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Hans Wilsdorf

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2024-06-04
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2024-06-04
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  1. “And then the last idea I want to leave you with, I think, speaks to just how unique Hans in his story truly is. In 1944, Hans set up the Hans-Wilsdorf Trust, which owns and controls Rolex to this day. He brilliantly set up the bylaws of his trust so Rolex could never be sold or made public, so it would never have to worry about catering to anything but making timeless watches. If you think about it, this means Hans' vision is still very much alive and being executed on a daily basis despite the fact that he passed away more than half a century ago. How many people can you think of that build a world class business and fifty years after they pass away the company keeps going as if they were still running it?”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “The wristwatch was the peak of my career as I foresaw the total development of the wristwatch for the Swiss Watch Industry. I can say I was one of the initiators in the whole watch industry. I was not only the first to understand the potential of the wristwatch, but I also made personal efforts which contributed largely to development of the industry. I think it's absolutely incredible to be able to hear the words of somebody had six decades of experience in this industry.”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “And then right before Hans dies, he gives this interview and I found a transcript that was translated from French. And I think he does a wonderful job summarizing the impact that his 60 year career had on the industry, that he in large part created. I entered the watch business as a young man at 19 years of age. That was 60 years ago, when wristwatches didn't exist. Wristwatches for men didn't exist at all. Men wore pocket watches, which went from father to son and sun to grandson, and the opportunity for the watch industry to grow was extremely limited as sales were very slow. As a young man understood it would be very difficult to obtain results in an industry that had little chance to make lots of money. Watches were cheap and the quality was not very good, especially since there was no factory able to produce small watches, which was necessary for wearing them on your arm.”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “To get an observatory timekeeping certificate. That is another example of doing as much work as possible for the customers. We talked a lot about the last two weeks for Steve Jobs. Hans is doing the same thing. It just makes it your decision easier. Oh, okay. Oh, I want a precise, obviously you want a precise wristwatch. Oh, these are the most precise? Okay, cool. That makes my buying decision so much easier. And so that is in 1914. Now the second part, he's got that three part. He's like, I want to be precise. I want to be waterproof. I want to be self-winding. And so this goes back to what I told you about. One of the most important things to understand about Hans is the fact that he understood the opportunity better than anybody else and he would invest heavily in developing the technology to bring his ideas to fruition. And that means he didn't have to invent on himself. He would buy the inventions of other watchmakers and then combine their ideas with his efforts. And look at how fast he would move. So there's two inventors. They're in Switzerland. They follow a Swiss patent and they create the world's first waterproof seal.”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Never forget and keep that in mind. He is writing about this 50 years later. And so the reason I brought up what Charlie Munger said is because he uses this social proof, right? Saying, it's funny is I read a bunch. There's so many fantastic old Rolex ads that were published when Hans was alive. And if you look at them, a lot of their ads say like the first, the only. So they'll say like the world's first self-winding watch, the world's first waterproof wristwatch. Another ad I found that says the Rolex still remains the only wristwatch in the world to gain certificates at Q. And so if you think about that, insistence on this idea to get to become the first to get the certificate, what happens? That makes your ads more effective. It's one form of leverage stacked on another. People are busy. If they're in the market for a wristwatch, right? They want to have one that's most accurate. And guess what? There's only one brand in the world that has proven it keeps time so precise that went that extra step to get it tested.”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Says in poor Charlie's Dominic is that social proof is a form of leverage. And so what Hans does here is very smart. He insists he goes to Egler and he's like, hey, I want to get certificates of performance from independent testing establishments. And so these are actually like astronomical observatories. They'll test how good these pieces are at timekeeping, essentially. And so there is a letter that Hans writes to Egler in 1912. And he's like, hey, we need to produce a Wistwatch that's capable of achieving an observatory. timekeeping certificate. Two years later in 1914, Egler actually solves that problem for Hans. And so Rolex achieves the first class A certificate ever to be awarded by an observatory for a wristwatch. This is what Hans says in his autobiography. Another red letter day, the development of our firm was when a small Rolex wristwatch won a Class A certificate at the famous Q Observatory. This was on July 15th, nineteen fourteen, and it was a day I shall.”