Therefore, eight months later, he traded his half with Tom for a Volkswagen Beetle, which delivered orders.īy 1965, there were already three pizzerias in the network, located in the same district. At first, the business partners wanted to manage the store, sharing their working hours equally jointly, but James was wary of leaving the postman position because he had a full-time job. To do this, they borrowed $ 900, 500 which they gave as a deposit. In December 1960, the two Monaghan brothers bought a small pizzeria in Ypsilanti, located near Eastern Michigan University, owned by Dominick DiVarti. Despite this, the official date of Domino’s foundation is considered to be 1960, when the Monaghan brothers bought a catering establishment and began to develop it. The company under this name was registered in 1965, and in 1967 its first restaurant was opened. “Sometimes being so unique is not for everybody,” he said.The Dominos brand means Domino’s Pizza, a pizza chain where they also prepare sandwiches and hot dogs in addition to the main product. When asked how long the watch was on sale at Central Watch, Kivel admitted it sat for several months. Anytime you have something different from the normal black- or silver-dial Rolex, it draws a lot of interest, and usually will be more valuable.” “I think it’s colorful and unusual, and that is rare for a Rolex vintage watch. “That Rolex gets more attention in my window than any other Rolex, except maybe the vintage Submariner,” said Steve Kivel, president of Central Watch in Grand Central Station, where a Domino’s Air-King sat in the shop window with a $3,595 price tag. An image of one on our own Instagram page garnered over 60 comments ranging from “I LOVE branded Rolexes, un-sarcastically” to “Ugh, what a travesty.” (They are more easily found than Rolexes branded by companies like Winn-Dixie and Coca-Cola, which gave their watches away for years of service rather than monetary goals.) Still, the Domino’s logo is a divisive feature. It required growing the staff and more preparation.”Īs for the watches themselves, the ones that show up on the secondhand market have become oddball collectibles, selling at over what you’d normally expect to pay for a vintage Air-King. Fifty thousand dollars is a lot of pizza per week. “I have won five times, including at the $45,000 and $50,000 level. “As soon as I realized the challenges were attainable, I starting to work hard for them,” said Hannah Lantz, a Domino’s Franchisee. According to a Domino’s spokesperson, a franchise would pull in closer to $17,000 in sales a week, on average. Domino’s continued to give out branded Rolexes, but a franchise needed to hit $25,000 in sales in a week - four weeks in a row. (Break $10,000 and you’d get an Hermés tie.) But as Rolex prices increased, so did the stakes. Then he upped the ante with “hundreds of $800 Rolexes.” In the early days of what is now known as the Rolex Challenge, turning in $20,000 in sales one week at Domino’s would get you a Rolex. A franchisee asked what he had to do to get that watch from me, and I told him, ‘Turn in a twenty-thousand-dollar sales week.’ He did it.”Īfter that, Managhan began giving away Seikos to top earners. In his 1986 autobiography, Pizza Tiger, Monaghan wrote, “I wore a Bulova with our Domino’s logo on its face. Other exercises in horological employee rewards? The Coca-Cola and Winn-Dixie dials.ĭomino’s began incentivizing its franchisees with Rolex in 1977 when Domino’s Pizza founder and CEO Tom Monaghan gave a high-earning franchise owner the watch off his wrist. So how did one of the world’s foremost watchmakers end up producing a watch for the official pizza of laser-tag parties? Look on any number of online vintage watch dealers and you’ll see them pop up from time to time: Domino’s Rolexes. I wonder how Baldwin’s character would feel about a Rolex Air-King - the 34mm dateless three-hander that, until being discontinued in 2014 (and subsequently revived at a large diameter), was Rolex’s entry-level watch - loudly branded with the familiar red-and-white logo of the world’s second-largest pizza chain. Baldwin’s particular model of Rolex is nicknamed the “ President,” for God’s sake. A character who defines himself so much by his wealth would wear the one brand that is universally synonymous with status, power and success. Of course Baldwin’s venomous “motivational” diatribe would include a gold Rolex. I made $970,000 last year…that’s who I am.” He waves his gold Rolex DayDate in front of Ed Harris’s face before setting it down on his desk. “You see this watch?” a smug, young and skinny Alec Baldwin asks during his “ Always Be Closing” speech at the beginning of Glengarry Glen Ross. Welcome to Watches You Should Know, a column highlighting little-known watches with interesting backstories and unexpected influence.
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