CORDER’S COLUMN: My unrequited love for Rolex

I’m a classic outsider inside the watch industry.

A business reporter and editor for over 30 years, I have been writing about watches and the watch industry for less than a third of my career.

My aim with every sector I have covered has been to get to the truth by relentlessly trying to put pieces of a jigsaw together so that readers can see the picture more clearly than they would if only shown individual pieces of a puzzle.

Missing or misplaced pieces of that jigsaw gnaw away at me because they misdirect or misinform my readers.

Very often — and this has been true even in largely transparent sectors like technology or hospitality where huge public companies dominate — there is deliberate misdirection, spin and obfuscation to paint a certain business in a favourable light.

This is an accepted and acceptable part of the game, and often gives me an edge because, with a bit of nouse and experience, I can get to a clearer story than journalists of competing titles.

Oh, did I mention how competitive I am?

Which brings me to the watch industry, predominately but not exclusively the part based in Switzerland, where three of the big five — Rolex, Cartier, Omega, Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe — are in private ownership.

In the case of Rolex, the $8 billion* daddy of them all, it is owned by a family trust that is impervious to scrutiny.

That should really grind my gears.

Why, then, over the ten years I have been writing about watches, have I fallen deeply in love with The Crown?

It starts with its watches, which I grown to love for two reasons.

First, they are relatively unpretentious, by Swiss standards, and I can buy most of the best-lookers without permission from my wife.

They are also exceptionally durable and reliable. Their five year warranty is almost superfluous to requirements given they will purr along unattended for decades.

This contributes to the second point, which is the way Rolex watches hold their value.

Forget the doubling and tripling of prices we see today. That could be transitory.

But what’s certain is that, if my kids inherit a Rolex from me, they will appreciate my choice of wristwear, particularly if they choose to flog it.

Beyond this material consideration, my other love for Rolex would be more accurately described as an infatuation or obsession.

This is because the less they tell me, the more I want to know; the closer I want to get; the more I yearn to get inside the walls.

The love, of course, is unrequited. The harder I press, the further they withdraw.

And so I sulk, I stalk, I ask around Rolex’s friends for clues about its intentions.

I perform a slow motion mating dance: asking for a comment here, an answer there; a positive report one day, critical commentary the next.

There are signs that Rolex is becoming more approachable, but it is a glacially slow process.

I will not give up on my infatuation. It is my job to continue the chase, and I enjoy it.

Hopefully you do too.

*Rolex’s turnover of $8 billion in 2021 comes from a Morgan Stanley report. The figure has not been verified by Rolex.