Rolex’s founder, Hans Wilsdorf, was a visionary entrepreneur who left his mark on the world, far beyond the realm of watchmaking.
True to his memory, the brand keeps his entrepreneurial spirit alive along with his desire to pass on his expertise through a broad range of apprenticeships. Rolex is also recognized for its long-standing and ongoing commitment to the environment, society and culture.
Expertise
Historically, Rolex’s development has always drawn on the notion of durability, offering watches that are extremely reliable, timeless and designed to last. This approach reflects the ‘Perpetual’ attitude that has driven the company since its inception and motivates those who work there day after day in a demanding and rigorous quest for quality, continuous improvement and the pursuit of excellence.
This determination to constantly push back the boundaries has resulted in genuine industrial independence. By integrating and giving prominence to all its different areas of expertise, Rolex has created a framework in which it can perpetuate its quest for excellence. This decision to advocate its independence shapes the brand’s identity, at the crossroads of tradition and cutting-edge technology.
Passing on watchmaking and artisanal expertise
As a fully integrated company, Rolex owes its success to the combined expertise of staff representing over 150 professions. Craftsmanship and manufacturing expertise are passed on day by day in the production workshops at the very heart of the watch production lines. This is where the brand’s employees are trained and continue to be trained, with an emphasis on discussion and experience sharing. Everyone learns from more senior, more experienced staff members and helps to develop new technical and technological solutions in the manufacturing and checking of products, to guarantee the exceptional performance of Rolex watches. This performance is achieved through industrial and staff efforts focused on constantly calling into question what has been learnt and continuously improving procedures, tools and tests. Innovation is inherent to the brand, as demonstrated by the many patents filed by Rolex since its creation.
Passing on watchmaking expertise also involves training, and specific plans have been developed in this area. In particular, each employee is invited to follow a core curriculum covering content specific to the watchmaking sector and to the world of Rolex and its values.
Apprenticeships
In order to ensure the workforce of tomorrow and to meet the needs of the local economic landscape, Rolex is developing an ambitious apprenticeship scheme. The brand’s strategy is also to preserve and pass down expertise at company level and within the watchmaking sector as a whole. In addition, Rolex wants to promote all its apprenticeship schemes (20). Divided into watchmaking, industrial and service professions, they each represent an essential link in the Rolex watch manufacturing chain.
Young people enrolled in an apprenticeship scheme (2023/2024 academic year)
Men
Women
Rolex offers a dual training programme (college– company) that enables apprentices to combine theoretical courses with practical learning to become a:
— Watchmaker (CFC)
— Metalworker (CFC)
— Polymechanic (CFC)
— Commercial employee (CFC)
— Industrial designer (CFC)
— Production mechanic (CFC)
— Watch finisher (CFC)
— Chemistry technician (CFC)
— Physics technician (CFC)
— IT specialist (CFC)
— Gem-setter (CFC)
— Electroplating technician (CFC)
— Automation technician (CFC)
— Watchmaking operator (AFP)
— Polisher (AFP)
— Logistics officer (CFC)
— Microtechnology quality controller (CFC)
— Mechanics practitioner (AFP)
— Computer operator (CFC)
— Production watchmaker (CFC)
Inaugurated in 2018, the Rolex Training Centre in Geneva has an entire floor dedicated to providing courses and workshops for the next generation of watchmakers. Bienne also has a training centre to instruct the new generation in the brand’s various activities.
In parallel, still with a view to training both young people and adults, the company develops and maintains relationships with colleges, training institutions and universities.
Focus
Rolex has been working for nearly three years to promote vocational training and increase its number of apprentices. The aim is to ensure the long-term future of its expertise and support the group’s succession strategy.
Project 500 aims to double the number of apprentices over the next 10 years. Within this framework, Rolex’s ambition is to become a benchmark in vocational training for the younger generation.
A socially responsible company
Rolex’s ambition is to protect the planet, keep cultural heritage alive, promote innovation and inspire new generations. For many years, the company has been supporting people and institutions seeking solutions to today’s challenges, which include global warming, dwindling resources and sustainable construction. As a socially responsible company, the brand also works for the common good through donations made in Switzerland and around the world.
Perpetual Planet Initiative
For half a century, the affinity Rolex historically shares with the world of exploration has encouraged the brand to strengthen its partnerships with personalities and organizations that are committed to discovering, understanding and preserving the planet. Since 2019, the brand has structured its long-term support for action or projects dedicated to current environmental topics – particularly those linked to the poles, oceans, mountains, forests and living organisms – within its Perpetual Planet Initiative. It is now aiming to further expand the portfolio of projects it supports in order to enhance the impact it has, and to train and raise awareness about these topics among future generations.