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “More like marketing around that too. So he thought that was the key to success. Like, I just have to be the best possible. And so I think this idea is really, really important. I'm going to read a summary of this entire section to you. He also realized that he would get better orders and more control over the wholesale price of his watches if he could build up demand so that customers would go in the shop and ask for and insist on a Rolex watch by name by his branding and advertising campaigns, Hans effectively turned the tables on the retailers. No longer would he have to approach retailers and ask them to stock his watches. Customers would demand Rolex branded watches, and the retailers would have to come to him”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Is completely different. So at this time, you have your own watch brand, but you don't have your own stores, so you're selling to retailers. At the time, the watch brands don't have the names on the watches. The retailers would buy the watches and put their name on it. And so Hans talks about being one of the first people like, no, no, like, I'm going to sell you, I'm going to wholesale my watch and you're going to put my brand name on it, not yours. I think it was like a decade or a decade and a half, if I remember correctly, where he had to fight. So he said something like, you know, when I first started doing this, one out of six, they would agree like one out of six watches could have my name on it. Then it was two out of six. Then three out of six. And finally, five out of six. And insisting on doing this is actually really, really important because he also is a perfectionist. And so he realizes like, oh, quality. I said in the one of Steve Jobs episodes, I just did that. Quality was his survival strategy. I would say for Hans was the exact same thing. He's determined to produce the best wish wristwatch possible. And we'll go into how accurate and the ways he did really.”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “He does so, but he Rolex continues to do so. So he says, I decided to launch the Rolex trademark by means of an intensive advertising campaign. This policy entailed an annual expenditure of more than 12,000 British pounds, not for one year alone, but for several in succession. So I want to go back to how important this is. I want to go back to that business breakdowns episode on Rolex called Timeless Excellence. So it says Rolex was effectively the first people to have real marketing dollars put behind a watch. Rolex did this in a concentrated way and they have continued to do it in a way that is simply just unmatched by others in their industry. Rolex has been the number one brand for watches in the United States historically speaking from the 1950s to today. Now I want to fast forward way ahead in the story many, many years after Hans died because I think this idea is so important and I'm going to show where I've seen this idea. Other people use this idea successfully as well in a different industry. So go back to the transcript from this episode.”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Actually, a letter that he wrote in 1958 where he's talking about how he came up with Rolex. He had a series of traits that the name had to have for him to select it. And so he said, I needed a short name, it had to be five letters or less because it has to be able to fit. It has to look good on the actual watch. It has to be easy to pronounce in every language. It has to have a good ring to it and it has to be easy to remember. And so when I was thinking about this, it's like how great he did in selecting the name Rolex. If you listen to last week's episode about how Steve Jobs sold, one of the ideas, main ideas from how Steve Jobs communicated, how he sold his ideas to people was that if you can make ideas easy to understand, then they're easy to spread. Ideas that are easy to understand are easy to spread. And I think you see an echo of that idea with Hans naming and actually picking. He's like, this is the brand that I'm going to build and the one I'm going to invest in for the rest of my life. So now that he has a name, he does something that's really, really smart. Again, he's very uncommon for watchmakers to advertise directly to the public.”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Watch company. He had the RWC Limited, and he would even combine Rolex with other brand names. And this, again, this is where he just realized this is a fucking terrible idea. I'm trying to sell every single price point on a watch. So there was one Marconi named after the inventor of the radio. And so he had one called the Rolex Marconi. And all that did was allow people to think that they're buying Rolex, but they're getting it at a cheaper price. And so it's through all this trial and error where Hans realized like, oh, this is a terrible idea. I'm cannibalizing sales. Like, this doesn't make sense. I'm going to focus. And so this is where 1908, he's like, okay, I'm going to have one single brand name and a brand that I can invest in it for the long term. So he says it was time to think of giving our watches a name of their own. A trade name, what we would call a brand name, a brand name which could be inscribed on the dials. I was well aware that unless I succeeded in making RWA watch known under its own name, that my prospects would be limited. He would just be a middleman, right? And so this.”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “And so at this point, I need to be clear about something. This is not Rolex. He's selling under a ton of different brand names. He's eventually going to realize, hey, I don't want to just be sitting in the middle, right? I don't want to be a middleman. I want like all the value creation is going to be if I own my own brand. And this is what I meant about this constant iteration, this trial and error. I'm going to read some of the brand names he had. They're freaking terrible. And so at this point, prebling down on this fantastic idea of Rolex, he hasn't discovered that yet. So what he's doing is like there's a bunch of other brand names that he's experimenting with. He had this idea this is hilarious too because I was reading about this. Because you know Rolex isn't now. I don't even think there's such a thing as a cheap Rolex, right? And so he had this idea. He's like, well, I can supply a watch for every pocket. And what that means is like, let's say you can order, you know, I'm making these numbers up, but like a $5 watch or a hundred dollar watch or a $2,000 watch. It's like, I want to, I'm going to serve every single aspect of the market, which obviously they don't do anymore. This is his iteration is like.”