Jewellery Maker Profile: Rolex

History of the Company

Rolex has become the foremost watchmaking brand in the world. The firm began life as ‘Wilsdorf & Davies Ltd.’, eponymously named after its founder Hans Wilsdorf and his business partner, and brother-in-law, Alfred Davis. Wilsdorf was German born but spent his adult life in Switzerland and England. He founded a watch exporting company in the watchmaking capital of Switzerland, La Chaux-de-Fonds, but after moving to London in 1905 began assembling and retailing his Swiss manufactured timepieces in the British capital.

In 1908 Hans Wilsdorf registered ‘Rolex’ as a trademark. The glamourous mystic of the company’s name was explained in the founder’s own words: “I tried combining the letters of the alphabet in every possible way. This gave me some hundred names, but none of them felt quite right. One morning, while riding on the upper deck of a horse-drawn omnibus along Cheapside in the City of London, a genie whispered ‘Rolex’ in my ear.”

In 1915, provoked by the growing anti-German prejudice in Britain during World War Two, the company was renamed ‘Rolex’. A year earlier, Wilsdorf had achieved the unusual honour of having the British Government pass his watches for a test of durability and accuracy usually reserved for marine chronometers.

Wilsdorf was a forward thinking pioneer within the watchmaking industry. He recognised the growing awkwardness of hefty pocket watches in the 20th century, and saw early the potential for wristwatches for both men and women. In the early 1900s, ‘wristlets’ were seen as effeminate, being linked to bracelets, however Wilsdorf’s clever marketing and sleek designs transformed and redefined the wristwatch into a symbol of athletic masculinity.

Wilsdorf was also responsible for one of the biggest technical innovations within horology in the 20th century: the waterproof wristwatch. In 1926 Rolex launched the first waterproof wristwatch, named the Oyster.  In  first self winding watch. The revolutionary time piece was called the Oyster. It has become the brand’s most iconic piece, and has given birth to a revolution within watchmaking.

Style/Major Collections

Rolex have courted the greatest sporting hero’s of the 20th and 21st centuries to cement their brand with the qualities that led these athletes to success: endurance, durability and precision. Hans Wilsdorf ensured that Rolex was present and necessary for momentous sporting achievements, from Mercedes Gleitz, the first woman to swim the English Chanel in 1927, to Edmund Hillary and his team who reached the highest peak of Mount Everest in 1953.

Over the years, the Oyster has given birth to over fifteen different ranges, from The Classic, to the Sky-Dweller, Datejust, Day-Date and Professional. Rolex’s five spiked crown is instantly recognisable as an emblem for excellence and since 2002 a microscopic etching of the trademark crown is lasered onto the watch crystal case to avoid counterfeits. Vintage Rolex watches continue to hold high prices on the secondary market and the firm continues to produce new collections.