How many people own a rolex

[Warnsboy]

Originally Posted by general

It is hard to say from the sales of the manufacturer since some people have more than one. Also you have to consider that after many many years of usage some watches eventually do go to watch heaven.

Very true! 2 1/2 years ago I owned none. Now, between my wife and I, I feel we have tightend the curve. Collectors like Mike Wood have been tightening the curve for years.

[Watch Fan]

This hobby is addictive for sure, but I'm sure there are worse things to be interrested in than watches. Just enjoy, that's what it's all about. It ain't a contest to see who has the most or least, as it really doesn't matter. By the way, welcome to the fun.

[karmatp]

Rolex is now probably one of the least exclusive brands out there, everyone has one.

As far as owning only one Rolex, I have a lot more respect for a guy who can find contentment with one nice watch.

[bugsychiou]

Originally Posted by nathan1038

Just interested to see if there are any stats out there of how many people world wide, or in specific countries, like US / UK actually own a rolex.

Thus we can do some maths and see what percentage of the population has them.

I feel a bit intimidated by this forum, as so many guys here have 3 - 7 rolexes while I just scraped together enough to get a pre owned 2004 date model.

I think that in fact there are 2 types of people around.... Those who have 1 or several RLX.... and those who wish they had !!

[multimedia]

Welcome to the best forum out there!

Just enjoy the fun of it all.

Cheers,
Joe

[rolexertion]

Oh, about 10% of the ones who claim they do. The rest are fakes.

[seedgun]

I don't have a clue but last summer i walked down Michigan Ave. in Chicago and would have assumed you had to have a Rolex to live there. Seemed everyother person had one.
A

[SpeakWithMichael]

That's funny, because I just had this same thought and I was tossing the possible figure around a bit, and I did a Google search and lo and behold, there's a thread on this forum about it. Ha! Perfect.

So here's my thought process: While Rolex manufactures about a million watches a year, that doesn't mean all are sold every year to an "end user". Many sit in pretty display cases at boutiques and AD's and grey market stores. And of actual "end users", i.e. private individuals who aren't dealers, it seems the majority of Rolex owners who are private individuals own more than one Rolex watch, further lowering the number of total unique users who own those watches that aren't sitting in a dealer's stock. So, if we're looking at unique number of owners, I would say that at any one time, I (and I could be wrong of course) don't see that figure being above, say, 10 million people who are regular citizens, non-dealers. For some reason (pulling it out of my bum), I lean towards the figure of about 6 million people who own at least one Rolex and are not in the business of selling more than one Rolex in a 2 year period. Enough period of time to not be considered one who flips Rolex's for profit, but rather buys them for enjoyment and may occasionally decide to try something else. So if there's 7.13 billion people on the planet and there are 6 million unique Rolex-owning people who are not dealers, that would put the Rolex-owning citizen in the .0008% of the population.

I would love to see if we can get a more accurate figure from someone who can put real statistics. Surely Rolex may have some data on this through their sales reporting for estimated total of unique owners that are not dealers. Or their best educated guess.

[watchmework]

No need to be intimidated, folks are pretty friendly on here...congrats on your Rolex and welcome to TRF!

[Rocco21]

Congrats on the watch and welcome.i myself never understood owning more than one watch at a time as I can only wear one and I don't like decisions.Im a one car,one watch kind of guy and no matter how rich I ever became I still would be.

[vipereaper30]

Funny I remember being intimidated by TRF in my pre-Rolex days, and now I have a handful in the collection. Before you know it you'll have more than one if you check in here with any regularity.

I'm going to guess an answer to your question and suggest that worldwide ownership is somewhere in the 2-3% range.

[GradyPhilpott]

Originally Posted by karmatp

...everyone has one.

I don't think so.

They're not too common to hold their value pretty well.

[Cold904L]

Originally Posted by vipereaper30

Funny I remember being intimidated by TRF in my pre-Rolex days, and now I have a handful in the collection. Before you know it you'll have more than one if you check in here with any regularity.



I'm going to guess an answer to your question and suggest that worldwide ownership is somewhere in the 2-3% range.

Hmm...

3% of the world's population is over 200 million people. That's way more than half the US population (statistically)... sounds much too high, even if we're talking worldwide.

For comparison, there are currently approximately 700 million iPhone users worldwide. Your guess suggests that current (vs. all time) Rolex ownership is as common as one out of every three iPhone users (speaking strictly statistically, not demographically). That sounds pretty darn high.

Another way to look at it is if Rolex sold 1 million watches per year to independent buyers for 100 years, we would still only be talking about 100 million owners (and we all know they didn't produce/sell 1 million watches per year in the early years, nor did they all go to first time buyers, nor are all those buyers current/living Rolex owners, nor are all those watches still intact/in existence).

Fun intellectual exercise :)

[vipereaper30]

Originally Posted by Cold904L

Hmm...

3% of the world's population is over 200 million people. That's way more than half the US population (statistically)... sounds much too high, even if we're talking worldwide.

But you are using logic and reason backed by facts. I was just taking a wild stab!

So you would say something less than 1%, say 0.8%?

[Cold904L]

Originally Posted by vipereaper30

But you are using logic and reason backed by facts. I was just taking a wild stab!

Oh, my bad :)

[Buckeye4life]

Originally Posted by nathan1038

Just interested to see if there are any stats out there of how many people world wide, or in specific countries, like US / UK actually own a rolex.

Thus we can do some maths and see what percentage of the population has them.

I feel a bit intimidated by this forum, as so many guys here have 3 - 7 rolexes while I just scraped together enough to get a pre owned 2004 date model.

I'm curious as to how many the OP has by now, over 6 years later. I would place the over-under at 3 and take the over. I've had one for 2 months (z-blue) and plan to get a GMTc and DD in the next couple of years.

This is one of the most polite forums around. How many forums do you know of where so many adults can abstain from swearing??

[oldman2005]

I think only a minority of us actually own Rolex, few can afford a $10K watch, many American is struggling, I read that average miner family income the Eastern US around $28,000. Some 65% percents of American have saving of less than $3K and live paycheck to paycheck. Many don't have retirement fund....So I consider myself to be extremely fortunate to own a few of these Rolex.

It's interesting to come to forum to see the hype up for expensive Rolex and see people struggling in real life financially.

[joli160]

Welcome to the friendliest place on the web

[Psmith]

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