The brand’s approach is threefold: explore, act and inspire. Explore to better understand the planet and the changes it is experiencing. Take tangible action to dissipate the dangers threatening nature, ecosystems, the climate, and the communities that are their first victims. Finally, inspire the next generations of explorers, scientists and environmentalists by fostering links with entrepreneurs and decision makers.
In this respect, Rolex offers its partners significant financial support over several years, allowing them to develop their initiatives. The brand also provides them with unrivalled visibility and showcases their activities by giving them access to an audience that extends far beyond their own circle.
Some organizations supported by Rolex are long- standing partners – such as Sylvia Earle’s Mission Blue, which protects a network of vulnerable marine areas (around 160 Hope Spots) or the National Geographic Society – which are developing new initiatives or expanding the scope of their activities with the brand’s support. Others are new partners renowned for their long-term, high-quality work, such as Rewilding Argentina and Rewilding Chile, both offshoots of Tompkins Conservation, which are helping nature to reassert itself in the southern part of South America.
Perpetual Arts Initiative
As part of its support, Rolex works with leading artists and cultural institutions to celebrate excellence and help to perpetuate the world’s artistic heritage by creating bridges between people and places, but also between past, present and future.
Through its Perpetual Arts Initiative, which brings together all its cultural partners from the world of music, architecture and film, Rolex confirms its long-standing commitment to the arts around the globe. In this way, the brand is making a lasting contribution to all these disciplines, which play an integral part in the development of societies and their history.
Rolex also supports creativity, the unearthing of new talent, encounters between artworks and audiences, and the preservation of cultural treasures.
In this context, the brand is currently fostering 12 projects dedicated to education and knowledge sharing in the arts. The brand wants to extend this support to specialist institutions, as well as programmes and competitions.
For instance, Rolex has partnered the prestigious Vienna Philharmonic since 2008 and the New Year’s Concert since 2009. The brand is also a long-standing partner of four of the world’s most prestigious opera houses: the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Alla Scala, the Royal Opera House in London and the Opéra National de Paris.
Rolex has been the Exclusive Partner of the International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia – since 2014. It has also been working with the Norman Foster Foundation since 2017. Still in the same field, the brand assisted with a workshop dedicated to sustainable construction held from 2021 to 2023. In 2024, it committed to supporting a master’s degree in Madrid on sustainable cities for one year.
In 2017, Rolex became the Exclusive Timepiece of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Proud Sponsor of the Oscars® and the Exclusive Sponsor of the Governors Awards. Rolex is also a Founding Supporter and Official Watch of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which opened in Los Angeles in September 2021 as the largest museum dedicated to film in the United States.
Finally, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative holds a special place within the Perpetual Arts Initiative. It plays a key role in passing on and promoting excellence and the future of the arts in seven artistic disciplines: architecture, music, dance, the visual arts, film, theatre and literature. Thanks to this programme, talented young people are guided by masters who help them to unleash their creative power.
Focus
Since 1976, through the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, Rolex has supported the development of innovative projects aimed at improving living conditions on earth and pushing back the frontiers of knowledge. In almost half a century, this prize has been awarded to 160 Laureates, aged between 24 and 74, from every continent, all with a strong social commitment to their region. The winning projects involve the simplest, sometimes ancestral, techniques as well as the most sophisticated technological innovations. Among other benefits, they have helped to protect 48 endangered species, plant 33 million trees and preserve 32 key ecosystems, including 57,600 km2 of Amazon rainforest.
An independent jury of ten international experts chose the five 2023 Rolex Awards for Enterprise Laureates. The projects selected this year involve providing clean water to communities living in arid regions (Beth Koigi, Kenya); protecting one of the last primary forests in West Africa (Inza Koné, Côte d’Ivoire); saving wild camels in danger of extinction in East Asia (Liu Shaochuang, Mongolia and China); mobilizing indigenous communities to reforest the high Andes (Constantino Aucca Chutas, Peru) and creating a ‘farm-to-closet’ supply chain to both support craftspeople and protect the environment (Denica Riadini-Flesch, Indonesia).
Donations policy
Rolex’s shareholder, the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, has a mission to act in the public interest and carries out philanthropic activities thanks to the dividends generated by the group. The Foundation is active in the fields of culture, training, social action, humanitarian aid and the protection of animals and ecosystems. In accordance with the wishes of its founder, Hans Wilsdorf, a number of its activities are concentrated in the canton of Geneva. The Foundation is a major player there and, through its actions in the humanitarian and environmental fields, also has a global impact.
Besides the Foundation’s philanthropic activities, Rolex SA makes additional donations. The company has chosen to promote education, encourage career guidance for young people and prioritize innovation in areas where the brand has a long-standing presence, focusing actions on projects of a scientific, cultural or sporting nature or that are related to the conservation of watchmaking heritage, to the economy and commerce. Recipients may also have a connection with members of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise and the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative communities, as well as the local community. Nearly all (90%) of the donations made by Rolex SA are anonymous.
Sustainable development