount the Omega Speedmaster Professional. I've had multiple people
comment on my "moonwatch"

------
noonespecial
Rolex, more than anything, makes me optimistic about the "rise of the
machines" taking everyone's jobs. There is no reason whatsoever for Rolex
watches to exist besides that they make people happy. As a timekeeper, a $20
timex beats them in every way, but as art they are unmatched.

Rolex is a giant art project that employs thousands and makes millions happy.
That people are willing to pay for this art and the way it is produced is
profoundly hopeful.

------
rubzah
And they said long-form advertisement is dead!

------
hueving
Impressive native advertising.

~~~
tobltobs
But therefore the website is ad free. No Adsense, no popups.

Seriously, this kind of content is the future the Adblocker fanatics are
dreaming of.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
I'd pay real money for a book that goes this in-depth into any subject,
especially stuff that isn't generally public knowledge. The subject matter
isn't even all that important. If this is the future of advertising bring it
on.

~~~
hueving
The problem with an article sponsored by a company is that it's not going to
be objective. It may be in-depth, but it's definitely hiding any conceivable
bad PR for Rolex at the same time.

------
hobo_mark
As I was reading about the scale of their production process, I had to wonder
how many people actually buy rolexes, turns out it's been less and less every
year since quite a while:

[https://twitter.com/vexmark/status/771182258099073024](https://twitter.com/vexmark/status/771182258099073024)

"The Swiss watch industry is grappling with some of its toughest times since
the quartz crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, when battery-powered watches
threatened to make mechanical timepieces obsolete. A drop in Asian tourism to
Europe has added to a laundry list of challenges including the strong franc
and a four-year anti-graft campaign by the Chinese government."

[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-20/swiss-
wat...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-20/swiss-watch-
exports-drop-15th-month-longest-slump-on-record)

------
mrbill
Don't forget that Rolex made a quartz watch.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolex_Oysterquartz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolex_Oysterquartz)

------
stevenj
I'm interested in buying a luxury watch.

For all the Rolex fans here: why Rolex over say Breitling or Waldan (I like
the look of the Waldans the best)?

~~~
hendubz
No one can really make that decision for you but the best advice I can give is
seek out any watch that you're considering spending money on and hold it in
your hand. Product photos, specs, and reviews rarely do justice to the
personal reaction you'll have to the piece itself. I've been disappointed by
watches that looked perfect on paper and been surprised by pieces that I never
would have considered from just looking at them.

What did it for me when I bought my Rolex (2016 Explorer I) was the how the
quality of its finishing felt in my hand. It practically vanishes when it's on
my wrist thanks to how comfortable and unobtrusive it is but the materials,
fit, and finishing on it show undeniably where a lot of the money went.

------
etjossem
Submariner article.

[http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html)

------
legodt
Hey, uh, why the fuck does this website want to send me notifications? That
really makes me want to bounce from a page ASAP, especially one that is just
serving up an article on the surface.

~~~
Inconel
Hmm, I didn't notice that but I just checked and it looks like I already have
notifications blocked.

Sorry I submitted such a site. I agree that it is very annoying.

~~~
legodt
Well I'm mostly curious at this point. The content itself was deeply
researched and informative, nothing else seemed fishy on the page.

What reasons would a webdev want to enable such a feature on a site like this?
And no, I'm not giving a random page permission so I can find out!

~~~
Inconel
This is just a guess on my part since I always deny these permission requests
but I would think maybe accepting the request would allow the website to
notify a reader when new articles are posted? Maybe it's something like
notifications on an app only this is done via the browser?

I feel like I started seeing these requests more frequently about 12-18 months
ago. I agree it's very off putting.

~~~
gregoryrueda
The only site I allow to send me notifications is dictionary.com because I
like getting a word of the day. Other than that, getting an alert from blogs
every time a new article is posted gets old really fast.

------
carsongross
If we have to trick rich people into paying too much for something in order to
keep this level of manufacturing autism going, I am 100% in favor of it.

------
tombert
I've always really liked how the Submariner looks, and apparently so did
everyone else, because there are about two billion different varieties of
homages to it.

While I have no doubt that the Rolex is well-engineered, it's hard for me to
believe it's literally a hundred times better than my Invicta Pro Diver, and I
won't feel too bad if my Invicta gets stolen...Most people just assume I'm
wearing a Rolex.

That said, if I had a lot of spare cash I'd probably end up buying a legit
Submariner, and if I were eccentric enough, the Paul Newman variety of the
Daytona.

