I always like to study the origin of a brand. And how could a brand be sustainable.
Most of the replies here cover the second question- design, quality, technology, focus, management and so on. Being sustainable is so important to a company, especially when we see some good brand is getting weak after a while. In 1969, Seiko produced the world's first commercial quartz wristwatch, the Astron. Omega, being a long-time rival of Rolex, was trying to follow the trend, giving option to have quartz movement for most of their model. Rolex choose the other strategy to make the brand more towards jewellery. Omega won the war in terms of selling figure during 70’. But in long run, Rolex was able to maintain the craftsmanship of handmade mechanical watch while the prestige of brand of Omega was getting chaos.
Rolex is not the only brand for luxury watches in the market. To name a few- Patek Philippe, A Lange & Sohne, Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Cartier, Piaget, Blancpain might be ranked higher than Rolex among critics. To answer the first question: How do Rolex become the most popular brand for luxury watches in the market in the VERY beginning, is not an easy task.
I am still a newbie in the study of watch history; correct me if I am wrong.
Basically, when we are touching any branding issues, it is a process of "inception" (similar to the movie, lol).
But I will not touch much on the “socialized inception” happened in latecomer like most of us, who are influenced by other believer. This is because we do not need many solid reasons to accept “socialized inception” into our brain. Mainly because we are socialized people, we will normally accept what is secured, stable and mostly believed in our society.
I am trying to find the tipping point happened many years ago. In this case, I would like to use Google as a case study.
Before Google, the category for search engine is occupied by the brand, Yahoo. But Yahoo is not focus on its search function; they give you index and advertisement which is distracting us from pure searching. The founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin bring us “precision searching” – a revolution of practicality.
But Rolex is a relatively new brand when it was founded, at that time precision of watch is already achieved among many watch makers by means of various technology revealed earlier.
In my point of views, Rolex created a revolution of practicality in watch history and market the idea very well. After I have conceived my conjecture, I happened to find the following write-up in press published in 30’, which tell us a thousand words.
Rolex introduces for the first time: the greatest Triumph in Watch-making: ROLEX 'OYSTER'
The Wonder Watch that Defies the Elements. Being hermetically sealed the Rolex 'Oyster' is proof against changes of climate, dust, water, damp, heat, moisture, cold, sand or grease: it can, in consequence, be worn in the sea or bath without injury, nor would arctic or tropical conditions affect the wonderful precision of its beautifully poised movement. The introduction of the Rolex 'Oyster' model marks an unique development in the forward stride of the chronometric science, and perfect timekeeping under all conditions is at last a possibility.
Being durable is so important to a daily worn wrist watch, especially for military usage when time is crucial in the war zone. This could be a revolution of practicality.
But if you are careful enough, Rolex is not the first watch maker introduced water proof watch. IWC created the first water proof case for watch and Hueur also introduce water proof watch earlier. And Omega and Longines has been using relatively good water proof case made by Francis Baumgartner, Paul Perregaux and Georges Peret for years. You might say Rolex pushed the practicality of water proof, dust proof, shock proof and weather proof into higher level. But in my point of view, the other watch maker might have the same problem; they did not market the idea very well. Let’s see what Rolex has done for its better evolution of durable watch.
To complete the process of inception for brand, something has to be done after one has the best and unique idea.
First, after one has done it much better, it needs a good name for a brand, in this case, a sub-brand. Rolex give the new technology a new name: Oyster.
Second, it needs public relationship. Rolex took advantage of the first woman to swim the English Channel, Mercedes Gleitzes, create awareness for the brand in the historical moment. Then she became the mother of modern endorsement. People will only believe in message by an outsider who was believed by themselves.
A huge marketing success! Could it be the tipping point of the most popular luxury watch brand? I guess so.
You may say there are better water proof watch in the market. But the revolution will not happen in the same category again once it happens before. The inception process is done. The idea of the durable luxury watches is Rolex is crystallized in our brain. With or without the real experience of owning a Rolex, we become believers to influent the next one.
As I always say, name of the brand is so important that account for many things. Hans Wilsdorf has done it so well to rename his brand to be Rolex in the beginning, together with a simple logo, a triumph or five stick of matches, which are simple and nice for us to pronounce and remember.
Magic!
For your reference, I added the following list from wikipedia which is also inspiring.
Among the company's innovations are:
The first waterproof wristwatch "Oyster", 1926
The first wristwatch with an automatically changing date on the dial (Rolex Datejust ref.4467, 1945)
The first wristwatch case waterproof to 100 m (330 ft) (Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner ref.6204, 1953)
The first wristwatch to show two time zones at once (Rolex GMT Master ref.6542, 1954)
The first wristwatch with an automatically changing day and date on the dial (Rolex Day-Date, 1956)
The first watchmaker to earn chronometer certification for a wristwatch
