Every so often, a book comes along that makes me look at watches in a different way. I have repaired and serviced many thousands of Rolex watches here in my New York City watch repair shop; each one with an individual story. But what is the “big picture?” The big story? The story behind a massive and major brand that makes watch lovers passionate about style, form and function? Recently, I came across a relatively new book on Rolex. The book is Pierre-Yves Donzé’s The Making of a Status Symbol: A Business History of Rolex, published in English in 2025. You can get it on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/making-status-symbol-business-history-ebook/dp/B0F7RTNGLQ/.
If you love Rolex (https://www.rolex.com/), business history, or simply a good story about how a brand conquered the world, this is a fascinating historical and “behind the scenes” look at the Rolex brand and its storied history. Donzé’s argument is not that Rolex became Rolex simply because of clever advertising. That would be too easy. Rolex made extremely good watches. But founder Hans Wilsdorf also understood something that many companies still don’t understand today: making an excellent product isn’t enough.
People have to understand what it represents. In a nutshell, the genius of Rolex marketing is that Rolex understood that people – famous people – help make a brand famous. Rolex connected with the cool Hollywood and celebrity elite, and positioned the brand as a message. If you own a Rolex, you have “made it.” The watch equals success. That’s the genius of Rolex.
From a Great Watch to a Great Story
Early Rolex marketing concentrated heavily on the watch itself. The Oyster case was water resistant. The Perpetual movement was self-winding. These weren’t just names dreamed up by an advertising department; they described genuine advances that Rolex could demonstrate. In marketing terms, they focused on “product features” and maybe, on a good day, on the benefits of the new feature. Water resistance meant you could swim with the watch. The feature brought a benefit.
Mercedes Gleitze famously swam the English Channel in 1927 with a Rolex Oyster. Rolex later became associated with explorers, mountaineers and other people doing things most of us would rather watch from the comfort of the sofa. Good enough. Amazing watches that could perform in amazingly difficult situations.
But Donzé shows that something interesting happened after World War II, particularly beginning in the 1960s.
Rolex gradually stopped marketing only the exceptional qualities of the watch and began marketing the exceptional qualities of the person wearing it. It’s almost as if the TV series “Mad Men” made Rolex change its brand and marketing. You are not selling watches, one can imagine Don Drapper saying, you are selling a relationship – between a person and a movie star. Between life as it is, and the aspirational life we want it to be.
Working with the American advertising agency J. Walter Thompson (https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/collections/creators/corporations/jwt), Rolex increasingly associated itself with individual achievement. Arnold Palmer. Jackie Stewart. Jean-Claude Killy. Nancy Lopez. Plácido Domingo. Later came the enormous Rolex presence in tennis, golf, racing, sailing and other sports.
The message became wonderfully simple: successful people wear Rolex. If you want to be successful, if you want to project success, Rolex is the watch for you. Brilliant marketing and – let’s be frank – built upon a watch that truly had the chops to justify its image.
Rolex and New York
There’s also a great New York angle to this story.
Donzé documents just how important the American market became to Rolex. In 1977, Rolex paid $15 million for a building on Fifth Avenue, an investment company directors described as a sign of their confidence in the expanding U.S. market. Here in 2026 they are building yet a new one – https://newyorkyimby.com/2026/05/the-rolex-building-nears-completion-at-665-fifth-avenue-in-midtown-manhattan.html.
That seems appropriate to me. New York City understands Rolex.
This is a city where watches are simultaneously practical objects, jewelry, status symbols, family heirlooms and little mechanical pieces of history strapped to somebody’s wrist.
And that brings me to vintage Rolex watches.
Your Old Rolex Is Part of That History
If you own a Rolex from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s or 1980s, you don’t simply own an “old watch.” You own something from the period when Rolex was becoming the cultural institution we recognize today.
Maybe it was your father’s Datejust. Maybe you bought a Submariner decades ago and actually wore the thing rather than treating it like a museum exhibit. Maybe there’s an old Rolex sitting in a drawer because it stopped running fifteen years ago.
Don’t forget what you have.
A vintage Rolex was built to be used, and with proper care, these watches can continue running for generations. Mechanical movements need cleaning, lubrication and adjustment. Gaskets deteriorate. Crowns, crystals and bracelets wear. A watch that has been sitting untouched for years deserves an inspection before somebody simply winds it up and hopes for the best. Hope is not a recognized watchmaking technique.
That is where I come in.
Bring your vintage Rolex to me at Ron Gordon Watch Repair in Midtown Manhattan. I can inspect it, explain what it needs, and discuss appropriate service or repair while respecting the history of the watch. I am recognized as one of the top Rolex repair shops in New York City at https://www.rongordonwatches.com/rolex-repair/.
Rolex spent a century creating its history.
If you’re lucky enough to own a little piece of it, take care of it.
— Ron Gordon