Big news for those who have been considering the purchase of a new Rolex watch from an authorized retailer: Rolex has recently announced (and confirmed) that it will be offering a 5-year warranty to go with all watches sold, starting from July 1, 2015 from authorized dealers. If you have made a Rolex purchase sometime during the last two years, i.e., between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2015, you are not missing out entirely on this highly noteworthy upgrade either: for watches sold during this period of time, Rolex provides 1 extra year of warranty free of charge, extending the original two now to a total of three years of the manufacturer’s warranty. This is for all Oyster and Cellini family watches.

Rolex performed this upgrade in its peculiar “Rolex way,” not making a big fuss about it – in fact, the announcement made it to retailers only, and neither to the brand’s marketing channels, nor directly to members of the press. And while we are waiting for this information to be confirmed by Rolex (Rolex corporate has confirmed this news to aBlogtoWatch) we did reach out to authorized Rolex boutiques, and have confirmed the validity of this news. Even with this unusual method of announcement, this upgrade is a very important one: the fact that all watches that Rolex makes (reportedly, somewhere between 800,000 to a million watches made every year) are included implies remarkable commitment and extremely strong confidence in the quality of their product.

Images by Owen Davies of Xupes.com for aBlogtoWatch

By jumping from the previous two to a full five-year warranty on all its products, we can say that Rolex is setting a new industry standard – had they offered it for only a few collections or a handful of models, that would arguably be a different situation. But to manufacture close to one million watches a year and back them up with such a warranty helps empower the sentiment that a high-end Swiss watch can be purchased as an item that will accompany its owner for life.

As far as their competition is concerned, Omega has been offering their co-axial movement equipped timepieces with a 4-year manufacturer’s warranty – while non-co-axial watches are still being sold with a 2-year warranty. Breitling also offers a 2-year warranty for all their watches, with the exception being the models equipped with a manufacture caliber, which also receive a 5-year warranty.

Perhaps an even more interesting development is the fact that Rolex is now also claimed to officially recommend a 10-year service period for its watches, up from a previous 3. This undoubtedly means some massive savings, as it reduces the required periodical services (used to replace lubricants and check parts for excessive wear) to a third of its previous number. Needless to say, this not only indicates how Rolex has developed its products in a way that enhanced their reliability and long-term performance, but also how Rolex’s confidence in the durability of its watches resulted in something that is highly beneficial to the end-consumer.

The absolute majority of other luxury watchmakers tend to stick to a two-year warranty and recommend a 3-year service period – something that we might see many of them change soon in an effort to keep up with Rolex and their out-of-the-blue (and rather under-the-radar) developments. rolex.com