Rolex

Bullish:

• $ROLEX - Rolex is praised for its unique market position, optimal price-quantity balance, high-quality manufacturing, and resilience in the face of smartwatch competition. Its paradoxical nature as a well-known brand but secretive company adds to its strength.

  • “Rolex is positioned at the perfect point on the curve of price and quantity. They are the most optimally positioned supply demand curve company I think we've ever covered.”

    David·46:22

  • “Rolex actually is the highest quality thing. It's the brand, but I mean, who else makes their own machine that is gonna open and close the clasp a thousand times in just a few minutes to test it? Who else is forging their own metals? Who else makes all their own movements?”

    Ben·3:34:13

  • “Rolex is a cascade of paradoxes. It's one of the best known brands in the world. But despite that, it's one of the least known companies in the world.”

    Ben·2:14

  • “Hans' genius is he sees the vision for where the market's going. He recognizes talent and innovation, and he pulls it together, and he makes it commercially viable and marketable”

    David·1:03:13
• $LUXWATCH - High-end luxury watches have benefited from the introduction of smartwatches, which raised awareness for wrist-worn devices and potentially increased consumer willingness to spend on premium timepieces.

  • “The Apple Watch comes out in 2014. Fascinatingly, and I'm not sure if this is counterintuitive or not. I don't remember 2014 thinking about the watch industry because I didn't. But it was the best thing to ever happen to Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Patek, etcetera. A huge amount of awareness raised for the category. Oh, now I wear a thing on my wrist. Oh, I spent hundreds of dollars on the thing. Would I be open to spending thousands of dollars on the thing?”

    Ben·35:16

  • “However, it destroyed low end luxury. Longines, Tissot, TAG Heuer, anybody that was making a, quote, unquote, luxury mechanical watch between 500. Why? Toast. Complete toast. It doesn't signal anything. I spent the same amount of money on this obsolete thing that I could have spent on an Apple Watch. Why? Are you stupid?”

    Ben·37:39
• $LUXGOODS - Luxury goods, particularly high-end watches like Rolex, maintain their appeal and market strength by balancing exclusivity with relatively high sales volumes.

  • “To your point about paradoxes of Rolex, this is one of the greatest ones. It is absolutely one of the very, very top top tier luxury brands in the world, and yet they also sell a lot of units.”

    David·3:06
• $SWISSWATCH - Swiss watches are valued for their long-standing tradition of craftsmanship and engineering excellence, which has been refined over more than a century.

  • “It's a success built on the back of craftsmanship, engineering, and manufacturing, honed and perfected over a hundred and twenty years.”

    Ben·3:35
• $AAPL - Apple is compared favorably to Rolex, suggesting similarities in their business models and market positions within their respective industries.

  • “Rolex and Apple are mirror image companies in a lot of ways.”

    Ben·52:25

Bearish:

• $FOSSIL - Fashion watch brands like Fossil have been severely impacted by the rise of smartwatches, with Fossil's stock price dropping dramatically since the introduction of the Apple Watch.

  • “Fossil, who else? Guess. I mean, in the nineties, these quartz watches suddenly made $25 watches possible. And, like, that market went entirely away with the Apple Watch. The, the Fossil Watch stock went down 99% since the Apple Watch came out.”

    Ben·39:19
• $FASHWATCH - The fashion watch industry, particularly in the low to mid-range luxury segment, has been negatively impacted by the introduction of smartwatches, which offer more functionality at similar price points.

  • “The Apple Watch comes out in 2014. Fascinatingly, and I'm not sure if this is counterintuitive or not. I don't remember 2014 thinking about the watch industry because I didn't. But it was the best thing to ever happen to Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Patek, etcetera. A huge amount of awareness raised for the category. Oh, now I wear a thing on my wrist. Oh, I spent hundreds of dollars on the thing. Would I be open to spending thousands of dollars on the thing?”

    Ben·35:16

  • “However, it destroyed low end luxury. Longines, Tissot, TAG Heuer, anybody that was making a, quote, unquote, luxury mechanical watch between 500. Why? Toast. Complete toast. It doesn't signal anything. I spent the same amount of money on this obsolete thing that I could have spent on an Apple Watch. Why? Are you stupid?”

    Ben·37:39