1 definition by WatchEnthusiast
Rolex is a company known for evading taxes by being a charity, having the most robotised watch production process that produces approx. 1 million watches every year, disallowing boutiques and authorised dealers from stocking certain watch models in order to cause intentional inflation, producing on average 2,000 watches per day, purchasing their watch movement supplier Aegler and bracelet supplier Gay Frères in order to become a 'true in-house manufacture' – obviously a false claim. Being one of the most secretive and privatised companies in the world and having shady business practices which are hidden by the company and that the Swiss government refuses to and doesn't do anything about. Most of Rolex's popularity comes from false claims and beliefs alongside tons of advertising - 'the first self-winding/automatic wristwatch' - that claim is false. Credit for that goes to John Harwood who was awarded a patent for developing the first self-winding/automatic wristwatch in 1924. Rolex took a self-winding watch design implemented by Perrelet in pocket watches to implement in wristwatches. The first waterproof wristwatch - credit for that goes to Francois Borgel who patented the first waterproof watch case design in 1891. The first COSC certified wristwatch - before Rolex no wristwatch had been submitted for COSC certification (resulting in a false belief related to quality.) Rolex commercialised technology and innovations which already existed claiming them as their own
by WatchEnthusiast July 6, 2018