Rolex - History of Rolex

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Rolex was founded in the year of 1908, by a german man named Hans Wilsdorf. Initially the company did not have the Rolex name, it was called Wilsdorf & Davis -- because the last name of the man who founded the company was Wilsdorf, and his brother in law was his partner.

In the year 1908, at this point in time, the pocket watch was the most popular watch, and it was mostly produced by the swiss, because at this point in time manufacturers still had some difficulty with accuratly having precise movements in a size so small such as the wrist watch.

The founder of Rolex Wilsdorf could be thought of as a perfionist, as he strived for smaller sizes and more accurate movements. His strives transformed the watch fashion from the bulky pocket watches to much smaller and much more practical wrist watches.

In the year of 1910, Rolex sent their first movement to a school in Switzerland, called the School of Horology. Rolex was then awarded the world's first wristwatch chronometer rating. Rolex completed two main objectives for watches, to be smaller and to keep accurate time. With the accurate time keeping under control, they set to part on the next task at hand which was being reliable. A main problem for watches is moisture and dust, and Rolex wanted to make sure their watches were made to last.

They made a waterproof design, and their first waterproof watch by Rolex was cleverly advertised around the world. At the time, this being an entirely new concept, the majority of the public was very skeptical about the watch even being remotely waterproof. However, Rolex was ingenious with their advertising and had the watch completely submerged in a fish tank in the shop window, and still running! -- This was plenty to convince your customer. This campaign created a huge brand awareness for Rolex.

Rolex even in the early days as now, was a sign of wealth and high sense of luxurious fashion. A Rolex watch is thought of as a I made it piece, signyfing your status socially.

By the time Daytona fever swept across Europe and the United States in the late 1980s, a relaunch was already in the works. Introduced in 1991, the updated Daytona replicated the original's racy chronograph--a built-in stopwatch that's perfect for timing the morning sprints of Kentucky Derby contenders or your nine-year-old's dash for first base--but added an automatic winder. Today, the $5,150 stainless-steel Cosmograph with a white face--the rarest combination and the one that Paul Newman reportedly wears off screen--is one of the country's most-coveted timepieces.  The Daytona is actually worth more on the secondary market than its retail price. I mean, here's a watch that--assuming you could find one, that is--you could pick up new and turn around and resell for a $2,000 profit. And in steel.

But the best-known Swiss watchmaker has always been something of an outsider in Geneva. Perhaps it's because the company didn't start out Swiss. As mentioned, Rolex was founded in London, in 1905, by the 24-year-old Wilsdorf, a German who became a British citizen after taking an English bride. It was an era when national borders tended to define men's ambitions, but Wilsdorf thought big from the beginning. In 1908, before anyone had uttered the term multinational, Wilsdorf trademarked the word Rolex, a name that's easily pronounced in different languages and short enough to fit on a watch dial. It's said that Wilsdorf dreamed up the word while riding a London bus, having been inspired by the sound a watch makes as it is wound. Rolex didn't leave England until after the First World War, when an import tax hike of 33 percent made receiving its Swiss-made movements prohibitively expensive.

The company's first decade was driven by its founder's relentless obsession with precision. "Wilsdorf wasn't content merely to invent the first wristwatch. He wanted to invent the first truly accurate wristwatch, one that you could actually run your life by." Validation came in 1914, when London's Kew Observatory certified a Rolex wristwatch to be as precise as a marine chronometer. It was the first time that a watch had received "chronometer" status--a classification that, even today, is held by a relative few timepieces.