Fifth Ave Rolex Man

TRAINING AT ROLEX

      Day #1 We met at 9 AM in the conference room in the New York City Rolex headquarters. Each of us introduced ourselves and told where we worked, and how familiar we all were with Rolex and what we expected to learn. There were 12 Trainees counting myself. Maria who'll manage the new Rolex Boutique by Wempe on Fifth Avenue, and other Wempe Employees were present.

under construction, The new ROLEX Boutique presented by Wempe

(A few more Sales Associates will be hired for the new Rolex Boutique). Also there were a few others from Authorized Rolex Dealers in northern NY State, Long Island, and CT. The Rolex North East Regional Sales Rep was present as well as the National Trainer for Rolex.

     We went over 1/3 of the Rolex Training manual, and covered the important historical facts, Rolex's heritage, as well as a thorough briefing of the 4 factories in Switzerland where 100% of the components & watches are made. We also learned that Rolex created much of its high tech equipment & machines to create these items. Throughout the presentation and videos was a message that at Rolex, the Pursuit of Excellence is a Passion came out. Rolex's goal is mainly to make the BEST watch at any expense!


The Rolex history is online here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolex as well as on dozens of Rolex fan websites as well as www.rolex.com . . . I'll also delve more into their history later.

Rolex is an independent group, non-profit and choses to give back much of its profits to charities all around the globe. There are 26 Countries selling Rolex, and Rolex has around 9,000 employees worldwide. 
    We were told about the Rolex Awards for Enterprise which supports enterprising individuals. Their work contributes to the betterment of mankind  and making the world a better place. These Awards were created in 1976 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Rolex Oyster chronometer, the world's first waterproof watch. Since then, 115 monetary Awards have been presented by Rolex to individuals from 42 countries, implementing projects in more than 60 countries. The Awards are given every 2 years and there are 5 Laureates chosen. Each is given a cash grant to advance their projects and gain worldwide recognition of their work through international publicity and advertising campaigns. Each Laureate will also receive a Rolex Oyster chronometer.  In 2009, Rolex also started to select 5 Young Laureates (ages 18-30). These Awards are given every 2 years and alternate with the Laureates Awards. There are typically more than 1,500 applying each time for these series of cash grants. I urge everyone to go to http://www.rolexawards.com and read about this important work that Rolex is helping fund around the globe. Some of these videos are also available on iTunes for no fee. 


There is also an International Rolex Mentoring and Protege Initiative program to assist extraordinary, rising artists achieve their full potential. It seeks out these artists and brings them with great masters in the fields of Dance, Literature, Music, Film, Visual Arts & Music for a year of creative collaboration in a one-to-one mentoring relationship.
http://www.rolexmentorprotege.com


