How Long Does It Take To Make A Rolex Watch

Are you a Rolex fan? Do you want to know how long it takes to make 1 Rolex watch?

Owning a Rolex is probably on the top of the bucket list of every watch aficionado. The brand is known for making watches that can last through generations. But do you know how much time it takes to make such a Rolex watch?

If not then you are at the right place. I am going to tell you exactly that and some more interesting things about the Rolex watch production.

So keep reading!

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How Many Rolex Are Made A Year?
Are Rolex Watches Hand Made?
How Many Employees Does Rolex Have?
How Long Does It Take To Make A Rolex Watch?
Why Does It Take So Long To Make A Rolex?
FAQs

How Many Rolex Are Made A Year?

Before we move on to see the time a Rolex watch takes in manufacturing, let us first see how many Rolex watches are made each year.

Rolex has not revealed any information regarding its production. But it is believed that the brand makes more than 1 million watches every year.

Isn’t that a very big number for a premium luxury watch manufacturer like Rolex? Frankly, I never expected this and when I found it out, my mind was completely blown.

Now can you imagine the time Rolex must take to make 1 watch to be able to produce more than 1 million watches each year?

Just make a wild guess in your mind.

Are Rolex Watches Hand Made?

You must have made a wild guess by now, right?

To make it a little accurate let me tell you a fact. All the Rolex watches are not handmade. They are produced with the help of expert watchmakers and state-of-the-art machines that offer cutting-edge technology. Having said that, all the Rolex watch movements are totally handmade.

Therefore all the watch parts like cases, bracelets, watch bezels, etc. must be made through machines and skilled workers. But all the movements that are used in Rolex watches are made by human hands. If you do not already know then let me tell you, a watch movement can have more than 100 tiny components. And assembling these components together seems like a very time-consuming and tedious task.

Now considering the amount of time that it must take to produce more than a million watch movements by hand, can you improve your guess?

Let me give you some more information.

How Many Employees Does Rolex Have?

Rolex has not revealed exactly how many employees are working for the company. But according to this Rolex article, Rolex has 4 factories in Switzerland. And its factory in Bienne that is responsible for making watch movements employs more than 2000 people.

So more than 2000 people are employed just to make more than a million Rolex watch movements.

Now can you make an accurate guess of the time that it takes to make 1 Rolex watch?

How Long Does It Take To Make A Rolex Watch?

Since Rolex is owned by a trust and not by shareholders. Therefore it keeps everything a secret and does not share anything about its manufacturing or the technology that it uses to make its watches.

But an advertisement that was released by the brand a few decades back claimed that each Rolex Oyster watch that the company makes, takes more than a year to manufacture.

And it is believed even today that it still takes around a year to manufacture one Rolex watch. However, I do not find this to be true because the technology used and the expertise of the watchmakers of Rolex must have evolved by manifolds by now.

So if I have to make a guess today about the time it takes to manufacture a Rolex watch, then I would say it must take 3-4 months. However, this is just an intelligent guess, and nobody other than Rolex knows the exact time to manufacture 1 Rolex watch.

Why Does It Take So Long To Make A Rolex?

You’re probably wondering why it takes this long to make 1 Rolex watch, right?

If you do not know then let me tell you Rolex manufactures each and every watch component itself that it uses in its watch. This includes the metals used in watches like gold, stainless steel, etc.

So I think the majority of the manufacturing time must go into making these metals. And as discussed earlier, Rolex has 4 manufacturing factories. So transporting the finished components to the final assembly must also take time. Needless to say, manufacturing each and every watch component must take time too. My guess is this whole process must take around 2-3 months.

All the Rolex watches are COSC certified and this certification requires around 15 days according to this article on COSC’s official website. Moreover, Rolex further tests its watches’ accuracy to make it a Superlative Chronometer, which again must take around 2 weeks. So Rolex probably spends somewhere around a month just to test its watches. And the addition of 1 month to overall manufacturing of 2-3 months takes the total time to 3-4 months.

Therefore, manufacturing a finished Rolex watch takes time.

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FAQs

Is Rolex Mass Produced?

It is believed that Rolex makes more than 1 million watches every year. Therefore, you can say it is mass-produced.

How Many Watches Does Rolex Make A Day?

Since Rolex is believed to make around a million watches per year hence it produces around 2700 watches a day.

How Many Factories Does Rolex Have?

Rolex has a total of 4 factories. All of which are located in Switzerland.

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