Spare parts... interesting news

[Puffy]

or not so interesting...

a friend who makes and supplies spare parts for Rolex tells me that a lot of the independent suppliers are being terminated. His company has been given notice and when stock is cleared, there'll be no more orders coming through

sounds like Rolex wants to make all parts themselves and have full control of the production and servicing, pushing up prices even further. i guess it's a good way of combatting counterfeit and inferior parts but...

... a green 16610LV insert costs almost CHF500 as opposed to CHF70 just a few months ago...

some bracelets that could be bought OTC for x amount are now exchange only and in some cases have gone up by as much as 40% in a very short period of time..

i'm also finding it more and more difficult to get parts like inserts, spare links etc. Sales reps and ADs now insist on seeing the watch, noting down the serial number to see what parts have been allocated against the watch previously, and any new parts are exchange only.

anyway, this news may have done the rounds already but thought i'd share with you guys just in case

[Johny]

very interesting stuff anders.

[Rikki]

Policies are different for each country those parts haven't been available here for years already. tubes crowns crystals and all internals should still be available to Independents for the foreseeable future. Rikki

[Welshwatchman]

I wasn't even aware that Rolex subcontracted its parts production out.

What type of parts did your friend's company produce for Rolex?

[Puffy]

Originally Posted by Rikki

Policies are different for each country those parts haven't been available here for years already. tubes crowns crystals and all internals should still be available to Independents for the foreseeable future. Rikki

sounds like it'll be stricter like it is in the US..

Originally Posted by Welshwatchman

I wasn't even aware that Rolex subcontracted its parts production out.

What type of parts did your friend's company produce for Rolex?

neither was I until he (old family friend) said they supplied anything aluminium to them. he's based in switzerland

don't think everything is subcontracted out, see this link for how some bracelets are made on site

makes sense to have everything made in one place rather than relying on suppliers and QAing and ensuring they adhere to standards etc

[Dan Pierce]

My watchmaker has required the serial numbers of watches that needed parts, per instructions from Rolex.
dP

[Rikki]

Back prior to the 70's there were hundreds of mom and pop machine shops in Europe some made gears some movement plates,dials hands so on and so forth. When the Japanese came on strong with the Quartz it almost spelled the death Nell for the small companies. So I believe that's when the SMH Group was formed and bought out a lot of these smaller companies and put them under one banner and it was this that saved the Swiss watch industry the Swatch Watch, it gave them the capital to rebuild consolidate retool and move forward. The industry is going through another round of austerity and retrenchment and tightening things up so hold on and let's see where this one goes. Rikki

[MoBe]

Originally Posted by Puffy

sounds like it'll be stricter like it is in the US..



neither was I until he (old family friend) said they supplied anything aluminium to them. he's based in switzerland

don't think everything is subcontracted out, see this link for how some bracelets are made on site

makes sense to have everything made in one place rather than relying on suppliers and QAing and ensuring they adhere to standards etc

Thanks for the "this link" link Puffy,James Dowling is obviously "connected" in the Swiss watch world.I recognize his name from TZ but I had no idea he is so "friendly" with Rolex.Nothing is better than getting a look at the design and technology and manufacture of a treasured watch.

[dddrees]

Interesting, thanks for sharing Anders.