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “And so Hans is going to describe. So you have the manufacturing and the making of Rolex watches, or what's going to be sold under Rolex brand, which I haven't got there yet. He's going to happen in Switzerland. He's still in London. So the design and the sales is separate from the manufacturing. And so he would travel from London to Switzerland several times a year. And he says, I would bring with my collaborators new and personal ideas demanding that they be realized. In this way, hundreds of models were conceived and launched all across the world. He's selling this. Again, this goes back to the world's entire classroom. You have no idea how you're going to use all the experience you have. Remember, he worked for an importer. They were taking Swiss watches and sending them everywhere. So he's just doing the same thing. Now with his own products. And as we'll see, he's a master marketer, which I'll get into in a minute, but he's having immediate success. This is how both a new fashion and a great commercial success sprang from an apparently foolhardy idea. He's referencing the fact that everybody around him thought what he was doing was silly. Men are never going to wear these watches.”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “And then how they operate today. But the reason I need to bring this up is because Egler is a very important name in the history of Rolex from the very start of Rolex, Egler is actually the one manufacturing the watches that were sold as Rolex watches. Buying these movements from Eggler is what Hans describes as his very first step forward in our climb to success. Now the crazy thing, the reason I bring this up is because I also love like an old school keep your word mentality. So Hans and the founder of Egler had a handshake deal for 70 years. And the deal was that Eggler would make movements solely for Rolex. And when they say there's a great line in the podcast episode, he's like, when I say an actual handshake deal, I mean a handshake deal. There was nothing on paper. There was nothing in writing all the way up until 2004 when Rolex finally buys Angler. Undoubtedly. Undoubtedly at that point in 2004, Rolex is already making selling billions of dollars.”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Accessible in price. So then after founding my firm in 1905, I go and place an order with Eggler. This was the first step forward in our climbed success, so I need to bring, there's a bunch of other things I read to prepare for this podcast. I'll leave all of them linked down below. I pulled out a bunch of different books, but this podcast my friend Patrick did, it's one of the best business podcasts I've ever heard in my life. I don't even know how many times I've listened to it now. It is an episode of business breakdowns. I will link it down below, but if you just go in your podcast player, look for business breakdowns and then search Rolek. It has a great name too. Rolex. Timeless Excellence. My friend Patrick interviewed Ben Klymer. Ben's the founder of Hodinki. He got access back in like 2015. He's one of the first people Rolex ever because they're super, super secretive, but he was one of the first people to actually go and tour all of their four manufacturing facilities. So he wrote this fantastic article that I also reread. And then he talks a lot about the history of world.”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Only one but several. And then this may be the most important sentence I read from Hans or About Hans because this is just an incredible sentence because Hans had the highest order bit that other people in the watch industry didn't and that was belief. And this is what he said. I had very early realized the manifold possibilities of the wristwatch and feeling sure that they would materialize in time. I resolutely went on my way. Rolex was thus able to get several years ahead of other watch manufacturers who persisted in clinging to the pocket watch as their chief product.”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “He says the task I undertook meant the overcoming of enormous difficulties. He just laid out all the problems that were preventing other people from doing this. And yet today, after 40 years of striving, it seems to me that I have surmounted them. And I believe that in doing so, I've contributed to the development of the watchmaking industry in general. And then it gets even more fascinating because then you could tell he's thinking like an entrepreneur, you know, he wanted to build wealth, as you can imagine, an orphan wanting to do so, right? And so such a he identifies like, well, this pocket watch, the pocket watch industry is never going to grow because how are we using it? At the time, pocket watches were passed down from father to son, then from son to grandson. And they're also hidden in your pocket. And Hans is looking at this. It's like, this is a big problem. And so what he realizes, like if he could take it out of the pocket and put it on your wrist, right? There's going to be more wear and tear, but you're also going to see it. So he says, the wristwatch was bound to bring.”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Necessity be small and delicate and could therefore never withstand the violent gestures of the hand and arm. Second, dust and water would rapidly spoil the mechanism. He's going to solve that problem too. Third, accuracy and regularity of working could never be attained with such so small of a movement. That's a third problem that he is going to solve. Back to Hans. In spite of all of this, I kept my faith in the wristlet watch and was determined to see what could be done. Now this is the crazy thing. So he's writing that as a 65-year-old man. I found a quote when he is 33 in 1914. This guy really believed in this. He says, my personal opinion is that the pocket watches were almost completely disappear and that wristwatches will replace them definitively. I am not mistaken in this opinion and you will see that I am right. That is insane. He is 33 years old when he's saying that.”

    2024-06-04 · Founders · #351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source