Australia’s Most Recommended Brand Is Also The Hardest To Get

• Rolex ranked #1 in YouGov’s 2025 Australian brand recommendations, beating Toyota, Jack Daniel’s, and Apple.
• Despite widespread demand, Rolex watches remain notoriously difficult to purchase, driven by scarcity, strategy, and collector obsession.
• New models like the Oyster Perpetual Land-Dweller prove Rolex is still innovating, even if quietly, reinforcing its cultural and horological cachet.

In a country that prides itself on authenticity, understatement, and function-first luxury, it makes perfect sense that Australia’s most recommended brand for 2025 isn’t a flashy tech company or an indulgent fast fashion label.

According to new data released this week by YouGov, Rolex has officially taken top spot in the 2025 “Most Recommended Brand” rankings, with an enviable score of 89.6.

That puts it ahead of Toyota (89.2), Jack Daniel’s (88.4), and even tech juggernauts like Apple and Samsung. But perhaps the most telling detail of all? Most Australians can’t even walk into a boutique and buy a Rolex without sitting on a waitlist. It’s luxury on hard mode. And apparently, we’re hooked.

YouGov’s rankings, drawn from its BrandIndex platform, track how likely existing customers are to recommend a brand to others. It’s one of the most potent forms of marketing: an honest vote of confidence from people who’ve been there, worn the T-shirt (or in this case, the watch), and want others to do the same.

In Rolex’s case, it’s a powerful endorsement that shows Australians still place immense value on legacy, quality, and a touch of mystique.

And make no mistake: Rolex has mystique in spades. It’s one of the most tightly controlled luxury ecosystems on the planet. The brand famously produces more than one million watches a year, but it feels like half that number make it into stores, and fewer still into customers’ hands.

Limited allocations, no e-commerce, authorised dealer gamesmanship; it’s all part of the Rolex experience. In a world driven by instant gratification, Rolex is an outlier. And Australians, it seems, respect that.

There’s also the influence of Australia’s quietly obsessive watch community to consider. Rolex forums are buzzing. Facebook groups are full of drop alerts, resale warnings, and endless wrist shots.

Watch meet-ups across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane are increasingly dominated by Submariners, OPs and Daytonas, watches that remain impossible to buy at retail unless your boutique relationship is decades-deep or you’ve just dropped $50K on jewellery to curry favour. For all the talk about Australia being a small market, Rolex has a cult following here, and the YouGov numbers reflect that.

So what’s driving this loyalty in 2025? It’s certainly not accessibility. It’s not affordability either. The answer lies, at least in part, in Rolex’s ability to continually control the narrative.

This year’s Watches & Wonders lineup offered a prime example. For a brand often accused of playing it safe, Rolex threw a few surprise punches. The new Oyster Perpetual “Land-Dweller” introduced a high-frequency movement and an all-new case silhouette. The first in over a decade.

There were quieter hits too: a subtle new Daytona with a black lacquer dial; fresh tweaks to the GMT-Master II and Datejust ranges. On the surface, it looked like classic Rolex restraint. But underneath Rolex has shown its innovation in materials, movements, and long-term collectability.

Of course, not everyone’s convinced. In certain corners of the horological world, there’s a growing sense that Rolex has become too elusive, too commodified.

Grey market premiums on stainless steel models are still sky-high, and Rolex’s own Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) programme has received mixed reviews for pricing watches far beyond what most buyers are willing to pay. The magic, some argue, is fading. But that clearly hasn’t stopped the brand’s momentum in Australia.

If anything, scarcity has become part of Rolex’s brand DNA. To own one is to overcome the challenge. To be an insider, a gatekeeper, a collector who understands that value is not just about resale, but about story and status. The fact that so many Australians are still willing to recommend Rolex, even as they wait years for the privilege of owning one, says everything about the brand’s current standing.

So while the hype may ebb and flow, Rolex’s place in the Australian psyche is secure. Recommended, revered… and reliably hard to get.