A Brief History Of Rolex

By Author: Ariel Brady
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Rolex is a brand of Swiss wristwatches and accessories renowned for their quality and exclusivity. The watches have become status symbols of the rich and famous as well as the upwardly-mobile career-minded individual. Although a symbol of success, Rolex has earned its strong reputation through innovations in design and function over many decades.

The Rolex, SA company was founded in 1905 by Mr. Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law, Mr. Alfred Davis. Contrary to popular belief, Hans Wilsdorf was neither Swiss, nor a watchmaker. Wilsdorf & Davis was the original name of what later became the Rolex Watch Company. They originally imported Hermann Aegler's Swiss movements to England and placed them in quality cases made by Dennison and others. These early wristwatches were then sold to jewellers, who then put their own names on the dial.

The Wilsdorf & Davis company moved out of Great Britain in 1912. Wilsdorf wanted his watches to be affordable, but taxes and export duties on the case metals (silver and gold) were driving costs up. From that time to the present, Rolex has been headquartered in Geneva , Switzerland ...
... , though the company owns facilities in other cities ( Bienne , etc) and continents ( North America , Asia , Australia , etc).

The company name Rolex was officially registered on 15 November 1915 . It is thought this change was part of a drive to popularize wristwatches, which at the time were still considered a novelty largely for women (pocket watches were more common). Wilsdorf was said to desire his watch brand's name to be easily pronounceable in any language. The company name was officially changed to the Rolex Watch Company during 1919. It was later changed to Montres Rolex, SA and finally Rolex, SA.

Among the company's innovations are the first self-winding watch; the first waterproof watch case; the first wristwatch with a date on the dial; the first watch to show two time zones at once; and most importantly the first watchmakers to earn the coveted chronometer certification for a wristwatch. To date, Rolex still holds the record for the most certified chronometer movements in the category of wristwatches. Another little known fact is that Rolex 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 early 1970s.

The first self-winding Rolex watch was offered to the public in 1931, powered by an internal mechanism that used the movement of the wearer's arm. This not only made watch-winding unnecessary, but eliminated the problem of over-winding a watch and harming its mechanism. Rolex was also the first watch company to create a truly waterproof watch another milestone from novelty to functional timepiece. Wilsdorf even went so far as to have a specially made Rolex watch attached to the side of the Trieste bathyscaphe, which went to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The watch survived and tested as having kept perfect time during its descent and ascent.

Rolex has also made a reputation in watches suitable for the extremes of deep-sea diving, aviation and mountain climbing. Sports models include the Oyster Perpetual Sea Dweller 2000 feet in 1971. This watch featured a helium release valve, co-invented with Swiss watchmaker Doxa, to dispense helium during decompression. Another is the GMT Master, originally developed at the request of Pan Am Airways, to assist pilots in transcontinental flights. The Explorer and Explorer II were developed specifically for explorers who would navigate rough terrain such as the world famous Everest Expeditions.

On the more glamorous side, Ian Fleming's James Bond character wore a Rolex Oyster Perpetual in the series of spy novels. In the early EON production Bond films, Commander Bond was seen to wear a Rolex Submariner.

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