Rolex's Free Watchmaking School, Explained

In 2023, Rolex opened a training center in Dallas, Texas, with a straightforward premise: the world is running out of trained watchmakers, and Rolex isn't going to wait for someone else to fix that. The Rolex Watchmaking Training Center — RWTC — is an 18-month, tuition-free program where students learn mechanical theory, movement assembly, and ultimately how to service Rolex watches. Rolex provides all the tools, covers travel to Geneva for the final certification exam, and pays each student a $1,800 monthly stipend while they're in the program. No prior experience required. No tuition bill at the end.

We covered the program back in October, when it was still relatively under the radar outside of watch circles. This week, Fortune and GQ both ran features on it, which means the secret is officially out — and the numbers they've surfaced are worth talking about.

A 4.8% acceptance rate — and climbing interest

Rolex Building in Dallas, Texas. Image Source: Harwood International

According to Fortune's Emma Burleigh, more than 560 people applied for just 27 spots in the 2024 cohort. That's a 4.82% acceptance rate, which lands it in the same territory as Harvard. The applicants aren't who you might expect, either: the program has drawn in college dropouts, career changers, former office workers, and recent high school graduates — people looking for a skilled trade that's genuinely difficult to outsource or automate. Fewer than 2,000 professional watchmakers are estimated to remain in the U.S., per Fortune's reporting, which gives you a sense of just how wide the gap is between supply and demand in the trade.

Graduates who pass the Geneva exam can expect to earn around $95,000 annually, according to Fortune — a figure that reflects how scarce this skill set has become.

What it means for the trade

Image Source: Jake's Rolex World

The watchmaker shortage is real and has been building for a long time. The American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute has estimated that for every ten watchmakers who retire, only one new graduate enters the field. Fewer than 2,000 remain practicing professionally in the U.S. That gap shows up in longer service wait times, higher repair costs, and in some areas, a genuine lack of access to qualified technicians — problems that affect anyone who owns a mechanical watch, not just Rolex collectors.

The RWTC is a direct response to that. It's small by design — a few dozen graduates a year — but it's substantive in a way that a scholarship or a partnership with an existing school wouldn't be. Rolex built a facility, hired instructors, and committed to paying students to be there. That's a different level of investment.

As for where it fits in Rolex's bigger picture: the brand is currently mid-construction on a major new production facility in Bulle, Switzerland, expected to be operational around 2029. Production has actually declined over the past two years even as revenue has grown, which suggests Rolex is in no particular hurry to flood the market. But Bulle is coming, and when it opens it will need trained watchmakers to staff it — and the watches it produces will eventually need servicing too.