What is the symbol of prestige, taste, quality and status when it comes to watches? Rolex of course! What makes a Rolex so great? Besides looking like a million bucks on your wrist, there are many factors that make the brand amazing!
Where does the name Rolex come from? It was said to have been chosen because it was short and looked good on a watch’s face and is capable of being pronounced in any language and would be hard to misspell. Another reason is believed that this is how a watch sounded when it was being wound. The crown logo on a Rolex is the perfect symbol—it is fit for royalty, the logo symbolizes prestige and the finality of owning a Rolex—victory! The logo began with a gold/white crown to illustrate “excellence” and the green color of the words, ROLEX was to represent money, prosperity and achievement. Along with the crown image and bold green letters, it one of the most famous logos of all time.
The eighties was the birth of the yuppie class which saw young rich people buying up flashy possessions to show off their opulent status, think Charlie Sheen in Wall Street! When these yuppies began buying watches they all turned to Rolex and as the demand increased so did the price. In 1981 a Rolex watch would cost $900 but within less than ten years the price had jumped to $2,350 for the same model with little changes.
Rolex has managed to keep working from the top of the world to the bottom. A team of people wore their Rolex’s to the top of Mount Everest and another team to the bottom of the ocean, about 360,000ft, and it never missed a second on either trip!
Rolex is such a huge name that making fake rip-offs just doesn’t work for it. It is very easy to distinguish between the swift movements of an original Rolex’s second hand as compared to the start-stop motion of a fake Rolex.
Although some people think it is a myth, every Rolex watch is still carefully made by hand. It takes about a year to make a single Rolex watch. Rolex produces almost a million watches a year, but surprisingly, no shortcuts are taken in the manufacturing process. Rolex also makes their own gold. While they have a small handful of suppliers that send them steel, all the gold and platinum is made in-house. 24k gold comes into Rolex and it is turned into 18k yellow, white, or Rolex's Everose gold (their non-fading version of 18k rose gold).
Rolex will continue to be the epitome of prestige and the symbol of success for years to come. What’s so great about Rolex is that you look like a million bucks and don’t have to spend a million to own one.
written by: Susan G
edited and designed by: Carolyn M