Day #2 We met again at 9 AM in the Rolex building at Fifth Ave. & 53rd St., and covered a lot of the Rolex innovations, and learned in depth how a Rolex is made. 
     There are Rolex factories in 4 different cities in Switzerland. Production of movements are in their factory in Bienne. They control the manufacture all the parts and the watches are hand assembled. They are tested many times along their inception for precision and consistent accuracy. Their Research & Design team are constantly exploring technologies, materials and mechanisms for new products. There are over 60 Metallurgists that study alloys and theres a constant cooperation between the Product Designers, Sales, Production, Quality, and their World Wide Service Centers. Rolex implements specific techniques and makes tools & machines to insure the quality lasts throughout the lifetime of each Rolex. There is a constant quest for Quality at every step. 
   At their factory in Plan-Les-Oates outside Geneva, this site is dedicated to Case & Bracelet production. Here they also produce the Gold alloys they use for all their gold models. Copper & Silver are mixed with 75% Gold for the 18K Yellow watches. Paladium, Copper & Iron are combined to make their 18K White Gold, and Copper with 2.5% Paladium is used to make the 18K Everose as Paladium stabilizes the pink color of the gold. The 904L steel they use is bought as is the Platinum alloy used for the watches. 904L was first used in 1986 on the Submariners middle case. The 904L steel is a supper alloy and resists corrosion. It also has a brighter sheen when polished. Rolex is the only watch manufacturer to use 904L. The L signifies it is low in carbon. Since 2000, every stainless steel Rolex is made from 904L. All the steel models are machine polished, and hand assembled. Gold & Platinum watches are entirely hand polished and assembled. Each case's hermetic properties are checked before the movements are cased. Hands on Rolexes are made of Gold except two models. The Daytona Cosmographs & Yachtmaster II models have hands made of Barilium. (Flyback hands only)
    The third factory is slightly east of Geneva in Chen-Bourg is where Dials and Gem Setting is done. Rolex has produced 1200 different Dials and there are 800 in their current catalog. Diamonds used are flawless and never treated. Mother of Pearl comes from natural mollusks. White & Yellow M.O.P. are found in Australian mollusks, Black are from Tahiti, and Rose
M.O.P. are found in mollusk shells from Mississippi.
They are cut from the center of the shell where it is thicker. Each one is unique in its markings. 
4 processes are utilized in making the other Rolex Dials. Guillocage, Lacquering, Electroplating and PVD. Guillocage Dials are engraved with a design with a device that copies a pattern and cuts it into the metal from a larger baseplate that has the design on it. Lacquering is a process of many coatings. Elecltroplating is electrolysis where the Dials are dipped into many various metal solutions. PVD is physical vapor deposition. This process enables Rolex to come up with many colors with thermal evaporation & magnetron cathode sputtering. Inscriptions are stamped onto the Dial, and any appliques are hand assembled.
     In Acacais, the factory here is where Rolex watches are assembled and go through the final control. These components (Dial, Case, Bracelet & Clasp) are checked for an absolute flawless appearance. The case is assembled. The first Waterproofness check is done, Dials & Hands are put on the movements, functions are checked and then put in its case and the oscillating weight is put in place. Serial numbers are matched and then the case is closed and the Oyster is sealed. A Rolex will have 3 days of final checks. They check for: Rate, Power Reserve & Waterproofness (with the movements now inside). The functions are checked as is the appearance and then the bracelet is attached and then a final aesthetic check is completed. All Oyster cased Rolex watches have a 48 hour reserve, and new Daytona Cosmographs & Yachtmaster II models have a 72 hour power reserve.


     After lunch we all left the NYC Rolex building and headed to their new facility just outside the city. We visited and toured this state of the art structure, which is very European in design. 

This almost 2 year old facility is not open to the public.

Rolex built from the ground up a building that houses most of their Departments. 
(Photographs of most of this new facility were prohibited from being taken). Here's where they service watches and dozens of Watchmakers are working on on Customer's Rolex repairs. A room off the Watchmakers workroom holds behind a glass walled enclosure the polishing room. Here there were at least 4 Polishers with at least 9-10 different kinds of machines to polish every case and surface of a Rolex. They attempt to get older Rolex watches refinished back to a near factory like new appearance. The Parts Dept. has the REMstar mobile shelving system of automated parts delivery where when a part number is entered, the trays rotate, and a light appears in the row and compartment the part that is needed is in.
    There's also a RWSC in Dallas TX, and a Rolex office off Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills to drop off your Rolex if you are in Southern CA.
      On the roof top theres vegetation which catches rainwater which is reused for cooling the building. Magnificent views can be seen of Manhattan's skyline and even the United Nations. 

We visited each and every Department where the various Division Heads explained their specific areas. Here watches are received from Clients all around the US. They are repaired with the highest technology & equipment made for the watch industry. They have a huge Visual Display Dept. where all U.S. Jeweler's case displays are covered and case fixtures are designed and built. All Rolex main window displays are built and sent from Europe. We saw their Vault where new goods come in from Switzerland and are kept until being sent out to the Rolex Boutiques or Authorized Dealers selling them. They inventory the Vault content monthly and watches are stored in the hard plastic cases in the REMstar mobile shelving. There are even a handful of Watchmakers off the New Good Dept. where their sole duty are to re-check more complicated new and high-end timepieces that are going to be sold before they leave Rolex US. They also handle any Corporate Sale's Rolex engraved case backs there.
     Theres a large Tropical fish tank with many different types of fish off the break room & kitchen area/lunch room. 

