Rolex

Acquired

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

Venturecapital, Ma, Investing, Acquisitions, Startups, Vc, Investment, Business, Technology

4.8 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2025

⏱️ 301 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Rolex is a series of paradoxes. They sell obsolete and objectively inferior mechanical devices for 10-1000x the price of their superior digital successors… and demand is stronger than ever in history! Their products are comparable to a Hermès Birkin bag in price, luxury status and waitlist times… yet they produce over 1m units / year (roughly 10x annual Birkin production). They make the most universally recognized and desired Swiss watches… yet their founder wasn’t Swiss and didn’t start the company in Switzerland! If Rolex were publicly traded, they’d almost certainly be among the top 50 market cap companies in the world… yet they’re 100% owned by a charitable foundation in Geneva that (among other things) literally just gives away money to local people in the city.

Tune in for one of the most fascinating and admirable companies we’ve ever covered on Acquired. We had an absolute blast making the episode, and hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Sponsors:

Many thanks to our fantastic Spring ‘25 Season partners:

Links:

Carve Outs:

More Acquired:

Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
Join the Slack
Subscribe to ACQ2
Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!

‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	All right, David, what's on your wrist?
0:02.1	Well, currently on the wrist is my stainless white-faced Daytona that my dad gave me.
0:08.4	I think it was still quite popular when he gave it to me probably close to 15 years ago, but not like it is today.
0:14.8	A strong choice.
0:16.1	I am actually also wearing a Daytona that I am borrowing from a good friend of the show.
0:20.4	Mm, Love it.
0:21.7	Well, fun fact for listeners, the watch that David is wearing is the one that I was wearing
0:26.7	during the Morris Chang interview when we wanted to foreshadow that this was our next episode.
0:32.0	Yes, and in front of me here now in my hand, but not on my wrist, is my other Rolex that my
0:37.3	dad gave me a long time ago,
0:39.1	my Rollisaur Dayjust.
0:41.4	Dude, you got to go one on each wrist.
0:43.1	Yeah, you got to.
0:45.0	Great.
0:46.0	All right.
0:46.6	Who got the truth?
0:49.4	Is it you?
0:50.3	Is it you?
0:50.8	Is it you?
0:50.8	Is it you?
0:50.9	Is it you?
0:51.8	Is it you?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.