REMEMBERING
Roland Puton
Former C.E.O. of Rolex U.S.A.
Belongs to the Ages
1935-2026
They say when it rains it pours, and we just lost a national treasure with the passing of Dolly Parton, and I am sad to report that former Rolex U.S.A. President and C.E.O., Roland Puton recently passed away.
I am really saddened, as knew Roland and interviewed him several times regarding his career achievements with Rolex. He shared his entire history with me, and also really helped me fill in missing puzzle pieces that occurred during his tenure.
Roland was a super low-key, down to earth man. He was really, really smart, honest as the day is long, and remarkably humble for a man who achieved so much status in his life.
Roland was born and raised in Switzerland, and attended the SBS Swiss Business School. Roland went to work for a company in Switzerland, where he was a top performer. If I recall correctly he worked for a watch manufacturer. In 1967 Roland Puton was recruited by then Rolex Geneva Director, André-Jean Heiniger to run Rolex 's Canadian division named, Rolex Watch Company of Canada, as he had developed a strong reputation for being an excellent business leader.
Roland is pictured above on the left just after having joined the Rolex family, and being appointed as Managing Directory and President of Rolex Canada. He attended a party in New York, thrown by then Rolex U.S.A. President, Renè-Paul Dentan, who is pictured on the far right, with his beautiful wife Joleen in the middle. The party was a birthday bash thrown in honor of Rolex, Geneva, CEO, André-Jean Heiniger.
During his tenure as CEO of Rolex Canada, his performance was so impressive that Heiniger decided to move him permanently to New York to serve as Executive Vice President, as we see from the mention pictured below from Europa Star Magazine in 1975.
Below we see a photo of the Rolex Executive Team in the United States back in 1977 when they signed the deal to purchase the Rolex Building on the famous Fifth Avenue in NYC. The photo was taken in the New York Mayor, Abraham Beame. In this photo we see Rene-Paul Dentan standing behind Rolex CEO, André-Jean Heiniger. Second from the left we see Roland Puton, and we also see future Rolex CEO, Patrick Heiniger on the far right.
Below is a photo of the 11 story Rolex Building back in the 1970s around the time Rolex purchased the building for $15 Million.
Below we see a Rolex event back in the 1980s with Arnold Palmer speaking on the microphone with René-Paul Dentan and Roland PUTON looking on.
Rolan Puton was an honorary director as The Explorers Club in New York, and traveled with them all over the world to places like Mongolia, and Papua New Guinea.
Roland was on the governance roster of the American Swiss Foundation. He was extremely athletic and loved traveling back to Switzerland to ski in the Swiss Alps, and loved to go helicopter skiing.
In the image below we see Roland Puton sharing a laugh with René-Paul Dentan and Rolex CEO, André-Jean Heiniger at a cocktail party.
Below we see a photo of the Rolex executive team, with Puton and Dentan on the far right with Rolex CEO, André-Jean Heiniger in the center front line with the tan suit.
The image below shows René-Paul Dentan standing with Roland Puton in the center with their Rolex U.S.A. Executive team. Future Rolex U.S.A. President, Allen Brill is pictured third over from the right side in the front row.
In the image below we see Rolex CEO André-Jean Heiniger next to Roland Puton and René-Paul Dentan.
In the photo below we see Roland Puton standing next to René-Paul Dentan, who he replaced in 1984 as the President and CEO of Rolex U.S.A. When I interviewed Roland we spoke quite a bit about René-Paul Dentan, as I have been working for some time on a book about Dentan. Roland said:
"When I came to work for Rolex U.S.A., they brought me on-board as I had done such a thorough job reorganizing Rolex Canada. When I came to Rolex U.S.A. as the executive Vice President I was charged by André-Jean Heiniger with reorganizing Rolex U.S.A."
Roland Puton continues:
"René-Paul Dentan, who like me, was born and raised in Switzerland, came to the United States in 1938, and went to work for Henri Stern at Patek Philippe. At Patek Philippe Dentan was the top salesman. I mean, he was so charming and charismatic, he could sing the birds out of the trees. After World War II ended, Rolex Founder, Hans Wilsdorf and his right hand and, Rene-Paul Jeanneret were aware of Dentan's selling skills. At the time, Rolex's U.S.A. distributor was an American company, and Hans Wilsdorf wasn't satisfied with their performance and thought Rolex could do better.
"So they bought out their American distributor and stared the American Rolex Watch Company, and appointed Dentan as the head of sales. Dentan was a fireball salesman, and was extremely successful in helping Rolex build out the American Market, and in a short period of time, the American market, including South American, and Canada became Rolex's largest marketplace."
"The great challenge that I recognized early in my tenure at Rolex U.S.A., was that despite the fact that Dentan was an amazing manager and salesman, he wasn't a great business administrator, as Rolex's American infrastructure had a great deal of room for improvement, which is where I came in. Andre Heiniger was so impressed with my business administration skills, he appointed me as President and CEO of Rolex in 1984. At the time, Dentan served as the Chairman of Rolex U.S.A., and he and I were very close. Later when he retired, I took his place as the Chairman of Rolex U.S.A. When I retired in the summer of 1999, I left Rolex having made it much better than when I first walked in the door."
As mentioned earlier, I am working on a series of book on Rolex history, and I am working on a book dedicated to how René-Paul Dentan built out Rolex U.S.A. and made it the ultra-successful powerhouse it is today. Below is a copy of the front cover artwork for that book.
The first volume in my Rolex Founding Father's Series is pictured below with Hans Wilsdorf on the cover.
Below we see the artwork from the back of my book which includes coverage of Dentan, and Heiniger. I am still diligently working on my book series and hope to begin publishing soon.
Over the course of my interviews with Roland he freely shared a great deal of insight with me on his experience with Rolex, and on what made Rolex so special and successful. Roland helped me extensively with putting together many missing puzzle pieces around the launch and history of the Rolex Oyster Quartz models.
It's alway such a strange feeling when you have somebody in your address book you can call anytime to speak with, then when they pass away, you realize you can't speak with them anymore. Roland Puton was a flawless gentleman, and like EVERY Rolex executive I have ever had the privilege of knowing or speaking with has been extremely smart, gracious and ultra-professional. Special thanks to Nick Gould for his assistance on this story.