Just outside of the lunch room there is a Lactating Room where any women that need to use it can. There's also a small Gym for workers to exercise, cycle & step train and lift weights. We were shown shipping and receiving areas. 




We also saw a model (below) of the Training Facility where theres a 2 year Rolex Watchmaker's School 
(in Litiz, Pa.) It opened in 2001. Our Watchmaker, Brian graduated from there in 2009. He'll be the head technician at the Rolex Boutique presented by Wempe.

               http://www.lititzwatchtechnicum.org/

Rolex watch repairs can be dropped off or shipped to:

R.W.S.C.

665 Fifth Ave., 5th floor

NY, NY 10022  

Day #3 We covered the specific features and functions more in-depth today. The Hairspring is the heart of the movement. Rolex invented a new paramagnetic alloy Parachrom combining Niobium & Zirconium to make their new hairsprings. (It took 5 years of research & development to invent this new material).

The Parachrom hairspring is pictured here in the center of the balance wheel with a Breguet overcoil. Historically the unique blue color of hairsprings has been a sign of prestige for accurate timepieces, and today it guarantees the accuracy of a Rolex. 
(The hairspring oscillates back and forth rapidly telling your watch how many ticks per second to move...What is a major concern of hairsprings is the isochronism of the movement. This, simply, is a curve that shows a fully wound watch will exert more pull on the hairspring causing it to swing close to 300 degrees back and forth (high amplitude), but as the pull of the spring lessens (winds down) the swing of the hairspring reduces dramatically to a lesser amplitude (perhaps around 150 degrees). This "shorter" amplitude is quicker, and therefore a partially wound watch will be faster than a fully wound movement.
About 200 years ago A. L. Breguet invented a new hairspring design. This design takes the outer coil of the flat spring and bends it up, and then back over top of the spring anchoring the "pivot point" of the spring closer to it's center. This effectively "fools" the spring into thinking it always has an equal pull over a broader range of mainspring pull than a flat spring.. A distinct advantage for an automatic watch that operates mostly in the upper part of mainspring power... So, Rolex uses the Breguet over-coil method (not his springs) on all their hairsprings....

Rolex Parachrom hairsprings are 10 time more resistant to shock and insensitive to magnetic fields. The 1st model to have it was the #116520A 904L Stainless Steel Daytona Cosmograph, and it came out in 2000. Today all Oyster chronometer movements have the Parachrom hairspring with the exception of 26, 29 & 31mm sized Oyster cases. Also the Yacht-Masters in 35mm cases don't have it. 


In 2005 Cerachrom was first used on the 18K yellow gold GMT-Master II bezel. Cerachrom is manufactured by a complex exclusive process. Ceramic is injected with binding materials and sintered (heated) at +1500 degrees. There is an approximate 25% shrinkage. Its adjusted and checked for a definitive diameter and then PVD colored and diamond polished. These new Cerachrom bezels are virtually unscratchable & are resistant to ultraviolet light. They are engraved and pure platinum or pure gold is poured into the numerals & markings on the bezels. It takes 40 hours to create each Cerachrom bezel.


We discussed and learned more about the Deepsea, Submariner, Yacht-Master II, GMT-Master II, Explorer & Explorer II, as well as the famous iconic Daytona Cosmograph.These are the Professional Series of watches. We learned that the Twinlock crowns have 3 gaskets and the Triplelock crowns have 5. The crystal on a Deepsea is 5.5mm thick where as the Submariner's crystal is 2.5mm thick. The Submariner in 1953 became the first diving watch to be waterproof to 100 meters (330ft.). Today it's water proof to 300 meters/1,000 ft. and is a perfect partner on lands as it is in the Sea. In the James Bond novels, Ian Fleming the author had Bond wearing an Oyster Perpetual watch. 

