Rolex Strikes Another Customizer
New Swiss court mixed ruling on Rolex's fight against customization
Rolex, the largest Swiss watchmaker, has received a Swiss high court ruling with mixed results.
Background
Rolex is the largest Swiss watchmaker. In 2023 the luxury brand sold 1.34 million watches, sales totaling $11.5 billion USD.
The brand has long disliked aftermarket customizers. In a previous case, Rolex sued a California watch customizer called laCalifornienne for counterfeiting, successfully arguing that the colorful dials, reworked cases and crystals diminished the brand and were likely to confuse customers.
Since the loss of that lawsuit, laCalifornienne has switched to customizations that remove references to Rolex or its trademarked brand imagery.
Artisans de Geneve
In a new ruling, this time in Switzerland, the high court was asked to decide whether a customization outfit could modify watches brought to them by existing owners of Rolex watches for customization.
Reports Hodinkee:
Rolex filed suit against AdG in December 2020 (note: the customizer's name is redacted in the Swiss Court decision, but other details make us pretty certain it's Artisans de Geneve). The story began before that, in February 2020, when Rolex secretly bought a modified Daytona from AdG for CHF 32,580. This included AdG supplying the original Daytona and customizing it. The customization also included removing and reapplying the Rolex, Oyster, and Cosmograph marks on the dial, as well as the crown logo. Before filing the lawsuit, Rolex notified AdG that it had acquired the customized Daytona and of possible trademark infringement.
After Rolex's notification, AdG changed its business model so that it did not stock customized watches for purchase on its website, which is how Rolex had purchased the Daytona. AdG shifted to its current model, where clients must provide personal watches they already own to AdG for customization.
In the latest skirmish over customization, the precedent established seems to be: it’s not illegal to customize somebody else’s watch, just don’t customize and then sell a watch with the Rolex name or logo.
Is Rolex being to aggressive about resales of watches it already sold once? You be the judge.