Acquired
Acquired

Rolex

January 2, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In 1905, a 24-year-old German orphan named Hans Wilsdorf founded a watch importing company in London. He had no factory, no watchmakers, and no capital of his own—just a conviction that the future of timekeeping was not the pocket watch but something worn on the wrist. Over the next 120 years, that company would become Rolex, a business that today produces over a million watches a year at an average price of $13,000, generates roughly $11 billion in annual revenue, and captures 30% of the entire Swiss watch industry by value. It is one of the most secretive companies in the world, owned by a charitable foundation that gives away hundreds of millions of francs annually. And it was not founded by a Swiss person, nor in Switzerland.

The Outsider Who Invented the Wristwatch

Hans Wilsdorf was born in Bavaria in 1881, orphaned at twelve, and moved to Switzerland as a young man. He found work at a Geneva watch export firm called Cuno Korton, where he sat at a choke point in the industry: he corresponded with British retailers and understood the entire value chain. In 1905, he moved to London and founded Wilsdorf & Davis, importing Swiss watch movements and assembling finished watches for British jewelers, who then put their own names on the dials. Wilsdorf hated that the retailer got the brand credit.

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:00) **Episode Introduction & Hosts' Watches** - Ben and David introduce the episode and discuss the Rolex watches they are wearing, including a Daytona and a Day-Date.
  • 2 (01:17) **The Paradox of Rolex** - Ben and David frame the episode by outlining the central paradoxes of Rolex: a globally known brand from a secretive, privately-held company that sells over a million watches per year at an average price of $13,000.
  • 3 (05:45) **The Founder: Hans Wilsdorf** - The story begins with the birth of Hans Wilsdorf in Bavaria in 1881, an orphan who becomes a consummate outsider.
  • 4 (14:50) **Founding Wilsdorf & Davis and the Birth of Rolex** - Hans moves to London, starts his own watch importing company, and creates the Rolex brand name for his new wristwatches.
  • 5 (37:15) **World War I and the Birth of the Wristwatch Market** - Rolex obtains the first Class A precision certificate for a wristwatch, but World War I simultaneously creates massive demand and forces the company to relocate.
  • 6 (48:44) **The Swiss Watchmaking Heritage** - Ben provides a historical overview of why Switzerland became the watchmaking capital of the world, setting the stage for Rolex's move.
  • 7 (58:50) **The Oyster and the Perpetual: The Pillars of Rolex** - Rolex solves the problem of waterproofing and self-winding, creating the iconic Oyster Perpetual.

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Show Notes

Rolex is a series of paradoxes. They sell obsolete and objectively inferior mechanical devices for 10-1000x the price of their superior digital successors… and demand is stronger than ever in history! Their products are comparable to a Hermès Birkin bag in price, luxury status and waitlist times… yet they produce over 1m units / year (roughly 10x annual Birkin production). They make the most universally recognized and desired Swiss watches… yet their founder wasn’t Swiss and didn’t start the company in Switzerland! If Rolex were publicly traded, they’d almost certainly be among the top 50 market cap companies in the world… yet they’re 100% owned by a charitable foundation in Geneva that (among other things) literally just gives away money to local people in the city.

Tune in for one of the most fascinating and admirable companies we’ve ever covered on Acquired. We had an absolute blast making the episode, and hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

This episode was released on February 23, 2025.

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