Don't forget, last year Rolex spent $43.66 million on global advertising, which for basically a niche market company is a staggering budget. In fact, it's almost as much as what TAG, Citizen and Movado spent last year combined, on advertising (and they're the next three biggest spenders in the watch world).
Consider Cartier only spent 5.89 million on watch ads last year and PP only $5.37 million (and also consider they buy ads in magazines that cost way more than say Road & Track, where Rolex always has an ad).
By spending such a huge sum of money on advertising seems somewhat unnecessary to me (who works in public relations) given the depth and scope of the company's reputation and brand recognition. In fact, only two watch brands made the top 100 most recognizable corporate brands in the world... Rolex and Cartier, and yet Cartier spent 35 million-odd less than Rolex in advertising.
Yes, Rolex is a decent corporate citizen from a sponsorship, humanitarian, etc., standpoint. But I think if they took a more grass roots view of their die-hard customers, they wouldn't have supporters of the brand leave (and you guys know who you are ;~) and move on to other brands, is my guess.