I thought that the COGS of a Rolex is approximately 20% list price whereby AD receives the watches at 50% of list price and 60% of the remainder goes for Marketing, R&D and overhead.
in other words, the Submariner reference 116610LN. Recommended retail price: €8500 actually costs about €1700 to make.
If one considers that labor costs for qualified watchmakers in Switzerland are astronomical and Swiss suppliers aren’t cheap either then an authentic Rolex would probably cost about €1000 to produce in China is authentic parts and machines were provided.
So the final COGS difference of GEN and REP is about a factor of 2-3 which doesn’t appear to be that unreasonable..
The real beneficiaries of Rolex prices are therefore the AD’s and the Marketing dept…
Would not doubt these numbers. I remember years ago talking to my AD in Tampa, FL. They were getting Rolex watches at 43% off retail. So basically Rolex would get roughtly 57% which would have to cover material, designing, machinery, production, marketing and so forth..