How Rolex built a brand in the Middle of WW2
Swiss watch sales were badly hit by WW2. Watch companies were cut off from their best customers, the Brits and Americans. Rolex, however, discovered that there were plenty of Brits and Americans right on Switzerland’s doorstep — literally a captive market — in German prisoner-of-war camps.
I found a great brand story on Rolex’s Wikipedia page about Rolex, prisoners of war and the Great Escape:
Source: https://itemsofbeauty.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/product_images/1271_1.jpg
“By the start of World War II Royal Air Force pilots were buying Rolex watches to replace their inferior standard-issue watches. However, when captured and sent to prisoner of war (POW) camps, their watches were confiscated. When Hans Wilsdorf heard of this, he offered to replace all watches that had been confiscated and not require payment until the end of the war, if the officers would write to Rolex and explain the circumstances of their loss and where they were being held. Wilsdorf was in personal charge of the scheme. As a result of this, an estimated 3,000 Rolex watches were ordered by British officers in the officer camp Oflag VII-B in Bavaria alone. This had the effect of raising the morale among the allied POWs because it indicated that Wilsdorf did not believe that the Axis powers would win the war. American servicemen heard about this when stationed in Europe during WWII and this helped open up the American market to Rolex after the war.”
If we click on one reference, [72] to be exact, that the paragraph from above is based on, we get the full story:
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“Swiss watch sales were badly hit by the war, especially after Germany invaded unoccupied Vichy France in November 1942, and neutral Switzerland found itself completely encircled by Axis powers.
Watch companies were cut off from their best customers, the British and Americans.
Rolex, however, discovered that there were plenty of British and Americans right on Switzerland’s doorstep — literally a captive market — in German prisoner-of-war camps.
Stalag Luft III, for example, housed up to 10,000 Allied airmen, shot down in operations over occupied Europe. Thousands more Allied officers were interned in the various Oflag (officer’s POW camps) scattered throughout the German Reich.
This was evidently a booming market, judging from Rolex’s confirmation of an order for one of its more expensive watches received from prisoner No. 738 in Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Germany (now part of Poland). Hans Wilsdorf, founding director of Rolex who took personal charge of sales to POWs, warned Clive Nutting of “an unavoidable delay in the execution of your order.” The delay was due, not to wartime restrictions, “but to a large number of orders in hand for officers.”
The large number of orders is explained by the incredible offer Rolex was making to POWs. Underlined in Wilsdorf’s letter to Nutting are the words,
“…but you must not even think of settlement during the war.”
The news that Rolex was offering watches on a buy-now- pay-whenever” basis must have spread through the camps like wildfire.
More than 3,000 Rolex watches were reportedly ordered by British officers in the Oflag VII B POW camp in Bavaria alone.
It meant that Wilsdorf, himself a German, was betting on an allied victory.
By early 1943, this was a risk worth taking. The tide of war had turned: the Russians were on the offensive after routing the Germans at Stalingrad; German and Italian armies were being driven out of North Africa. But this expression of trust must have been a wonderful morale-booster for the POWs. Besides being a comfort in a POW camp, watches were part of an airman’s kit, and many had lost theirs on capture or in trying to avoid it. Clive Nutting, as a signaller, would also have been issued with a watch as part of his equipment. For escape-minded prisoners, who could only get to the borders by public transport, a watch was as essential as a train timetable.
Wilsdorf hedged his bet further by making this offer available to British officers only, in the belief that their word was their bond.
He had started his watch business in England, but moved to Switzerland after World War I for tax reasons.
He was also impressed by the fact that Rolex watches were popular among British Royal Air Force pilots. But he also extended the offer to Clive Nutting, who though not an officer nor even in the air force, was gentleman enough to order a 250-franc Rolex 3525 Oyster chronograph. Most other POWs ordered the much cheaper Speed King model, popular for its small size.
Source: https://www.rolexencyclopedie.nl/dutch/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/powbrief-HWNutting.jpg
The Oyster chronograph No. 122, ordered on March 10, 1943, was eventually sent on July 10 with a gratis invoice, certificate and instructions, and it was on Nutting’s wrist by August 4. As a chronograph, it could well have been useful in timing the patrols of the goons (prison guards) or the despatch of 76 escapers though tunnel “Harry” in the mass breakout of March 24-25, 1944.
Nutting was among a few army personnel quartered in the North camp of Stalag Luft III and, as a shoemaker by trade, was valuable both to the Germans and to the POWs. He thus had a privileged position in charge of the camp’s shoemaking workshop. He received a wage from the Germans, sent remittances to his family in England, and as an officer’s promissory note testifies, had money to lend. He could evidently afford a special watch.
The next we hear of the watch is on Nutting’s return to his home in Acton, London, in August 1945 when he writes to Wilsdorf that although his watch served well in the cold weather during the evacuation of the camps, it was now gaining an hour a day. Where can he have it fixed? And can he have the final invoice?
Due to British currency restrictions, Rolex could only send Nutting the invoice of ￡15 12s 6d for his watch in 1948. The chronograph stayed with him until his death in Australia in 2001 at the age of 90.
The last record of Nutting’s POW watch is a restorer’s bill for AU$2,356 (€1,400), dated March 28, 2003 — exactly 63 years after its original owner became a prisoner of war.
The Swiss watch industry also heavily promoted its watches to the estimated 5,000 allied escaped POWs in Switzerland (known as évadés), including more than 1,200 US airmen who had baled out of, or landed their crippled aircraft in Switzerland.
The Americans, as well as British officers, stayed in luxury hotels in such Alpine resorts as Adelboden, Wengen and Davos, becoming the mainstay of the wartime tourist industry.
Then-popular brands such as Aureole, Angelus, Cyma, Invicta, Movado, Mulco, Olma, Paul Buhré, Richard, Rodana and Pierce, advertised heavily in the évadés’ newspaper, Marking Time. Richard, in particular, took out whole-page advertisements offering évadés a 25% discount on their 100-franc automatic model, payment in 12 weekly instalments, and replacement in case of loss or theft.
Patek Philippe, more discreetly, advertised an expensive high-precision pocket-chronograph.
The Americans, with an allowance of CHF20 a day, had the most money to spend. Non-commissioned British and Dominion évadés had to subsist on CHF15 a week, yet most managed to save up enough to buy a watch.
The prices quoted for watches in the 1940s converted to current values, show that watches were relatively far cheaper then than they are now. In the pre-quartz era, watches were more of a necessity than a luxury.
The CHF250 quoted for Nutting’s Rolex chronograph in 1943 had the purchasing power of about USD2,500 today. Today’s Rolex chronograph costs around four times as much, although, unlike the 1940s model it’s automatic.
The cheapest Swiss lever watches sold for an equivalent of USD300-500 today. Automatics were at least twice as expensive.”
Actuary
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