Ben Clymer

Hoyer had issues.

Rolex was really smart in that through that period of real turmoil when I would say their chief competitor, Omega, decided to make some quartz watches, decided to make some funky looking things.

Rolex stayed the course.

And yes, they did make quartz watches.

the Beta 21, which was the Swiss conglomerate's answer to quartz.

It's the most expensive quartz watch ever made.

I mean, like thousands and thousands of dollars.

They said, you know, we're going to focus on what we do best.

And the focus went away from precision and accuracy and time-telling

to luxury.

And so that is when you start seeing the gold Rolex on, you know, I hate to say it, but like the used car salesman and the gold Rolex became the thing.

70s and 80s opulence, you understand what the 80s were, of course, it just changed what Rolex was.

But by the way, it worked and it allowed them to continue to be relevant when everybody else being Omega and

And to a degree, Vacheron, like these brands really struggled.

And that is why so many of them ended up in conglomerates.

In the 80s and 90s, when watches were, mechanical watches were really not doing so hot.

A lot of folks came in and bundled them all up.

So Richemont owns a bunch of the great ones, including Vacheron.

Swatch owns everything from Swatch to Blancpain, Breguet, Omega.

It was a time of great challenge for sure.