Rolex (Audio)

All right, David, what's on your wrist?

Well, currently on the wrist is my stainless white face Daytona that my dad gave me. I think it was still quite popular when he gave it to me, probably close to fifteen years ago, but not like it is today.

A strong choice. I'm actually also wearing a Daytona that I am borrowing from a good friend of the show.

Mm, love it!

Well, fun fact for our listeners, the watch that David is wearing is the one that I was wearing during the Morris Chang interview when we wanted to foreshadow that this was our next episode.

Yes, and in front of me here now, in my hand, but not on my wrist, is my other Rolex that my dad gave me a long time ago, my Rolesor Datejust.

Dude, you gotta go one on each wrist.

You got it. [laughing] Great.

All right.

Who got the truth? Is it you? Is it you? Is it you? Who got the truth now? Is it you? Is it you? Is it you? Sit me down, say it straight, another story on the way. Who got the truth?

Welcome to the Spring twenty twenty-five season of Acquired, the podcast about great companies and the stories and playbooks behind them. I'm Ben Gilbert.

I'm David Rosenthal.

And we are your hosts. All you need for timekeeping is something that happens at a constant rate and some way to count it. It could be sand in an hourglass. It could be a weight being pulled down by gravity on a grandfather clock, slowly turning the hands, moderated by the tick-tock of a pendulum. Or it could be a mechanical watch on your wrist, driven by a complex and beautiful array of hundreds of gears and springs. Today, listeners, we tell you the story that we can't believe we haven't already told on Acquired, Rolex.

Ooh.

Rolex is a cascade of paradoxes. It's one of the best-known brands in the world, but despite that, it's one of the least known companies in the world. They're privately held by a charitable foundation, the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, so they don't have to disclose anything, and really, they never do. They're one of the most secretive companies that we have ever studied, and David, check me on this, I think they're even more secretive than IKEA or Mars.

Oh, yeah. It's funny that the closer to the present day we get, the less we know. [laughing]

Totally! They operate like an intelligence agency over there.

Yes, like James Bond, one might say.

Oh, or one might not say.

[laughing]

Listeners, they make watches that everyone wants to buy, but nobody seems to be able to get, with famously long and opaque lists at retailers. Except, of course, over a million people a year actually do buy one, and for an average price of thirteen thousand dollars each. That is, until you walk out of the store, and then they instantly become worth more, at least for a lot of the models these days.