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We are shuffled into a secure room – we are about to see the legendary Rolex automated stock system. Our guide places his eyes to the iris scanner (no

We are shuffled into a secure room – we are about to see the legendary Rolex automated stock system. Our guide places his eyes to the iris scanner (no lie) the doors slide open, and what we see is downright startling. [...] There are two 12,000 cubic meter vaults, spliced by a network of rails totaling 1.5 kilometers, transporting over 2,800 trays of components per hour between the 60,000 storage compartments and the workshops upstairs. The view is straight out of Star Wars, minus the 1970s camp. This is efficiency defined. Not your everyday company. Even if you're not particularly into watches, Rolex is a really neat example of a suuuuuper vertically integrated company. They even make their own steel! Necessary? Probably not; I'm not aware that they actually accomplish some sort of magic metallurgy. But, that's no ordinary company. In terms of things the average person can afford... if this kind of thing actually appeals to you but you can't imagine spending Rolex money... Seiko comes close and arguably exceeds even Rolex in terms of history, innovation, and vertical integration. It's one reason why Seiko is a favorite of many in the hobby. Why does this matter? Well, for many, it's simply neat to know that every single piece of the tiny little miracle machine on your wrist came from a single slightly secretive company. Timekeeping in general, and mechanical watches in particular, are a fascinating and vital part of human history. (And as wristwatches are something of a solved problem, they're appealing to me on that level after fighting with the framework of the week at my day job.)

underlines 6y ago
If you really want one, then Rolex are not that expensive. Get a certified second hand Rolex. But there are so many affordable Swiss watch brands. My father bought me a Certina for 200USD 15 years ago. My girlfriend bought me an automatic Tissot. The cheapest automatic Tissot is around 700USD new and you can get second hand options for 100 USD.
- Immortal333 6y ago
  >>> The cheapest automatic Tissot is around 700USD. Is the engineering/logistics behind Mechanical watches really costlier than Oneplus phones ?
  - JohnBooty 6y ago
    Is the engineering/logistics behind Mechanical watches really costlier than Oneplus phones ? Yes and no, right? Altogether, there are probably orders of magnitude more engineering involved in a mobile phone. But a lot of the "hard stuff" when it comes to a OnePlus phone is not done by them: they are not running their own chip foundries, designing their own silicon, researching their own battery tech, mining their own rare earth elements for the batteries, writing their own kernel from scratch, etc. Which is not to say I personally find a Tissot to be worth $700, relative to other watches. But! This stuff is all just "functional jewelry" anyway; even a Rolex doesn't keep time as well as a $15 quartz Casio. Could a Tissot provide $700 of happiness to somebody else, who isn't me? Maybe! Heck, I'm not even familiar with their whole catalog, perhaps they have a bunch of watches I'd love. It's also worth noting you can get a perfectly nice mechanical watch from Seiko or Orient for $100-$500USD. For me, that starts to approach some kind of reasonable value. Not on purely functional terms, but as something I will wear and enjoy for hundreds and possibly thousands of hours? I can't justify it on logical terms, but there are worse ways to spend disposable income. Barring disaster a watch will also work for decades, which is not likely to provide much joy to the owner beyond five years or so. (In fact if you don't mind buying from non-authorized dealers you can actually get a Tissot for cheap as well - I've seen them for not much over $100)
- Veen 6y ago
  > The cheapest automatic Tissot is around 700USD I'd like to second your Tissot recommendation. They're excellent quality for the price. I'm not a watch collector, but I am very fond of my Tissot Visodate, which replaced an Apple Watch that I found to be largely useless and quite annoying to wear.
- stevekemp 6y ago
  If you want a nice reliable, automatic, watch you don't even need a swiss maker. There are a great number of manufacturers with a long histories of watch-making, for example Vostok from Russian, and Laco from Germany. (I have a couple of Vostok "dive" watches, which cost about €60 each, as well as a nice Laco pilot-watch for around €300). You could even go Japanese with companies like Orient.
  - JohnBooty 6y ago
    Hahaha those Vostoks look like so much fun. I think I might ask for one for my birthday.
Animats 6y ago
If you want to see the "super secret legendary automated stock system", here it is.[1] It's an ordinary high-bay automated storage and retrieval system. Watch companies making their own steel is not a new thing. At least for balance wheel springs. Here's one of those classic Jam Handy films about watch mechanisms, made for the Hamilton Watch Company.[2] [1] http://rolexpassionreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/rpr_37502.jpg http://rolexpassionreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/rpr... [2] https://archive.org/details/HowaWatc1949 https://archive.org/details/HowaWatc1949
- computator 6y ago
  > If you want to see the "super secret legendary automated stock system", here it is. That same photo also appears in the original article where it explains that it is not the “super secret” one from the Rolex Plan-les-Ouates location but the Bienne location’s “pared-down” version of the stocking system.
retSava 6y ago
I assume lots of it comes down to storytelling and marketing, to be honest. "No-one makes steel good enough for us!" (there most likely is, and cheaper, and likely better) I hope I don't sound dismissive, nor do I not want to hold anyone from a nice hobby, but also, the timepiece hobby wouldn't really be what it is _without_ the storytelling.
- JohnBooty 6y ago
  Dismiss away! In case you can't tell from my post I'm not a Rolex guy and I wouldn't be, even if I had the money, which I certainly do not. But, it's always fascinating to me to see how they do things. As an engineer, I really appreciate that level of engineering excellence. In a world where nearly everything is so ruthlessly cost-cut, it's kind of nice just to see excess on the technical side. Maybe that's why I love reading about it. I'm a software engineer, and I literally do not have enough hours in a day to do my job. All I do is cut corners and I seldom love the result.
coldtea 6y ago
>They even make their own steel! Necessary? Probably not; No, but helps give some allure to the process, to justify the 500%+ markup. (I appreciate craftmanship of the Hatori Hanzo variety. But Rolex is crass commercialism with ridiculus markups and "faux" legacy).
- JohnBooty 6y ago
  It's utterly crass. However, their insane markups enable some serious engineering (please forgive the term) "porn." As a software engineer I do nothing but cut corners all day. While I do not desire to own a Rolex, I love these glimpses into their utterly surrealistic world of engineering excess.

