Geneva, every mention

Rolex (Audio) · Acquired Feb 24, 2025 · 29 mentions

• ▶ 10:57 David Rosenthal He moves to Geneva.
• ▶ 11:04 David Rosenthal So this business was buying like raw pearls from fishermen and then selling them to the famous Swiss jewelers there in Geneva.
• ▶ 25:34 Ben Gilbert Importantly, not Geneva.
• ▶ 25:35 David Rosenthal Yeah, not Geneva.
• ▶ 25:37 David Rosenthal Geneva's in the southwest of the country in Switzerland, right next to France.
• ▶ 39:38 David Rosenthal We'll stop by on our way to Geneva.
• ▶ 47:41 David Rosenthal Ultimately, after the war in 1919, Hans moves both himself and the official company headquarters to Geneva, where of course it still is to this day.
• ▶ 47:54 David Rosenthal Design, sales, marketing, and I think final assembly all happened in Geneva while production of the movement still happens up in the mountains in Vienna.
• ▶ 48:44 Ben Gilbert Geneve right there on the face of every Patek Philippe watch.
• ▶ 48:51 David Rosenthal Geneva, I love it.
• ▶ 48:52 David Rosenthal Geneve, Ben, Geneve.
• ▶ 49:02 Ben Gilbert Okay, so then the question is, why does Geneva have this prestige?
• ▶ 49:58 Ben Gilbert So, all the way back in the 1500, Geneva was a center of activity for the Protestant Christian world led by John Calvin.
• ▶ 51:31 David Rosenthal I've been to Geneva, and I've been to other places in Switzerland, but I know very little about its culture and history.
• ▶ 52:55 Ben Gilbert And when the balance of power changed in France and the Catholics came to power, the French Huguenot refugees who had talents in jewelry and metalwork and watchmaking fled to Geneva.
• ▶ 53:09 Ben Gilbert And so the Protestant safe haven of Geneva, they brought their watchmaking expertise, or if they didn't have watchmaking expertise, that's all they could really do if they were jewelers or, or metal workers, since you can't make anything…
• ▶ 53:57 David Rosenthal Well, that's definitely one big reason why Hans is like, okay, we gotta move Rolex to Geneva to participate in this tradition as we're now gonna be selling to the world.
• ▶ 1:55:44 David Rosenthal We will happily come to Geneva and talk to you about it.
• ▶ 1:56:52 David Rosenthal And he first goes to South America and runs the South American market for Rolex, and then he comes back to headquarters in Geneva, and he becomes the director of marketing.
• ▶ 2:47:27 Ben Gilbert He lived the quartz crisis firsthand and was flying around to Geneva and Taiwan and Japan and reporting on it live.
• ▶ 2:49:12 David Rosenthal Yeah, Geneva ain't cheap.
• ▶ 2:49:14 Ben Gilbert It's kind of amazing that there was this labor-intensive industry in Geneva.
• ▶ 3:24:26 David Rosenthal Now, the foundation is also a charitable foundation and disperses huge amounts of money, much of it locally there in Geneva.
• ▶ 3:54:08 Ben Gilbert An example being, to compete with Baselworld or the Basel Fair, Richemont started their own thing in Geneva, and they said, look, the industry gathers here in Geneva now, and we're gonna be fancy about it, and no one's eating bratwurst…
• ▶ 4:20:19 Ben Gilbert Not to mention, it seems like they're just giving money away all over Geneva.
• ▶ 4:20:26 David Rosenthal A core part of the mission of the foundation that Hans put in its bylaws is to help the city and people of Geneva.
• ▶ 4:21:45 Ben Gilbert They own a lot of real estate in Geneva.
• ▶ 4:21:51 Ben Gilbert Hilariously, they just bought the building where Omega has their flagship store in Geneva.
• ▶ 4:47:54 David Rosenthal And then devoted himself to the company and the legacy, even though he never had children, and then putting the foundation together obviously was in very large part motivated by the long-term legacy of the company, but also, like, this…