Rolex: Timeless Excellence

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (0:00)
Welcome to this classic episode. Classics are my favorite episodes from the past 10 years, published once a month. These are end of one conversations with end of one people. This Business Breakdowns on Rolex is a long time standout. The founder of Hodinkee, Ben Clymer, was the perfect person to take us through the ins and outs of this legendary brand. I hope you enjoy it.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:22)
This is Business Breakdowns. Business Breakdowns is a series of conversations with investors and operators diving deep into a single business. For each business, we explore its history, its business model, its competitive advantages and what makes it tick.
We believe every business has lessons and secrets that investors and operators can learn from. And we are here to bring them to you. To find more episodes of Breakdowns, check out joincolossus.com. All opinions expressed by hosts and podcast guests are solely their own opinions. Hosts and podcast guests may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (1:06)
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Ben, I was trying to think of an appropriate first question to break down Rolex. I think it has to be, what is your favorite Rolex watch ever?

**Ben Clymer** (2:49)
Oh, man, that's a really complex question for a gentleman such as myself. The Daytona is probably my favorite Rolex as an object. There are Rolexes that mean a lot to me from a sentimental point of view, being my grandfathers, my fathers, etc. But the Daytona as a thing has always been the peak of my fascination from the early 6239s, which is first-generation Daytona, back before it even said Daytona on the dial. I wrote a story probably 10 years ago plus at this point on Hodinkee about those. There was some curiosity within Rolex about what they should call it, and this was before they sponsored Daytona. The original name of the cosmograph, the chronograph for racing was Le Mans. It's called Rolex for a variety of reasons, but one of which is Rolex is Rolex in any language, and Le Mans with that silent S, the Rolex marketing department as small as it was in 1963 said, you know what, that could turn off the American market. If you've ever tried to pronounce Audemars Piguet as Audemars Piaget, which is about 50 percent of humanity, you realize how uncomfortable that can be. They quickly went to the Daytona. So the Daytona as an object is probably my favorite. I will say that the watch that I'm actually wearing right now, which was actually the first modern Rolex ever bought, which is the Pepsi GMT in white gold. I actually just realized I bought two months after we published the Inside the Rolex story that I wrote in 2015, is probably the one that means the most to me because I've just had it the longest and it was to celebrate something personal at the time.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (4:04)
So say a bit more about the Daytona, like what is it about it as a physical object that you think makes it special?