When was Rolex founded?
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Rolex SA () is a Swiss luxury watchmaker. Originally founded as "Wilsdorf and Davis" by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London in 1905, the company registered "Rolex" as the brand name of its watches in 1908. In 1919, the company moved its base of operations to Geneva, Switzerland in order to avoid heavy taxation from a recovering post-war Britain, and "Montres Rolex S.A." was registered as the new company name by Hans Wilsdorf in Geneva in 1920. Since 1960, the company has been owned by the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, a private family trust.
Rolex
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Mercedes Gleitze was the first British woman to swim the English Channel on 7 October 1927. However, as John E. Brozek (author of "The Rolex Report: An Unauthorized Reference Book for the Rolex Enthusiast") points out in his article ""The Vindication Swim, Mercedes Gleitze and Rolex take the plunge"", some doubts were cast on her achievement when a hoaxer claimed to have made a faster swim only four days later. Hence Gleitze attempted a repeat swim with extensive publicity on 21 October, dubbed the ""Vindication Swim"". For promotional purposes, Hans Wilsdorf offered her one of the earliest Rolex Oysters if she would wear it during the attempt. After more than 10 hours, in water that was much colder than during her first swim, she was pulled from the sea semi-conscious seven miles short of her goal. Although she did not complete the second crossing, a journalist for The Times wrote "Having regard to the general conditions, the endurance of Miss Gleitze surprised the doctors, journalists and experts who were present, for it seemed unlikely that she would be able to withstand the cold for so long. It was a good performance". As she sat in the boat, the same journalist made a discovery and reported it as follows: "Hanging round her neck by a ribbon on this swim, Miss Gleitze carried a small gold watch, which was found this evening to have kept good time throughout". When examined closely, the watch was found to be dry inside and in perfect condition. One month later, on 24 November 1927, Wilsdorf launched the Rolex Oyster watch in the United Kingdom with a full front page Rolex advert in the "Daily Mail". The "Vienna Herald" described the 1969 Apollo moon landing as: 'an event almost as significant as the time a woman swam most of the English Channel with a waterproof watch on.'
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By the start of World War II Royal Air Force pilots were buying Rolex watches to replace their inferior standard-issue watches. However, when captured and sent to POW camps, their watches were confiscated. When Hans Wilsdorf heard of this, he offered to replace all watches that had been confiscated and not require payment until the end of the war, if the officers would write to Rolex and explain the circumstances of their loss and where they were being held. Wilsdorf was in personal charge of the scheme. As a result of this, an estimated 3,000 Rolex watches were ordered by British officers in the Oflag (prison camp for officers) VII B POW camp in Bavaria alone. This had the effect of raising the morale among the allied POWs because it indicated that Wilsdorf did not believe that the Axis powers would win the war. American servicemen heard about this when stationed in Europe during WWII and this helped open up the American market to Rolex after the war.
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Rolex mostly produced mechanical watches, but it has also participated in the development of the original quartz watch movements. Although Rolex has made very few quartz models for its Oyster line, the company's engineers were instrumental in design and implementation of the technology during the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1968, Rolex collaborated with a consortium of 16 Swiss watch manufacturers to develop the "Beta 21" quartz movement used in their Rolex "Quartz Date" 5100 alongside other manufactures including the Omega Electroquartz watches. Within about five years of research, design, and development, Rolex created the "clean-slate" 5035/5055 movement that would eventually power the Rolex "Oysterquartz".
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In 1915 the British government implemented a 33% customs duty that prompted Rolex to move its international headquarters from London, England to Bienne, Switzerland. In 1919 Rolex moved its headquarters to Geneva, Switzerland where it remains to this day.
In 1927 Rolex patented and launched the first commercially viable waterproof watch which was knows as "The Rolex Oyster". Rolex also selected watch dealers in each town to act as exclusive dealers, and provided each of them with special window displays that consisted of an aquarium with plants and goldfish, along with a Rolex 'Oyster' wristwatch. People passing by would be shocked to see a watch functioning properly while being submerged in water!
Hans Wilsdorf
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"For some years now I have been considering the idea of making a watch that our agents could sell at a more modest price than our Rolex watches, and yet one that could attain the standards of dependability for which Rolex is famous, I decided to form a separate company, with the object of making and marketing this new watch. It is called the Tudor Watch Company."
