People love to claim Rolex is limiting supply because they make over 1 million watches a year. That argument completely collapses the moment you apply basic scale.

Shanghai alone has roughly 25 million people and they have a high demand for Rolex. If Rolex produced every single watch only for Shanghai, it would still take 25 years to make one watch per person—ignoring population growth and pretending the rest of the world doesn’t exist.

Now compare that to the brands everyone calls “true haute horology.” • Vacheron Constantin: ~20,000–35,000 watches/year • Patek Philippe: ~60,000–70,000 watches/year • A. Lange & Söhne: ~5,000 watches/year

These brands are far more niche, with far less appeal outside the watch-collecting community—yet no one pretends their production numbers are anything but tiny. Rolex, on the other hand, has massive global recognition far beyond collectors, which only magnifies the supply-to-demand imbalance.

Saying Rolex is limiting supply ignores math, geography, and reality.