Flickr/Falcon® PhotographyRolex is a notoriously secretive company. In defense of its trade secrets, how dominant it is in the luxury watch field, and how much it has to lose, it doesn't offer factory tours, and its workshops are locked behind iris-scanning security technology and thick steel doors. But Ben Clymer, the founder and executive editor of watch enthusiast website Hodinkee, was given that rare glimpse inside, and saw how Rolex actually makes its watches. And what he found amazed him. "I was under the impression that it was all machine-assembled," Clymer told Business Insider, noting that Rolex has its own gold foundry, a full chemistry lab, and testing facilities that "rival NASA." "But more impressive than that was the amount of human interaction there was.