In 1962, Sean Connery was James Bond in the movie Dr. No where Agent 007 wore the Rolex Submariner for the first time. It appeared in several more Bond films that followed and with a few more actors portraying the Agent 007.


The first watch in 1922 named the Submarine was a watch cased within another case. It had a screw down fluted bezel on the top 1/2 of the outer case. From this early design Rolex has used the fluting design on many models, and the case backs today are still fluted and insure a waterproof closure.  In 1926, the Rolex Oyster got 2 patents, one for a screw down case and another for the screw down crown. In 1927, an young woman, Merceded Gleitze became famous as the 1st British woman to swim across the English Channel. On another attempt after the first swim she had a Rolex watch that she wore as she made the attempted to repeat her first swim. She failed after 10 hours as it was colder and was pulled from the sea almost semi-conscious. That evening she discovered her gold Rolex watch was perfectly dry inside and kept perfect timing after being in the water during her swim. Hans Wilsdorf
one month later launched the Rolex Oyster in the UK by placing a full frontage ad and this began the Rolex Oyster on its rise to fame!

the front page of the London Daily Mail on Nov. 24, 1927

 In 1910, Mr. Wilsdorf got Rolex its first Chronometer
certificate from Bienne. in 1914 a class A certificate from the Kew Observatory (also known as the King's Observatory) was received. In 1935 500 movements for the Rolex Prince model received official certification as chronometers. This certification of mechanical movements from the Observatory assessed the timepieces were accurate and drove the mechanical watch making industry toward higher & higher levels of accuracy. TODAY, ALL ROLEX OYSTERS ARE CERTIFIED CHRONOMETERS. In 1931 the first self-winding wristwatch was made that had a free central rotor which gave it constant energy for greater precision.


1935 - Sir Malcolm Campbell "The Speed King" broke the land speed record by going 300 mph. 

 

He wore a Rolex while doing this feat. He was also the record holder at the same time for going the fastest on water. He had set 9 world records for land speeds between 1924 & 1936. Rolex offered to pay him for using his image but he refused any monetary gift. 
He was the first male Sports figure that was used to advertise Rolex, as was Mercedes Gleitze the first famous woman used in Rolex ads in 1927.


1947 - Pilot Chuck Yeager became the first man to travel faster than sound. he wore an Oyster Perpetual that he had purchased himself. He has been a fan of Rolex for over 64 years.

On Oct. 14, 1947, he flew the experimental Bell X-1 and broke the sound barrier at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 ft. (13,700m) His career in the United States Air Force took him to every corner on the  globe. He retired as Brigadier General in 1972, and then was promoted to Major General in 2005 for his many Military achievements. 


May 29, 1953 - A Rolex Oyster accompanies members of Sir Edmond Hillary's victorious expedition and the first successful climb of Mt. Everest. 

Based on their recommendations, a new watch was designed. They suggested a more rugged case with a dial that was easy to read and larger hands & hour markers. Later the same year Rolex introduced the Explorer as a tribute to this historic feat.


1953 - SUBMARINER 










more to come . . . .
























Jan. 23, 1960 - Hydronaut Jacques Piccard dove to the deepest place on earth in the Trieste which is a submersible called a Bathyscaphe. 

This dive took him 7 miles (35,800 ft or 11 Kilometers) bellow sea level to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the northern Pacific. Strapped to the outside of the Trieste Bathyscaphe was a Rolex Deep Sea Special watch equipped with a special thick pressurized crystal that looks like its the size of a golfball on top of a watch. When the Trieste came up the watch was intact and fully functional.

    

THE ROLEX DEEPSEA SEA-DWELLER 

introduced in 2008