Rolex: Timeless Excellence - (Invest Like the Best, CLASSICS)

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Colossus

Technology, Business, Investing

4.7 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome to this classic episode. Classics are my favorite episodes from the past 10 years, published once a month. These are N of 1 conversations with N of 1 people. This Business Breakdowns on Rolex is a long-time stand out. The founder and executive chairman of Hodinkee, Ben Clymer, was the perfect person to take us through the ins and outs of this legendary brand. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page ⁠here⁠. ----- This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WorkOS⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. WorkOS is a developer platform that enables SaaS companies to quickly add enterprise features to their applications. With a single API, developers can implement essential enterprise capabilities that typically require months of engineering work. By handling the complex infrastructure of enterprise features, WorkOS allows developers to focus on their core product while meeting the security and compliance requirements of Fortune 500 companies. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WorkOS. ----- Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, visit⁠ joincolossus.com/episodes⁠. Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠). Show Notes (00:00:00) Welcome to Business Breakdowns (00:03:01) His favorite Rolex watch ever (00:04:24) What makes the Rolex Daytona such a special watch (00:07:19) The job-to-be-done for high-end watches beyond just telling them the time (00:12:18) The strategy behind marketing luxury products: ⁠The Luxury Strategy⁠ (00:14:34) An overview of the Rolex business (00:19:38) The history of Rolex (00:38:45) Their genius in marketing and distribution (00:41:55) How they make decisions and what others can learn from them (00:47:14) The financials of Rolex and other luxury watch brands (00:49:02) Most important business lessons others can learn from Rolex (00:52:54) Other luxury brands worth studying (00:57:26) Negative lessons gleaned from Rolex

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to this classic episode. Classics are my favorite episodes from the past 10 years published once a month.
0:05.4	These are end-of-one conversations with end-of-one people. This business breakdowns on Rolex is a long time standout.
0:11.6	The founder of Haudinky, Ben Clymer, was the perfect person to take us through. The ins and outs of this legendary brand. I hope you enjoy it.
0:22.0	This is Business Breakdowns.
0:25.4	Business Breakdowns is a series of conversations with investors and operators diving deep into a
0:31.4	single business. For each business, we explore its history, its business model, its competitive
0:37.2	advantages, and what makes
0:39.2	it tick? We believe every business has lessons and secrets that investors and operators can learn from,
0:46.9	and we are here to bring them to you. To find more episodes of breakdowns, check out join
0:52.7	colossus.com.
0:57.4	All opinions expressed by hosts and podcast guests are solely their own opinions.
1:00.6	Hosts and podcast may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast.
1:05.5	This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.
1:11.8	Here's a puzzle. What do open AI, cursor, perplexity, Versel, Plaid, and hundreds of other winning companies all have in common? The answer is that they're powered by today's sponsor, Work OS. If you're
1:16.9	building software for enterprises, you probably felt the pain of integrating SSO, Skim, Rback,
1:22.6	audit logs, and other features required by big customers. WorkOS turns those deal blockers into drop-in APIs
1:28.5	with a modern developer platform built specifically for B2B SaaS.
1:32.5	Whether you're a seed stage startup trying to land your first enterprise customer
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	...

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