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Cost of a Rolex etc

stevew
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stevew Watch Enthusiast

stevew

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Always wondered how much it actually costs to make a Rolex or any other Expensive Brand. I know you pay Thousands for such Watches, but in Reality i wonder how much was to be built?

Tmuir Distinguished Member

Tmuir

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Part of the price is definitely the brand name, but Rolex does use higher quality materials, higher tolerances in making the watch and still hand finish a lot of the parts, and that does add a lot of cost to the watch.

There are 2 types of expensive watches.

1) High end brand, Rolex, Longines, Patek Philippe etc. These brands a lot of the price is the workmanship

2) Fashion brand watch. These are watches branded with a high end fashion name. The Fashion house may design the watch case but almost always buy in the movement. Usually the movement will be of reasonable quality, but its not uncommon to find a watch that sells for $500 to only have a movement that sells wholesale for $50 in it. This type of watch you are paying to wear the name not the quality of the watch.

 

But if you want to see what goes into making the real top end brands go watch the videos by Roger Smith on Youtube and you will understand why his watches are so expensive.

https://www.youtube.com/user/rwsmithwatches/videos

 

Nucejoe Distinguished Member

Nucejoe

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I think part of what customers pay, goes to fund the traditional ongoing research that Rolex has historically been and is at the forefront of ever since the early days of its inception. 

There is also some polletical clout behind the brand, hard to find a wrist of sheikh something ben something else that is not advertising the brand.

A lot of folks including me, don,t really know more than what I read about the technical advancement at Rolex and the quality I feel holding a Rolex piece. 

I wonder what the market's worth of the brand itself is. Just today I see an advert showing a pic of Rolex, opened the page only to watch fashion clothing.

Whatever it is that Rolex has done and is doing,  it sure is working. Ticking the kid and the successful businessman in us. 

Other brand need introduction, Rolex introduces us.

measuretwice WRT Addict

measuretwice

Posted
Posted (edited)
7 hours ago, stevew said:

Always wondered how much it actually costs to make a Rolex or any other Expensive Brand. I know you pay Thousands for such Watches, but in Reality i wonder how much was to be built?

Look at the cost of a new movement or a movement of comparable quality, cost is probably 30-50% of that.  Add a bit for dial, case and strap.  Add on the weight cost of precious metals if any.  The rest is fashion which is polite way of putting it.    A few hundred dollars, sans gold, is my guess, maybe a bit more as I'm just guessing at the case/band/dial cost.

 

Edited by measuretwice
JerseyMo Distinguished Member

JerseyMo

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, stevew said:

Always wondered how much it actually costs to make a Rolex or any other Expensive Brand. I know you pay Thousands for such Watches, but in Reality i wonder how much was to be built?

I'd say it is maybe 10% - 20% of the selling price. than add in distribution, operational, development, advertising and all other costs and that gap quickly narrows.   

JerseyMo Distinguished Member

JerseyMo

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6 minutes ago, swisschronic said:

an okay quality watch that was made with precision is always a pleasure to wear in my opinion. like a 1 dollar sapphire crystal is still a sapphire crystal right? be sure to spend the extra 35 cents for a cyclops that magnifies 2.5 times though.. :)

quality aside.  a fake is a fake no matter how well it is made.  

Hamish Member

Hamish

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Posted

Famous painters might paint a water colour in 4 hours. 50cents paper and paints. worth a fortune. Go figure.

I heard a story about Picasso who used to sign table cloths in restaurants after entertaining a large group and never got billed. He also said he could buy a house if he painted something....

Sure there is clever marketing in watches, but I don't think the inherent value is actually in the materials...perhaps its something else less tangible.

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