JSH on TV, in Rolex 's boss's portrait - Watch Passports by JSH®

10:10 1st COMMUNICATION JSH® PRINT MARKETS OPINION

JSH on TV, in Rolex ‘s boss’s portrait

22 Nov, 10:10

Temps de lecture : 2 minutes

“The man who whispers in Donald Trump’s ear!” Thus begins the portrait of Jean-Frédéric Dufour, CEO of Rolex, on Swiss national television. Suddenly, in the middle of a report by Nicolas Rossé, the JSH from EPHJ 2024 takes center stage!

Joël A. Grandjean, JSH Magazine & Swiss-Watch-Passport.ch’s editor in chief and publisher
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Swiss business leaders in the Oval Office in early November 2025. From left to right: Marwan Shakarchi of MKS Pamp (red tie, third from left), Jean-Frédéric Dufour of Rolex (center), Johann Rupert of Richemont, Alfred Gantner of Partners Group, and Daniel Jaeggi, CEO of Mercuria (right) / ©DR_Le Temps

The picture has spread around the world: in the Oval Office, a Swiss business delegation is facing the global customs tariff dictator. In the center, directly in front of US President Trump, is Jean-Philippe Dufour, Rolex CEO. Time for negotiations.

US customs tariffs are to be reduced from 39% to 15% following this session!

Nicolas Rossé, watchmaking specialist

Once again, the TV journalist native to the Jura region is able to convey to the general public, in just a couple of minutes, the backstage atmosphere of the industry.

Thanks to the personal view of specialist Olivier R. Müller, a close friend and former colleague of Jean-Frédéric Dufour, it becomes clear just how much influence the major boss, who has become shrouded in the absolute discretion inherent to the Rolex legacy, wields—enough to make any politician on the planet envious.

JSH, Switzerland’s oldest watchmaking journal, honoured

In June 2024, in the edition marking the opening of the largest watchmaking trade show, EPHJ, the ultimate exhibition of the world of co-contracting, journalist Ollivier Broto (1876 News press agency, formerly TàG Press +41) noted the unbelievable: “the boss of Rolex speaks”!

It was during a visit to the Watches & Wonders exhibition that Jean-Frédéric Dufour agreed to allow RTS cameras and microphones to film and immortalize the visit of the late Georges Dubois, the doyen of Swiss watchmakers. At almost 104 years of age, he was welcomed by the boss of the brand where he had started working in 1941: the 17th employee and the first to be hired by the Tudor brand, allowed the current boss of Rolex, the ever-discreet “Jean-Fred-to-his-friends,” to be the third person in Rolex’s history to break the silence and violate its sacrosanct rule of media secrecy.

Read again the JSH article

✍ Joel A. Grandjean

Chief editor & publisher of the international watch magazine "Swiss Watch Passport® (by JSH®)" and of the Journal Suisse d'Horlogerie JSH® (the oldest Swiss Watch Journal founded in 1876). Member of Impressum, PressTourim and Club Suisse de la Presse, this Ivory Coast-born Swiss, descendant of a family of watchmakers, co-founded the magazines Montres Passion & Uhren Welt at Ringier in 1993 with Kenan Tegin, as well as the Prix Montre de l'Année. Founded in 2005, his press agency 1876 News (formerly TàG Press +41T) contributes to some twenty media through a network of around ten journalists or experts. These include Journal Suisse d'Horlogerie (2008-2014), Heure Suisse/Schweiz and Année Horlogère, F/D/E (2011-2014), Watchonista.com (2013-2019). In 2019, he founded and chaired "JSH Archives & Patrimoine" to relaunch the Swiss watchmaking journal JSH. Then in 2021, he built on his very first editorial venture, the "bloghorloger.ch" established on the web in 2003, to come back online with the Swiss Watch Passport® (by JSH®). Joël A. Grandjean is a member of the SSC, the Swiss Society of Chronometry, and of the jury of the Prix Gaïa, aka the "Nobel of watchmaking" awarded since 1992 by the MIH, Le Musée International de l'Horlogerie in La Chaux-de-Fonds

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