Rolex: Timeless Excellence - (Invest Like the Best, CLASSICS)
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Welcome to this classic episode. Classics are my favorite episodes from the past 10 years, published once a month. These are end-of-one conversations with end-of-one people. This Business Breakdowns on Rolex is a longtime standout. The founder of Hodinkee, Ben Clymer, was the perfect person to take us through the ins and outs of this legendary brand. I hope you enjoy it. This is Business Breakdowns. Business Breakdowns is a series of conversations with investors and operators diving deep into a single business. For each business, we explore its history, its business model, its competitive advantages and what makes it tick. We believe every business has lessons and secrets that investors and operators can learn from, and we are here to bring them to you.
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Visit WorkOS.com to get started or just hit up their Slack support. Yes, they have real engineers in there who will answer your questions fast. WorkOS allows you to build like the best with delightful APIs, comprehensive docs, and smooth developer experience. Go to WorkOS.com to make your app enterprise ready today. Today, we're breaking down one of the strongest brands in the world, Rolex. Founded in the UK in 1905 under the name Wilsdorf and Davis, Rolex has become the leading name in luxury watches. But while the company's products are iconic, the business itself is highly secretive. Owned by a foundation and run as a nonprofit entity, little is known about Rolex. To unlock the secrets, we're delighted to be joined by Ben Clymer, the founder of Hodinkee and an expert on all things luxury watches.
Ben has had rare access to Rolex and the people behind the manufacturer, making him the perfect person to dissect the business with us. Please enjoy this excellent breakdown of Rolex. So Ben, I was trying to think of an appropriate first question to break down Rolex. I think it has to be, what is your favorite Rolex watch ever?
Oh man, that's a really complex question for a gentleman such as myself. The Daytona is probably my favorite Rolex as an object. There are Rolexes that mean a lot to me from a sentimental point of view, being my grandfathers, my fathers, et cetera. But the Daytona as a thing has always been the peak of my fascination from the early 6239s, which is first generation Daytona. Back before it even said Daytona on the dial, I wrote a story probably 10 years ago plus at this point on Hodiki about those. There was some curiosity within Rolex about what they should call it. And this was before they sponsored Daytona. And the original name of the Cosmograph, the chronograph for racing was Le Mans. It's called Rolex for a variety of reasons, but one of which is Rolex is Rolex in any language.
And Le Mans, with that silent S, the Rolex marketing department, as small as it was in 1963, said, you know what, that could turn off the American market. And if you've ever tried to pronounce Audemars Piguet as Audemars Piaget, which is about 50% of humanity, you realize how uncomfortable that can be. So they quickly went to the Daytona. So the Daytona as an object is probably my favorite. I will say that the watch that I'm actually wearing right now, which was actually the first modern Rolex ever bought, which is the Pepsi GMT in white gold. I actually just realized I bought two months after we published the inside the Rolex story that I wrote 2015 is probably the one that means the most to me because I've just had it the longest.
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