Rolex aims to meet the astronomical demand by ramping up production with four new facilities in Switzerland.
Today Rolex has four main factories in Switzerland: the headquarters in Geneva, the factory in Plan-les-Ouates in which cases and bracelets are made, another factory is in Chêne-Bourg where dials and bezels are manufactured, and the last stop is Bienne where the movements are made. Withing these factories, Rolex employes around 30.000 people and estimated that produces about 1 million watches in a year. Nevertheless, some Rolex models require years of waiting lists to get reach to them.
Indeed, the brand last year had announced that a new factory will built to increase production, which will cost about 1 billion dollar. This new factory in Bulle will employ 2.000 people and is planed to open in 2029. Yet, the huge watch company need to factories as soon as possible to give the huge demand for Rolex watches in recent times. Therefore, the brand has announced plans to ramp up production with three new temporary plants opening by 2025.
According to Andy Hoffman from Bloomberg, the construction of the facilities in the Canton of Fribourg will begin later this year. Although the brand has already hired and trained around 300 employees, it is not yet clear which parts of the watches will be produced in these temporary facilities. The construction of the main factory, which is scheduled to open in 2029, will also begin later this year. Rolex aims to meet astronomical demand and increase production capacity with three temporary facilities and a new facility to open in 2029. The temporary facilities are scheduled to open in 2024 and 2025. A recruitment center will be opened in Bulle in Fribourg.
As you might remember, Rolex announced its certified second-hand sales program toward the end of last year, it is said that it will affect the dynamics of the second-hand sector, and we will see whether there will be effect of the new factories to the waiting lists.
