Dr. Brendan M. Cunningham — Industrialization, Rolex, and the Political Economy of Time
Few scholars have explored the intersection of economics, marketing, industrial competition, and horology as deeply as Brendan M. Cunningham. A professor of economics and author of Selling the Crown: The Secret History of Rolex Marketing, Cunningham approaches watches not merely as luxury objects or mechanical devices, but as economic and cultural systems shaped by politics, industrial strategy, marketing, and global competition.
In this conversation for Watches & Politics, the discussion moves across the Industrial Revolution, mass production, Swiss industrial adaptation, marketing strategy, collector culture, auctions, soft power, and the evolving meaning of luxury watches in the modern world. At the center of the conversation lies a larger question:
what do watches reveal about power, prestige, legitimacy, and society’s relationship with time itself?
Watches, Politics, and National Identity
The interview begins with a broad question:
what are the intersections between watches and politics?
For Cunningham, one of the most important dimensions is national identity and industrial achievement. Historically, countries such as Switzerland, Japan, England, and the United States viewed watchmaking as a symbol of technological sophistication and national accomplishment. Governments supported watch industries not only economically, but politically, seeing horology as part of broader industrial prestige.
At the same time, the watch industry itself constantly responds to political developments. Cunningham points to contemporary examples, including political figures appearing in spaces associated with major luxury brands and the broader impact of tariffs, trade policy, and geopolitical tensions on Swiss exports and luxury manufacturing. Watches become both economic products and political symbols simultaneously.
Industrialization and the Democratization of Time
One of the central themes of the interview is industrialization and how mass production transformed society’s relationship with timekeeping.
Cunningham discusses the pioneering role of the Waltham Watch Company during the nineteenth century. According to his analysis, American industrial watchmaking perfected large-scale precision manufacturing earlier than many of its competitors, drastically lowering prices and making watches accessible to wider segments of society.
This process represented what Cunningham describes as a democratization of access to timekeeping. Before industrial production, watches were luxury objects largely reserved for elites and wealthy patrons. Mass production transformed them into tools increasingly available to broader society.
Yet democratization remained relative.
Pocket watches still required savings and remained status symbols in many contexts. Ownership itself signaled mobility, discipline, achievement, and participation in modern industrial society.
The conversation also highlights one of the most fascinating historical dynamics in horological history:
Swiss industrial adaptation.
Cunningham explains how Swiss manufacturers carefully studied American production methods — sometimes through what he jokingly describes as “industrial espionage” — in order to compete with American scale and efficiency. Rather than directly copying the American factory system, Swiss manufacturers developed their own hybrid approach that preserved craftsmanship while adopting industrial precision and interchangeable parts.
This adaptation laid the foundation for modern Swiss dominance.
Precision, Competition, and the Rise of Switzerland
The interview then shifts toward the early twentieth century and the growing rivalry between American and Swiss watchmaking.
Cunningham explains how brands such as Rolex, Omega, and Zenith leveraged industrial precision, chronometry competitions, and marketing campaigns to establish legitimacy and prestige.
The conversation emphasizes that industrialization alone did not guarantee success.
Marketing became equally important.
Marketing Watches — Selling Prestige
One of the strongest sections of the interview centers on marketing and the transformation of watches into cultural symbols.
Cunningham explains that successful marketing does more than steal customers from competitors.
It expands entire markets.
Through newspapers, magazines, radio, cinema, and later television, watch companies increasingly sold:
aspiration,
status,
achievement,
adventure,
elegance,
and identity.
No figure embodies this transformation more than Hans Wilsdorf.
Cunningham discusses Wilsdorf’s marketing genius, particularly campaigns surrounding Mercedes Gleitze and the waterproof Rolex Oyster during the English Channel swim. Rather than merely advertising technical reliability, Rolex marketed achievement under extreme conditions.
The discussion then broadens into mid-century advertising more generally. Luxury watches increasingly became associated with aristocratic imagery, leisure, golf, cocktail culture, diplomacy, and elite identity. Advertisements sold not simply watches, but lifestyles and social aspirations.
Auctions, Collectors, and Cultural Capital
The interview also explores how modern auctions transformed watches into forms of political and cultural capital.
Cunningham describes auctions as cultural moments that revive historical memory. Watches worn during moon landings, military campaigns, or by major political and cultural figures become symbolic artifacts connected to broader historical narratives.
He reflects on how auction coverage and global bidding transformed watches into internationally visible symbols of prestige and legitimacy. Multi-million-dollar auction results generate media attention that extends far beyond collector communities.
The conversation repeatedly returns to the role of collectors themselves.
Collectors help legitimize:
brands,
references,
historical narratives,
and cultural value.
In this sense, collecting becomes intertwined with soft power, status, and identity formation.
The Return of Exclusivity
One of the most thought-provoking parts of the interview focuses on modern scarcity and elite access.
Cunningham argues that parts of the modern luxury watch market increasingly resemble earlier historical periods when only elites could access certain timepieces. Waiting lists, allocation systems, and rapidly escalating prices transformed watches like the Rolex Daytona, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, and Vacheron Constantin Overseas into highly restricted cultural objects.
Yet Cunningham also emphasizes that passion, relationships, and community still matter deeply within watch culture. Authorized dealers, collector groups, and local communities continue to create spaces where enthusiasm and knowledge can sometimes transcend purely economic barriers.
Collectors, Instagram, and Global Communities
The conversation then turns toward the modern collector ecosystem.
Cunningham describes organizations such as RedBar Group as vital spaces sustaining collector culture globally. Through gatherings, digital communities, and social media, collectors share watches, knowledge, stories, and historical understanding.
The interview also explores how brands increasingly shifted from traditional business-to-business distribution toward direct relationships with collectors through:
flagship boutiques,
museum programs,
collector events,
Watches & Wonders,
and digital engagement.
Collectors now influence product development, brand identity, and cultural legitimacy more directly than ever before.
Watches as Political Artifacts
Toward the end of the discussion, Cunningham reflects on watches as political artifacts themselves.
He discusses controversies surrounding political leaders wearing expensive watches, including debates involving Emmanuel Macron and Barack Obama, and the symbolic meaning attached to presidential timepieces.
The conversation also explores the role of watches during the Space Race, including the history of the Omega Speedmaster and its association with both American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts. Cunningham notes that Swiss neutrality itself became reflected through Omega’s presence across competing geopolitical blocs.
Watches, in this sense, become intertwined with:
national achievement,
diplomacy,
propaganda,
industrial prestige,
and cultural memory.
Rewriting the Quartz Crisis
The interview concludes with Cunningham discussing his ongoing archival research in Switzerland focused on the crisis period of the 1970s and 1980s.
Working within the archives of the Swiss National Bank and Swiss economic institutions, he argues that the traditional story of the Quartz Crisis — a simple narrative of technological disruption — may be incomplete. Instead, politics, regional rivalries, institutional conflicts, and economic policy appear to have played far larger roles than commonly acknowledged.
His research promises to offer one of the most important re-evaluations of the Quartz Crisis in contemporary horological scholarship.
What Defines a Collector?
The interview ends with a deceptively simple question:
what is a collector?
For Cunningham, collecting is ultimately defined not by wealth or quantity, but by passion, curiosity, learning, and community. Whether someone owns two watches or two hundred, the essence of collecting lies in engagement with horology, history, design, and culture itself.
That conclusion captures the broader spirit of the conversation:
watches matter not only because they measure time, but because they preserve stories about the societies that create, wear, market, and remember them.