Self Intro & Why I wrote this report

Myself, I am a collector of Rolex and I always want to know how to get Rolex watch at an official retailer in Japan without using rediculously expensive and rip-off direct sales from Daimaru or Tokyu ( department store ) 

There are some small community in twitter. those community often exchange the information about Rolex almost every day and those so-called Rolex Marathon runner are always reporting their progress including what they talked with the clerk at the shop, what is displayed on the shelves too ( they visit several Rolex shops in Japan a day and report how it goes on twitter). 

In this report, I extracted countless tweets and posts across social networking sites using AI, Python, Twitter FAS, and Brandwatch tools, and then used AI language analysis to further investigate and quantitatively summarize the trends. 

I myself am just a watch enthusiast, having previously purchased a Submariner in Shinjuku and Sea Dweller at Kamekichi in Nakano. However, I always wonder how I can get it more efficiently and faster by understanding the time ( timing ) / day  ( weekdays or Weekend ? ) / and shops ( which store I can get it more easily )  in Japan

What is Rolex?

ROLEX is a Swiss watch brand founded by Hans Wilsdorf in 1905. Rolex has a high resale value among brand watches, and used Rolex watches are traded all over the world, and there are many models traded at or above list price. In Japan, Rolex watches are traded at high prices for three reasons: (1) name recognition, (2) functionality, and (3) value as an asset. In Japan, Rolex is the most well-known watch ( not Seiko ) according to Kantar research

Numerous models

Rolex offers a wide range of models, including sports watches and dress watches. Among them, there are many sports watch models with high resale value, and they are a particularly popular category. The most popular sports watches are the Explorer I & II, Cosmograph Daytona, Submariner, GMT-Master I & II, Sea-Dweller, Sea-Dweller 4000, Deep Sea, Milgauss, and Yacht-Master & Yacht-Master II. Dress watches are characterized by simplicity, elegance, and understatement, and include the Cellini Prince, Day-Date Just, Day-Date, and Sky-Dweller. You can get those watches at the resellers like GMT Shinjyuku, Ippu-Kishi, Jackroad and Kamekichi in Japan but those stores are too expensive and they sell the same watch x 5 ~7 times higher than its prices. 

Rolex Marathon heating up
A Rolex marathon is a trip to an authorized Rolex retailer in search of a desired Rolex model. The name "marathon" comes from the fact that it resembles a marathon as you visit several stores instead of just one.

Recently, since the price of the Daytona has risen conspicuously among Rolex watches, the term "Daytona marathon," which refers to visiting Rolex authorized Rolex stores in search of a Daytona, and the term "劳力士" in China have also become widespread.

In particular, sports models rarely appear in stores. This is all about checking the inventory, so you need to be patient and go to an authorized Rolex store.
Normally, people spent 3-5 months (20-40 visits ) to find their watches at the store by visiting different time of the day which means only sales people can do this marathon….

Main topic: Analyzing the Rolex Marathon with AI

The most important information for analyzing Rolex Marathon is often found on Twitter and here on Note. In this report, we analyzed the various textual information that exists on Twitter and Note by using the latest AI called Python, BW, and FAS by crawling (automatically extracting) AI and Brandwatch. The analysis is based on words.

Please note that we do not cover attire, demeanor, or whether or not you are in charge of running the marathon. Please also be aware that it is difficult to discern false purchase reports, etc.

Full Twitter Analysis

First of all, I would like to identify how many Rolex-related tweets exist on Twitter… If we intentionally remove BOTs, advertisements, verification tweets, etc., we found that there are about 8,000 tweets in Japan as a whole (2018-2022), and that around 4,000 tweeters are tweeting 2 tweets per user.

What were the tweets about?

The first place is the keyword such as suffix "mashi" or "mashita". It means that  "I was able to buy"and so on. The below is word cloud of Rolex related tweets.

In second place were tweets about "models," i.e., models that runners would like to buy. The third most popular tweet was about a "brand" called "rand" here

What are the most popular models?