Quote:
Originally posted by kqw
In addition, the precious metals used to make that Rolex accounts for a good part of the expense of the watch.
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Actually this is not true. Rolex makes enormous amounts of money on that false perception.
Take a stainless steel model (Daytona, President...whatever) and then compare this to the price of the solid gold model. There is a $10,000.- +/- difference in price, but the gold weight of the latter is probably 2 or 3 oz max - and it isn't even pure gold. So you pay a premium of 10K for something that should cost 1 or 2K at most.
Even more extreme profits are made by Rolex on the diamond and ruby encruted models.
A friend of mine in Hong Kong deals in these watches and once showed me a pie-chart that indicated the cost components of a typical Rolex watch. Materials and manufacturing was less than 10%! A huge amount - 30 or 40% - went to advertising!
Objectively (value for money) the watch is a total rip off. Still, I wouldn't trade mine for any other brand. You either get it or you don't. Just like a 911 - as someone pointed out.