Long before Swatch bought Omega and longer before visual irony became stylish, Rolex was developing watches that would embody the now common high-low combination. I’m talking the infamous, controversial, yet undeniably collectible logo dial. None of these are more infamous, controversial, and collectible than the Domino’s Rolex Watch. Amusingly, the crown’s longest lasting partnership is with the pizza chain whose path to dominance was a war table marking every college town in America.
These watches are more popular than ever, and it’s entertaining to know that opening a pizza franchise is a viable cheat code to getting your hands on a Rolex watch. Regardless of how you feel about these oddball timepieces, the story of the Domino’s Rolex Watch is a fascinating one.
Vintage watches and logo dials
Despite the high-low movement cinching its classic status, there wasn’t an ounce of irreverence in developing the Domino’s Rolex—they were serious. Logo dials were common in the 1960s and ‘70s, sometimes focusing on brand promotion, but more often made to be corporate gifts. Yes, this is the same brand that only shares dial space with luxury logos like Tiffany & Co., that considers custom additions to their models so egregious they won’t even service such a watch.
In addition to the Domino’s Rolex, there are Air-Kings out there with the Coca-Cola logo and even the Winn-Dixie supermarket chain logo.
Common practice aside, some histories report that Rolex, like every other Swiss automatic watch manufacturer at the time, was fighting for market share where they could. This isn’t surprising in the quartz-crisis ‘70s.
Still, unlike many Swiss brands who started making quartz watches, Rolex’s making logo dials for the purpose of corporate gifts or company sales awards still kept them in the “aspirational” category. It’s like they were ceding territory, but not surrendering.
The legend of Tom Monoghan and the Rolex Challenge
In 1960, Domino’s was started by Tom Monaghan, whose unique character plays a big role in the whole Domino’s Rolex story. Monaghan instituted the Rolex Challenge in 1977, in which he rewarded franchise owners who could achieve $20,000 in one week with a Domino’s-logo-clad Rolex Air-King.
As the tale goes, Monaghan was wearing a Bulova watch with his company’s logo on it. Then, a franchisee, coveting said watch, asked Monoghan what it would take for the CEO to give him that very Bulova. The franchisee was challenged to turn in $20,000 of sales in a week. The challenge was met and the Domino’s Bulova found a new wrist to call home. From that Bulova, Monaghan started awarding his top closers with Seikos, then Rolexes.
Monaghan has an interesting background. Prior to Domino’s, he was an aspiring priest, then an aspiring architect. This may explain his analytical and borderline spiritual approach to entrepreneurialism.
As someone who worked from the ground up (Monaghan met his wife when he himself was a pizza delivery boy), he believed every single employee at a company can become like the CEO. Because of this, he made the same luxuries he sported available to Domino’s employees willing to put in the work, from Hermès ties to high-end watches.
And again, in a way, this origin shines a light on the fact that a Domino’s logo on a Rolex watch doesn’t necessarily cheapen it. At least, not in this context.
Domino’s Rolexes throughout time, from Air-Kings to OPs
The earliest known Domino’s-clad Rolex is a Reference 5500 Air-King. It resurfaced for auction around 2016, the intrigue behind it being its four-million serial number. This means it was made as early as 1974. So it’s either a prototype or that the Rolex Challenge started earlier than Monoghan remembers. The Domino’s logo on it is smaller than the one its direct descendants will wear, and is also tilted.
From 1975 to 1989, the Air-Kings, still 5500, featured a much bigger logo, this time one sitting fully on its stage-left side, as if someone tipped it over. In 1990, Reference 14000 kept this aesthetic, though there’s also a black-and-white logo version which is rarer.
Naturally, the 14000 runs on a more modern, more easily serviced movement. In fact, it’s the first Air-King powered by an automatic in the COSC-certified 3000 caliber family. Just something to note for those of you considering a vintage Domino’s watch.
Other notable variants include the one that ran from 1995 to 1999, a 14000 Air-King with a shrunken, tilted logo, just like the prototype, and its 14010 counterpart, which had an exquisite engine-turned bezel.
With the mid-aughts Reference 14010, Rolex started to become the dial-selfish brand we know and love today. Instead of a logo on the dial, an embossed Domino’s tag was placed on the bracelet link below the dial.
It stayed this way, even as the Air-King moved into the Arabic cardinal dials, going back and forth between simpler and more complex bracelet logos.
And starting in 2012, the Domino’s Rolex’s base model was replaced, from Air-Kings to Oyster Perpetuals. This was because the Air-King was temporarily discontinued.
The Domino’s Rolex today
Eventually, the goal for branded Rolexes that franchisees need to hit was raised to $25,000 a week, for four weeks consecutively. All that to say, the partnership still continues.
This family of timepieces ranges from as low as $5,000 and as high as $20,000, depending on the model and condition. In 2020, a Reference 14000 went for $5,100 at Bonhams auction house while another Domino’s Rolex sold at Christie’s for $20,000. This actually isn’t too shabby considering the Domino’s Rolex fulfills a lot of prerequisites for a collectible.
First of all, like the Rolex MilSub, it was never sold commercially. No matter how many franchisees hit the goal, and no matter how many are produced, this gives it a sense of uniqueness. Second, it’s weird. It’s weird in the way a misspelled embossing is, but grows more and more valuable as high-style and low-style continue to de-isolate themselves from each other.
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