Where this was said
Patrick Heiniger and Vertical Integration
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Patrick Heiniger joins Rolex in 1986 as commercial director at the height of the Paul Newman craze and becomes CEO in 1992. His defining contribution is vertical integration: consolidating all physical production from approximately 30 scattered Swiss locations to just 4 massive in-house facilities that manufacture everything — movements, cases, bracelets, dials, metals, and even the machines that test them. He acquires Aegler in 2004 for a rumored 1 billion Swiss francs, ending the 99-year handshake deal. The 4 sites host Rolex's own forges, their own alloys (Oystersteel, Rolesor, Everose gold), and proprietary testing machines that open and close clasps 1,000 times in minutes. This ensures every Submariner that leaves a Rolex box is of identical quality — a non-negotiable for global luxury brand management.
During the Quartz Crisis, Switzerland's global watch market share collapsed from 85% in 1945 to just 15% by 1980, devastating the industry.
By 1980, Hong Kong was already exporting 126 million watches per year — more than Switzerland's all-time peak of 90 million — just a few years after quartz technology reached mass market.
