World famous manufacturer of luxury watches, Rolex, has arguably the highest amount of brand equity of any watch company. This luxury watch company was originally founded in London, England in 1905 by German watch maker Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law Alfred Davis. The two set out to form their own wrist watch company and registered the trademark for “Rolex” in 1908. High taxes during World War I caused Wilsdorf to move to Geneva, Switzerland where the company is headquartered today. Since then Rolex is a industry leader in ultra-high end watches where some custom made units sell between $400,000 – $1 million dollars. Rolex has a wide range of luxury watches for both men and women and the company is recognized throughout the world. Rolex was able to position itself as a marker of luxury watches and as a status symbol through the use of high quality materials, expert manufacturing, and smart marketing. We are going to examine some of the most popular Rolex ads of all time.
5. Tiger Woods meets the Sky-Dweller
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IimcIc4_Lo
The first commercial that made our list is a commercial that aired back in 2012 that featured Tiger Woods. Rolex wanted to work with Tiger Woods so they came up with the smart idea of filming his reactions to their Oyster Perpetual Sky-Dweller watch while simultaneously advertising their product. Woods took some time out of his practice to film the commercial as he was getting ready for a tournament. Rolex created this ad as they were unveiling the Sky-Dweller later that year at a premier watch and jeweler exposition in Switzerland.
4. Roger Federer 2009
Roger Federer is a world famous professional tennis player who has won over 80 titles including many at Wimbledon, the US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open in addition to winning a Gold and Silver Olympic medal. In 2004 Roger Federer was ranked the No.1 Tennis player in the world, and is currently ranked at No.3. Due to his level of success and being a Swiss native it is no surprise why Rolex used him in some of their advertisements, and also endorsing him. Rolex uses Federer in a variety of ads, and this is a more recent one to come out.
3. The Japanese Brad Pitt ad
Next up on our list is an advertisement featuring Hollywood actor Brad Pitt. This ad aired originally in Japan some time ago as we see a much younger Pitt in the commercial. The ad is a short 30 seconds where we see Brad waking up late and rushing to get ready and unfortunately dropping his Rolex. However it was just a bad dream as we see Brad wake up shortly after the dream. Pitt is a fan of the watches and wears them in many of his films in addition to everyday use.
2. The Wimbledon 2008 commercial
Coming in at number 2 on our list is an ad that aired originally during the Wimbledon tennis tournament back in 2008. This ad features Roger Federer playing tennis at the match with action shots of Federer and a Rolex watch. The ad was one of the earlier ads to feature Federer, and it aired before the other Federer commercial on our list. Unfortunately Federer did not win that year.
1. Japanese Brad Pitt commercial part 2
Brad Pitt did a few ads for Rolex in Japan. This is another ad featuring the actor and has a more serious tone to it than the first advertisement. Again we see a much younger Pitt in these commercials.
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