In 1953 Rolex launched their first specialized diving watch known as "The Rolex Submariner." Rolex worked with legendary French explorer and aquanaut, Jacques-Yves Cousteau to test early prototype Rolex Submariner watches. The Submariner became commercially available after it was introduced at the Basel Fair Show in 1954.
Hans Wilsdorf
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The conception of the Datejust Oysterquartz dates to the beginning of the 1970s. The design of the watch is far removed from the classic Rolex line and carved characteristics of the period: a completely angular case, an integrated band with a polished finish and sapphire glass. Regarding the materials used to make this watch, the whole range consisted of three versions: gold, steel with white gold bezel and steel and yellow gold. At the start, the Datejust Oysterquartz was somewhat overlooked in Europe; however, it was much sought after on the Asian and American markets. A renewed interest in the watch was sparked when Rolex decided to take the Oysterquartz out of its catalogue and thus out of production. The era of the Rolex quartz watch ended in 2001, having lasted less than three decades. The Rolex Datejust Oysterquartz began to appear in the most important auction houses’ catalogues, becoming a highly valued object on the collector's market.
Rolex Oysterquartz
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In 1914, Kew Observatory awarded a Rolex watch a "Class A precision certificate", a distinction normally granted exclusively to marine chronometers. In November 1915, the company changed its name to "Rolex Watch Co. Ltd." In 1919, Hans Wilsdorf left England due to wartime taxes levied on luxury imports as well as to export duties on the silver and gold used for the watch cases driving costs too high. As a result, he moved the company to Geneva, Switzerland, where its name was officially changed to "Montres Rolex S.A.," and eventually to "Rolex S.A." Upon the death of his wife in 1944, Wilsdorf established the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, a private trust, in which he left all of his Rolex shares, making sure that some of the company's income would go to charity. Wilsdorf died in 1960; since then, the trust has owned and run the company.
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On 10 March 1943, while still a prisoner of war, Corporal Clive James Nutting, one of the organizers of the Great Escape, ordered a stainless steel Rolex Oyster 3525 Chronograph (valued at a current equivalent of £1,200) by mail directly from Hans Wilsdorf in Geneva, intending to pay for it with money he saved working as a shoemaker at the camp. The watch (Rolex watch no. 185983) was delivered to Stalag Luft III on 10 July that year along with a note from Wilsdorf apologising for any delay in processing the order and explaining that an English gentleman such as Corporal Nutting "should not even think" about paying for the watch before the end of the war. Wilsdorf is reported to have been impressed with Nutting because, although not an officer, he had ordered the expensive Rolex 3525 Oyster chronograph while most other prisoners ordered the much cheaper Rolex Speed King model which was popular because of its small size. The watch is believed to have been ordered specifically to be used in the Great Escape when, as a chronograph, it could have been used to time patrols of prison guards or time the 76 ill-fated escapees through tunnel 'Harry' on 24 March 1944. Eventually, after the war, Nutting was sent an invoice of only £15 for the watch, because of currency export controls in England at the time. The watch and associated correspondence between Wilsdorf and Nutting were sold at auction for £66,000 in May 2007, while at an earlier auction in September 2006 the same watch fetched A$54,000. Nutting served as a consultant for both the 1950 film "The Wooden Horse" and the 1963 film "The Great Escape". Both films were based on actual escapes which took place at Stalag Luft III. It was also reported that in November 2013 the Rolex Speed King owned by Flight Lieutenant Gerald Imeson during the Great Escape was sold for £60,000.
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In 1908, Wilsdorf registered the trademark "Rolex" and opened an office in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. The book "The Best of Time: Rolex Wristwatches: An Unauthorized History" by Jeffrey P. Hess and James Dowling says that the name was just made up. One story, never confirmed by Wilsdorf, recounts that the name came from the French phrase "horlogerie exquise", meaning "exquisite clockwork" or as a contraction of "horological excellence". Wilsdorf was said to want his watch brand's name to be easily pronounceable in any language. He also thought that the name "Rolex" was onomatopoeic, sounding like a watch being wound. It is easily pronounceable in many languages and, as all its upper-case letters have the same size, can be written symmetrically. It was also short enough to fit on the face of a watch.
Rolex