The very first reason why your first luxury wristwatch should be a Rolex, and it’s kind of an obvious reason, is prestige. When you look at the major watch brands in the world, you have Patek, you have AP, you have Rolex, you have Vacheron Constantin, but in terms of prestige and recognition, Rolex wins nine out of 10 times. If you’re walking on the street and you see someone wearing a Rolex, the average Joe is going to recognize that more over a Patek Phillipe Nautilus, for example. And the watch, the brand Rolex, has been worn by some of the most influential people on the planet. I mean, for god’s sake, the Day-Date is literally nicknamed, The President. Why? Because it was literally worn by some of the most historical and relevant presidents in the history of the United States.
One of Rolex’s most recognizable models is the Rolex Submariner. Okay, I happen to have one here, of course. And this model, the design, to me screams luxury, prestige. It screams that you’ve made some money, you’re doing somewhat well. It’s a stainless steel piece, but it’s so recognizable, you’re just out in the wild, that anyone sees it knows that hey, that guy knows what he’s doing. He’s doing well in life. And really, to me, this is the watch that signifies someone’s initial success in life.
Second reason why your first luxury watch should be a Rolex is ruggedness.
Picking up this Daytona here, if you know what the Daytona is, it’s a Chronograph. And typically Chronographs are not really that waterproof. If you know about the Omega Seamaster, it’s another iconic Chronograph. I wouldn’t really trust that in the ocean. I’m not going to lie. I wouldn’t wear that in the pool even. I wouldn’t touch it with even a foot of water. But Rolex, they’re known to be rugged.
All of their pieces are waterproof. The Daytona here has a screw down pushers, so you can screw it down, go in the water and the watch’ll be fine. Any Rolex you wear, you can wear it during any scenario. To me, it’s like the luxury almost G-Shock, in terms of durability. You can throw them on the ground and do anything with them. They are bulletproof watches. I have vintage Rolexes again back from the ’80s and the ’70s and maybe they’re a little scratched up, but they still run perfectly fine. They’re super accurate. And really, it stands the test of time. The watch is just unbeatable.
The third reason why your first luxury wristwatch should be a Rolex is that their entire lineup is iconic. For example, if you go with a Hublot, right, as your first luxury wristwatch, this design may look relevant now, but in 20 years, I don’t think it’s really going to be relevant.
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In fact, I think people are going to say, “Oh, this is so 2020”. Where, if you pick up for example, a Root Beer GMT, or even a two-toned Datejust, like this here, there are designs that have stood the test of time. They’ve been around for almost 60, 70 odd years. And in 100 years, people are still going to look at them and say, “Wow, that’s a classic watch”. That looks good even in 20, 50, no matter what the year is, they’re going to still be relevant. And that’s something about Rolex that people forget, that any piece from the lineup has history, it’s iconic in its own sense and will be relevant for many years to come.
The fourth reason why your luxury wristwatch should be a Rolex is value. Historically Rolex has always held its value and gone up in most cases. Going back to the stainless steel Submariner, this one is strictly using ceramic. You can but this retail, wear it for 10 years and sell it and make money. Not too many watches in the game you can do that. I mean, if you bought this Hublot, not to bash Hublot too much, but if you bought this retail, it’s like you’re buying a used car, or you’re buying a new car I should say.
You go to the dealer, you buy, the second you drive it off the lot you lose half its value. And that’s the reason why brands like these in the long-term may not survive, because the value retention just isn’t there. Where, like I said, if you buy the Submariner, or even if you buy for example this Daytona, well, if you’re lucky to buy this retail.
Retail is $13,000. Market price right now is like $22,000. You can tell, the demand is there. Even in the grey market, the prices are up. No other brand, besides Patek, maybe even AP, can do that. Rolex has that in its favor over the other brands in the game.
The fifth reason why your first luxury wristwatch should be a Rolex is simply history. All the watches that Rolex has made have been relevant in history. The Submariner for example, is the diving icon. When this came out in the ’50s, this was the dive watch to get.
Then you have watches like the Datejust, which to me is, they originated the design of a classic watch. You look at a lot of brands, low-end brands, like Sea-Gull for example, or even Orient, name any oddball brand. They have a design that kind of copies this look with Roman numerals. Rolex started this. Then when you have watches, like the GMT with the Pan Am series in the ’60s, when pilots used GMTs to navigate the world, just fly around. This was the watch on their wrist. Every Rolex watch, even for example the Milgauss, the Rolex Milgauss is one of those pieces that isn’t currently really appreciated by watch buyers today in the current market, but it was created buy scientists of the time and was a big tool for them. And they, any known scientist, wore a Milgauss. The point I’m trying to get to is that every model in the Rolex lineup has some importance in history.
The Submariner was a dive watch. The Daytona was meant for racing. The Milgauss, like I said, was meant for scientists. And the Yacht Master, I mean the Yacht Master was kind of meant for regatta racing, but it’s kind of Rolex’s mark to becoming a luxury brand. It a transitional piece, to me personally. But most of their pieces are meant to be tools at heart.
Sixth reason why your first luxury wristwatch should be a Rolex is because it can be your only watch that you buy in your entire life
For example, you could buy this President here, which is one of the most recognizable watches on the planet. You could wear this every day to the day you die and it’ll work well in most scenarios. Or you could buy this Sea-Dweller here, right, this is a bigger watch, but this new one’s a little bit thinner and fits pretty well on most wrists. But if you go with this Hublot though, for example, right off the bat it’s way too big.
I think this is a 48 millimeter watch. Most people cannot rock this. Most people are in the sweet spot from 38 to maybe 44. I personally would never wear anything bigger than a 44. This is a watch that is you buy, yeah, maybe you can rock it some days, but 10 years from now, are you really going to want to wear this? Probably not. Sorry, Hublot. Try again.
The seventh reason why your first luxury wristwatch should be a Rolex is because of their appeal in the vintage market. The pros of the vintage Rolex market is that it has appeal with collectors.
For example, I’m wearing a 1987 Sturdy Dial Submariner. It was given to me by my grandfather. It’s from 1987. And if I walked into a watch collecting event or anything with enthusiasts in the watch world, they would recognize the watch and appreciate it. You can’t say that about too many brands. If you look at, for example, vintage IWC, there’s not really a market.
People really don’t care.
Yeah, of course there’s always going to be connoisseurs that love the brand and do care. But Rolex is that international brand that vintage collectors respect. Your first watch could be a Rolex from your birth year and it’ll still be relevant and a lot of people will actually think it’s cool that you went with something vintage.
Where if you went with, for example, with a vintage Omega, unless it’s an Omega nerd, no one’s really going to care. That’s something to consider. Guys, today we talked about why your first luxury wristwatch should be a Rolex. We gave a bunch of valid reasons. They’re rugged, they’re versatile, they’re timeless, they’re classics, they hold their value, it’s an investment.
There’s so many pros to this brand. The equity that it carries is amazing.
Rolex is the definition of what a good company should do to market their product. What are you waiting for? Your first watch should be a Rolex. Thank you guys so much for watching. Let me know if you would but a Rolex or maybe you’d buy something else, maybe an Omega or hey, maybe you should start at the top and you buy a Patek Phillipe.
Agree? Disagree? Should your first watch be a rolex? Comment below!