underlines 6y ago

If you really want one, then Rolex are not that expensive. Get a certified second hand Rolex. But there are so many affordable Swiss watch brands. My father bought me a Certina for 200USD 15 years ago. My girlfriend bought me an automatic Tissot. The cheapest automatic Tissot is around 700USD new and you can get second hand options for 100 USD.

Immortal333 6y ago
>>> The cheapest automatic Tissot is around 700USD. Is the engineering/logistics behind Mechanical watches really costlier than Oneplus phones ?
- JohnBooty 6y ago
  Is the engineering/logistics behind Mechanical watches really costlier than Oneplus phones ? Yes and no, right? Altogether, there are probably orders of magnitude more engineering involved in a mobile phone. But a lot of the "hard stuff" when it comes to a OnePlus phone is not done by them: they are not running their own chip foundries, designing their own silicon, researching their own battery tech, mining their own rare earth elements for the batteries, writing their own kernel from scratch, etc. Which is not to say I personally find a Tissot to be worth $700, relative to other watches. But! This stuff is all just "functional jewelry" anyway; even a Rolex doesn't keep time as well as a $15 quartz Casio. Could a Tissot provide $700 of happiness to somebody else, who isn't me? Maybe! Heck, I'm not even familiar with their whole catalog, perhaps they have a bunch of watches I'd love. It's also worth noting you can get a perfectly nice mechanical watch from Seiko or Orient for $100-$500USD. For me, that starts to approach some kind of reasonable value. Not on purely functional terms, but as something I will wear and enjoy for hundreds and possibly thousands of hours? I can't justify it on logical terms, but there are worse ways to spend disposable income. Barring disaster a watch will also work for decades, which is not likely to provide much joy to the owner beyond five years or so. (In fact if you don't mind buying from non-authorized dealers you can actually get a Tissot for cheap as well - I've seen them for not much over $100)
Veen 6y ago
> The cheapest automatic Tissot is around 700USD I'd like to second your Tissot recommendation. They're excellent quality for the price. I'm not a watch collector, but I am very fond of my Tissot Visodate, which replaced an Apple Watch that I found to be largely useless and quite annoying to wear.
stevekemp 6y ago
If you want a nice reliable, automatic, watch you don't even need a swiss maker. There are a great number of manufacturers with a long histories of watch-making, for example Vostok from Russian, and Laco from Germany. (I have a couple of Vostok "dive" watches, which cost about €60 each, as well as a nice Laco pilot-watch for around €300). You could even go Japanese with companies like Orient.
- JohnBooty 6y ago
  Hahaha those Vostoks look like so much fun. I think I might ask for one for my birthday.

Animats 6y ago

If you want to see the "super secret legendary automated stock system", here it is.[1] It's an ordinary high-bay automated storage and retrieval system. Watch companies making their own steel is not a new thing. At least for balance wheel springs. Here's one of those classic Jam Handy films about watch mechanisms, made for the Hamilton Watch Company.[2] [1] http://rolexpassionreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/rpr_37502.jpg http://rolexpassionreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/rpr... [2] https://archive.org/details/HowaWatc1949 https://archive.org/details/HowaWatc1949

computator 6y ago
> If you want to see the "super secret legendary automated stock system", here it is. That same photo also appears in the original article where it explains that it is not the “super secret” one from the Rolex Plan-les-Ouates location but the Bienne location’s “pared-down” version of the stocking system.

retSava 6y ago

I assume lots of it comes down to storytelling and marketing, to be honest. "No-one makes steel good enough for us!" (there most likely is, and cheaper, and likely better) I hope I don't sound dismissive, nor do I not want to hold anyone from a nice hobby, but also, the timepiece hobby wouldn't really be what it is _without_ the storytelling.

JohnBooty 6y ago
Dismiss away! In case you can't tell from my post I'm not a Rolex guy and I wouldn't be, even if I had the money, which I certainly do not. But, it's always fascinating to me to see how they do things. As an engineer, I really appreciate that level of engineering excellence. In a world where nearly everything is so ruthlessly cost-cut, it's kind of nice just to see excess on the technical side. Maybe that's why I love reading about it. I'm a software engineer, and I literally do not have enough hours in a day to do my job. All I do is cut corners and I seldom love the result.

coldtea 6y ago

>They even make their own steel! Necessary? Probably not; No, but helps give some allure to the process, to justify the 500%+ markup. (I appreciate craftmanship of the Hatori Hanzo variety. But Rolex is crass commercialism with ridiculus markups and "faux" legacy).

JohnBooty 6y ago
It's utterly crass. However, their insane markups enable some serious engineering (please forgive the term) "porn." As a software engineer I do nothing but cut corners all day. While I do not desire to own a Rolex, I love these glimpses into their utterly surrealistic world of engineering excess.