Review: ‘The Making Of A Status Symbol, A Business History of Rolex’ Translated To English For The First Time
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Golfer Arnold Palmer was among the many first of those new ambassadors (quickly to be often known as Rolex Testimonees) who usually appeared in advertisements and not using a watch on his wrist. It was the concept of Palmer’s particular person success that was the message. Skier Jean-Claude Killy, tennis nice John Newcombe, golfer Nancy Lopez, Components 1 driver Jackie Stewart, and Spanish opera singer Placido Domingo have been among the many early people tapped to symbolize the Rolex model. Many of those connections have been made by American businessman, sports activities agent, and founding father of the Worldwide Administration Group (IMG), Mark H. McCormack, who himself appeared in Rolex promoting supplies celebrating his extraordinary jet-setting company success.
A Rolex promotion from 1984 lists McCormack’s various and huge achievements and pursuits. Solely within the final paragraph of the dense advert copy does it point out his watch. ”As a person of accomplishment, Mark McCormack is well-matched together with his Rolex. As a person in almost perpetual movement, he’s nicely served by its reliability,” it says. Amid this new thrust in advertising and communications, Donzé paperwork Rolex’s gross sales development throughout the interval, pushed by speedy positive factors within the U.S. and Japanese markets. By 1987, the U.S. luxurious watch market, that being watches costing greater than $3,500 on the time, was value between $800 million and $1 billion. It was dominated by 10 Swiss manufacturers, with Rolex accounting for half.
The U.S.-led development is mirrored in general gross sales figures throughout the defining interval between 1960 and 1990. Omega’s annual gross sales have been estimated to be about CHF 30 million in 1960, whereas Rolex gross sales, mixed with sister model Tudor, have been about CHF 38 million, inserting the Rolex and Omega manufacturers at an analogous stage. A decade later, Rolex gross sales jumped to about CHF 100 million, based on Donzé, with Omega trailing at CHF 65 million. By 1980, Rolex gross sales surged to CHF 470 million, with Omega behind at CHF 370 million. And it was throughout the Reagan-era, client materialism–centered 80s that Rolex definitively received the battle with annual income hovering to CHF 1 billion by 1987, whereas Omega gross sales managed about CHF 530 million that yr, the guide reveals.
