Leopard Rolex

Look very closely at this photo.

That, my friends, is a Rolex! Legit. It's available over at Swiss Luxury for, wait, it's on sale, today only!!, $1,000 off, bringing the sale price to.......

$49,550!

Such a deal!

I received notification of this bauble from my daughter, Heidi. The full text of her email succinctly said it all: "Why would someone do this to a Rolex?"

Now, there's an interesting question.

To create a brand as prestigious as Rolex, you have to do many things right. First, you need a quality product. I'm not a "watch guy" (I have friends who are ga-ga over watches) but I'm sure that other watches certainly are of at least Rolex's quality, if not far superior.

This got me wondering about the company's history. Lo and behold, NYU's Stern Business School (where my great-nephew Spencer is a student) has a piece about the company here.

According to that article, Rolex, which just celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2005, is the largest luxury watch brand in the world, with annual sales of roughly $3 billion. That's a nice business! The brand grew on the strength of its product: Rolex received Class A precision certification in 1914, an award never before given to a non-marine chronometer. Soon, the British Royal Air Force was issuing them to their pilots.

The Rolex brand was born.

Second, you also need great marketing. No doubt Rolex had developed and benefited from outstanding marketing to gain the kind of brand recognition and equity it has. Resisting the temptation to commoditize or to artificially broaden its product line, Rolex has maintained cachet. Here's a line from the Stern piece:

But as it approaches its 100th anniversary, Rolex is sticking to its core strategy of independence, continuity, and brand purity. The company’s attitude has allowed it not just to survive decades of technological and economic upheavals, but to thrive amid them. Even in today’s massive, global luxury-goods market, an independent company that clearly defines its market niche and relentlessly sticks to its strategy can rise to the top.

Here's where the trouble comes in. If you're Rolex, trying to maintain "brand purity," why would you create a monstrosity like this leopard thing?

Question: is it a knock off? Has someone made a $50k counterfeit Rolex and put it up for sale on swissluxury.com?

Unfortunately, it's more likely that someone at Rolex temporarily lost leave of his senses. In the giddy moment when innovative ideas are being bandied about, sometimes we lose our critical faculties. My friend Grant McCracken has asserted that "bad ideas go away on their own." In my experience, that's not always true. Sometimes, like the tarrying last guests at the party, bad ideas need to be ushered out the door...gently, mind you, but firmly.

I'm afraid someone at Rolex had just a little too much Kool-Aid when this idea came up.

Tags: Rolex

Comments

[Kristin]

It looks so angry!
Maybe it is to teach people to not look at their watches so often - they are trying to scare themselves out of looking...

It is very oogly.

[Tom Guarriello]

Wow..."angry" is a perfect description for it. So's "oogly"!

[Ralf Beuker]

Tom, thanks for sharing your musings about this truly 'ugly' object ;-)
However based on your evaluations and my personal judgement as well I see no other option for Rolex than releasing models like these.

By the same token the globalization of wealth, luxury and brands takes place with increasing pace consumer preferences of different cultural regions gain influence as well.

Just go to Baden-Baden, Germany (this is where England's soccer team is lodging these days ;-) which is one of Germany's hotspot for the new social class of Russian oil barons and their clans (as well as for "Spielerfrauen" with Victoria Beckham as the most prominent prototype) and you will notice in particular how different Western and Eastern European taste can be.

For me the 'Leopard Rolex' is perfectly addressing this rising consumer segment which I trust will increase once the BRIC block gets even more powerful. I trust that in the future we will see more iterations of the Leopard in many other categories as well; aren't some fashion brands always in danger to be canibalized by their own customers?-Anyway in the end someone has to afford these $ 3 Billion ;-) ... but wait, what am I going to do with my old Rolex? Is there a market on ebay? Fortunately you can limit your auction to certain geographic regions ;-)

[Tom Guarriello]

Ralf, I fear you are correct. Ostentatious displays of the trappings of wealth, the more hideous the better, will undoubtedly increase as riche becomes more nouveau. Brands like Rolex do have a choice, however. The question every brand has to answer is, "is there anything we won't manke?" If the answer is, "no," that brand's eventually going to get into trouble.

My question about your Rolex auction is, which regions do you want to limit it to?

Thanks for stopping by.

[Ralf Beuker]

... well, the question indeed is: Do they have a choice in the light of maintaining self imposed growth rates? What is the trade-off in order to afford the 'luxury' of resisting growth opportunities? --

Re-thinking the ebay example I think there's not even a need to limit the auction to regions. My Rolex (if I would own one ;-) would clearly find it's market in the western world while China has its clones in place ;-)

[swiss replica watch]

Wow good blog :) , I'm also very keen to have attractive rolex watches. I want to buy new rolex replica watch on this Christmas. So i went through http://www.swissprecise.com for online shopping. Now i need some more suggestions. Please help.

[reverse auctions]

This is certainly more artistic than functional and definately an acquired taste. While a travesty, truly a work of art!

[Tom Guarriello]

Reverse Auctions, eh? Very interesting. You connecting with Doc Searls at the Bergman Center at Harvard about his whole Vendor Relationship Management idea? You should. He's a big proponent of the kind of stuff you're trying to do.

By the way, you get the 2007 Golden Chicken award for the best spam comment received on my blog this year.

It is, at once an acquired taste, a travesty and truly a work of art!

[Robert]

Leopard Rolex is a waste in front of classic

[lion]

This is certainly more artistic than functional and definately an acquired taste. While a travesty, truly a work of art! For me the 'Leopard Rolex' is perfectly addressing this rising consumer segment which I trust will increase once the BRIC block gets even more powerful.

[take surveys]

this is such a cool watch. i want to buy one.

watch friends online

[Rolex Replica]

I really liked the Leopard Rolex showed in picture its really classic. The color combination and other features are making it so unique and wonderful... I wish to see it in my wrist :p

[Used Rolex Watches]

Yeah, this seems a little extreme for a strong brand like Rolex. Sometimes these brands feel that they need to create some pieces that are new and original to compete with the market share of the likes of an Ed Hardy, however, Rolex obviously doesn't match that price point. That is a little pricey is you ask me, no matter what the style.