Surprise! Rolex Selects New CEO!

Surprise! Rolex Selects New CEO!

May 04

For a company that historically hasn’t changed very much, Rolex has certainly had it’s share of changes at the top over the last two years.  Rolex has just announced that it has a new CEO – Riccardo Marini.

Recall that in 2008, long-time Rolex CEO Patrick Heiniger was ousted amidst unsubstantiated rumors that he had invested and subsequently lost a substantial amount of Rolex’s financial resources with the notorious Bernie Madoff.  In his place, Rolex appointed Bruno Meier.  Of course, the famously secretive Rolex never explained why Patrick Heiniger was removed, nor the reasoning behind the selection of Bruno Meier.  However, the fact that Bruno Meier had very little exposure to the luxury watch industry,  and instead had a career almost exclusively in the Swiss banking industry (At the well-known Swiss bank ZKB, Bruno Meier was head of the Risk Management Unit) did nothing to quell the rumors that Rolex had experienced a substantial loss in the Madoff scandal.

Just as in 2008, today Rolex is giving absolutely no reasoning or rational for the installation of Riccardo Marini who replaces Bruno Meier after just two years.  Vontobel analyst Rene Weber said he was surprised by the move. “The reasons are unclear and the new CEO is not known to us,” he said, adding he estimated Rolex sales amounted to 4.4 billion Swiss francs ($5.1 billion) in 2010.

Here’s my take:  If you take the Madoff Scandal out of the equation for a moment, in 2008 when Rolex replaced Heiniger, they were facing a very grim global economy.  It makes sense that they would want someone who help keep the focus on the bottom line under such conditions – someone who could potentially help restructure Rolex’s financial relationships in the Swiss banking industry if necessary – a guy like Bruno Meier.  Of course, the utility of someone like Bruno Meier for Rolex if they had lost money in the Madoff Scandal would clearly be even great….I’m just saying. 

Fast forward to today:  The global economy is much better, which most of Rolex’s major markets experiencing signs of recovery, and even pockets of prosperity.  Now it makes more sense to have someone at the top who’s more died-in-the-wool Rolex.  Someone who understands the company culture, and who understand watches.  Someone like Riccardo Marini.  And having been CEO of Rolex Italia, Marini has experience and insight into a market which has tremendous strategic (if not outright dollar sales) value to Rolex – Italy.  The value of the vintage Rolex market as it relates to the perceived value of modern Rolex watches cannot be over-stated.  And Italy practically created and to this day control the vintage Rolex market.  So in my mind, the selection of   Riccardo Marini makes perfect sense for Rolex’s long-term growth and prosperity, while Bruno Meier was more of a short-term “fix” to “right the ship” in the storm waters of the global recession.

I could be wrong…but since Rolex will never say otherwise, who’s to say I’m wrong?    We here at LuxuryTyme and the Rolex Community in the Rolex Forum on WATCH TALK FORUMS would like to congratulate Riccardo Marini and wish him much success at the helm of our beloved Rolex.