Rolex Is Boosting Production: Is the Shortage Ending?

There aren’t enough Rolex watches to go around. Some cynically assume that the brand is artificially restricting supply to supercharge demand, but the watchmaker has always emphatically denied it. Now, Rolex is backing up their position that they really do want to put a watch on your wrist with the announcement of new and even temporary production facilities.

What does this mean for watch lovers?

How and when is Rolex boosting production?

Rolex doesn’t disclose its production figures, but it’s guesstimated and widely accepted that the brand’s current capacity is around 1 million units per year. That’s what’s coming out across its major facilities in Geneva (assembly and administrative), Biel/Bienne (movements), Plan-les-Ouates (cases and bracelets) and Chêne-Bourg (dials, bezel inserts, gems). Those places are all in Switzerland, of course.

It’s been previously rumored and reported that plans for a large new facility were underway, but Rolex hadn’t confirmed. The company has finally commented on the new site as well as temporary ones. The longterm investment is a $1 billion-plus facility in Bulle, Switzerland, that is said to be about 1 million square feet (~100,000 square meters). It’s expected to create 2,000 new jobs — but it won’t be up and running until 2029.

Rolex

What’s happening until then?

In the meantime, display cases sit awkwardly empty in Rolex boutiques and customers on long waitlists take their frustrations online. So Rolex is also setting up temporary facilities for the short term. Though still at the pre-construction phase, there’ll be a site in Villaz-Saint-Pierre that will start operating in 2024 and production at a Romont facility is expected to start in 2025. A third site in Bulle is for recruitment.

Rolex’s statement: “The new production site in Bulle, just like these three temporary installations, will allow Rolex to expand its production capacity, support growth and meet ever-increasing demand.”

Will steel Rolex sport watches be easier to get?

The answer is, presumably, eventually. That’s Rolex’s entire point, after all: to better meet demand. But production increases aren’t starting immediately, and it’ll take time for watches to hit boutiques even once the temporary factories are in action.

In case you weren’t aware, the most sought-after Rolex models (steel sport watches) have been increasingly scarce for years. It’s a situation that was exacerbated by production interruptions in 2020, but which started well before. The result has been that you either have to wait a long time (often years) or buy for much more than retail prices.

Rolex

What does it all mean for me right now?

The effects of increased production will likely be felt gradually in the market. That could be as early as around 2025 when the first temporary factories will be in operation. The good news, though, is that there are signs that peak Rolex scarcity has already passed. The highest secondhand prices have started to come down and new watches are, anecdotally, a little more available.

That being said, the brand certainly benefits from high demand and Rolex watches will no doubt remain sought-after, so Rolex retail prices will continue to increase yearly. But current market trajectory combined with a production increase should start correcting the current extreme imbalance, and that’s welcome news for a lot of hungry watch fans.

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