Rolex Will Pay You to Become a Watchmaker

I’m writing this from the airport on my way to Dallas, Texas, where Everest’s U.S. fulfillment center happens to be based. Dallas isn’t exactly a watchmaking capital, but Rolex has quietly turned it into one of the brand’s most important American hubs. Just a few miles from downtown sits Rolex’s U.S. Service Center, and next to it, a new building that could help shape the future of the trade: the Rolex Watchmaking Training Center. It’s a tuition-free, 18-month program where Rolex provides tools, housing help, and a monthly stipend to its students. In other words, Rolex will literally pay you to become a watchmaker.

The shortage Rolex is trying to solve

With an estimated 80 million mechanical watches produced each year, the world doesn’t have enough trained watchmakers to service them. Since 2019, the American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute has said that for every ten watchmakers who retire, only one new graduate enters the field. That gap shows up everywhere: longer turnaround times, higher service costs, and in some regions, limited access to qualified repair.

For Rolex, the implications are even bigger. The company sells millions of watches annually, all of which will eventually need service. A shortage of skilled technicians doesn’t just inconvenience customers, it risks the long-term reliability and reputation that the brand has built over a century. You can’t outsource that kind of trust, so Rolex is training the next generation itself.

Inside Rolex’s new training center

Image Source: Harwood International

The Rolex Watchmaking Training Center—RWTC for short—opened in 2023 beside the brand’s service facility on North Harwood Street in Dallas. The building looks more like a modern university lab than a school run by a luxury watchmaker, and in many ways, that’s what it is. Students spend 18 months learning mechanical theory, component finishing, movement assembly, lubrication, and regulation. The final six months are devoted entirely to servicing Rolex watches under supervision.

Image Source: Rolex

The program is small—around 15 students per cohort—but comprehensive. Rolex covers tuition, supplies, and the specialized tools that would otherwise cost thousands of dollars. Each student also receives a monthly stipend of $1,800 to offset living expenses. The stipend counts as taxable income, but for an 18-month, full-time education, it’s still a rare arrangement: a company paying you to learn.

At the end of the program, graduates take their final exam in Geneva, with travel covered by Rolex. Those who pass can join the brand’s network of service centers across the U.S., or pursue independent work with a strong professional foundation. The program doesn’t guarantee employment, but given Rolex’s ongoing demand for trained technicians, most graduates find work quickly.

The legacy of Lititz

Image Source: Rolex

This isn’t Rolex’s first experiment in watchmaker education. In 2001, the brand established the Lititz Watch Technicum in Pennsylvania, a two-year school modeled on the WOSTEP curriculum in Switzerland. Like RWTC, Lititz offers free tuition and focuses on precision assembly, adjustment, and after-sales service. What began as a small initiative to train local technicians has become one of the most respected watchmaking schools in the U.S.

The Dallas center builds on that foundation, not replacing Lilitz, but expanding Rolex’s capacity and reach. By pairing a northern campus steeped in traditional training with a southern one embedded in a major service facility, Rolex has effectively created a two-campus system for educating American watchmakers. No watch brand, even among Switzerland’s biggest names, has invested in that kind of domestic infrastructure.

What “free” really means

Image Source: Davis Jewelers

Despite the “tuition-free” headline, RWTC is an intensive full-time commitment. Classes run Monday through Friday, typically 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and students are expected to relocate to Dallas for the duration. Housing assistance is available but limited. Rolex provides all tools and materials, but students must cover their own living expenses beyond the stipend.

Applicants have to be U.S. citizens or permanent residents—student visas aren’t accepted—and no prior experience is required. The admissions process includes an online application, a mechanical-aptitude test, and an interview to gauge patience, dexterity, and focus. In an age where most technical education costs tens of thousands of dollars, the barriers here are about commitment, not finances.

Image Source: Jake's Rolex World

Graduates who stay in the trade can expect starting salaries between $50,000 and $70,000, often higher at brand service centers. Experienced watchmakers, particularly those who specialize in high-end mechanical work, can earn six figures. It’s still a niche career, but one that combines craftsmanship, stability, and scarcity—three things in short supply across many industries.

Why Rolex is investing in people, not just products

Image Source: Jake's Rolex World

Rolex’s business has always been vertically integrated: cases, movements, dials, and bracelets are all made within the company’s own facilities. Training watchmakers fits the same philosophy. Every Rolex that leaves a service center is a reflection of the brand, so quality control doesn’t end at production, it extends to the people who maintain the watches decades later.

Even if each RWTC class produces only a handful of graduates, its purpose is clear: Rolex isn’t waiting for the industry to fix its labor shortage. It’s taking responsibility for its own ecosystem. Other brands rely on independent schools, but Rolex is effectively rebuilding the trade from the inside out.

The bigger picture

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What makes the Rolex Watchmaking Training Center remarkable isn’t just the funding or the facilities—impressive but expected from Earth’s favorite watch brand—but the message it sends. Mechanical watches were never supposed to outlast their makers, yet they often do — and now Rolex is training the people who’ll keep them alive long after the current generation is gone. The company could have left that responsibility to independent schools or market demand, but instead it chose to invest in the specialized skill.

In an era where luxury brands chase attention, Rolex is quietly doing something rarer: ensuring that the next time a 30-year-old Submariner needs service, someone will still know exactly how to bring it back to life.