Rolex
Rolex SA (/ˈroʊlɛks/) is a British-founded Swiss watch designer and manufacturer based in Geneva, Switzerland.[3] Founded in 1905 as Wilsdorf and Davis by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London, the company registered Rolex as the brand name of its watches in 1908 and became Rolex Watch Co. Ltd. in 1915.[4][5][6][7] After World War I, the company moved its base of operations to Geneva because of the unfavorable economy in the United Kingdom. In 1920, Hans Wilsdorf registered Montres Rolex SA in Geneva as the new company name (montre is French for clock or watch); it later became Rolex SA.[3][5][8][9] Since 1960, the company has been owned by the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, a private family trust.[6][10][11]
Rolex SA and its subsidiary Montres Tudor SA design, make, distribute, and service wristwatches sold under the Rolex and Tudor brands.
History[edit]
Early history[edit]
Rolex Submariner
Alfred Davis and his brother-in-law Hans Wilsdorf founded Wilsdorf and Davis, the company that would eventually become Rolex SA, in London in 1905.[12] Wilsdorf and Davis’s main commercial activity at the time involved importing Hermann Aegler’s Swiss movements to England and placing them in watch cases made by Dennison and others. These early wristwatches were sold to many jewellers, who then put their own names on the dial. The earliest watches from Wilsdorf and Davis were usually hallmarked “W&D” inside the caseback.
In 1908, Wilsdorf registered the trademark “Rolex”, which became the brand name of watches from Wilsdorf and Davis. He opened an office in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.[5][12][13] Wilsdorf wanted the brand name to be easily pronounceable in any language, and short enough to fit on the face of a watch.[4][14] He also thought that the name “Rolex” was onomatopoeic, sounding like a watch being wound.[4][14]
During the First world war, Rolex manufactured trench watches that were issued to armies around the world.[15][16] In November 1915, the company changed its name to Rolex Watch Co. Ltd.[7] In 1919, Hans Wilsdorf moved the company from England to Geneva, Switzerland, because of heavy post-war taxes levied on luxury imports and high export duties on the silver and gold used for the watch cases. In 1919 the company’s name was officially changed to Montres Rolex SA and later in 1920 to Rolex SA.[9][11][12]
With administrative worries attended to, Wilsdorf turned the company’s attention to a marketing challenge: the infiltration of dust and moisture under the dial and crown, which damaged the movement. To address this problem, in 1926 a third-party casemaker produced a waterproof and dustproof wristwatch for Rolex, giving it the name “Oyster”. The original patent attributed to Paul Perregaux and Georges Peret, that allowed the watch to be adjusted while maintaining protection from water ingress was purchased — not invented — by Rolex and heavily marketed.[17] The watch featured a hermetically sealed case which provided optimal protection for the movement.[18]
As a demonstration, Rolex submerged Oyster models in aquariums, which it displayed in the windows of its main points of sale. In 1927, British swimmer Mercedes Gleitze swam the English Channel with an Oyster on her necklace, becoming the first Rolex ambassador. To celebrate the feat, Rolex published a full-page advertisement on the front page of the Daily Mail for every issue for a whole month proclaiming the watch’s success during the ten hour plus swim.[18]
In 1931, Rolex patented a self-winding mechanism called a Perpetual rotor, a semi-circular plate that relies on gravity to move freely. In turn, the Oyster watch became known as the Oyster Perpetual.[18]
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, ensuring that some of the company’s income would go to charity. Wilsdorf died in 1960, and since then the trust has owned and run Rolex SA.[11]
Recent development[edit]
The Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, which privately owns Rolex SA, is a registered Swiss charitable foundation and pays a lower tax rate.[19] In 2011, a spokesman for Rolex declined to provide evidence regarding the amount of charitable donations made by the Wilsdorf Foundation, which brought up several scandals due to the lack of transparency.[19] In Geneva where the company is based, it is said to have gifted, among many things, two housing buildings to social institutions of Geneva.[20]
According to the 2017 Brand Z report, the brand value is estimated at $8.053 billion.[5] Rolex watches continue to have a reputation as status symbols.[21][22][23][24] The company produces more than 1,000,000 timepieces each year.[25] It is said that “The power of the Crown is never more felt than when trying to negotiate space in a retail environment for the product of another brand”.[26]
Tudor SA[edit]
Wristwatch Tudor Prince Date Day (ref. 76200)
Rolex SA offers products under the Rolex and Tudor brands. Montres Tudor SA has designed, manufactured and marketed Tudor watches since 6 March 1946.[27] Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf conceived Tudor to create a product for authorized Rolex dealers to sell that offered the reliability and dependability of a Rolex, but at a lower price.[28] The number of Rolex watches was limited by the rate that they could produce in-house Rolex movements, thus Tudor watches were originally equipped with off-the-shelf movements while using similar quality cases and bracelets.[29]
Historically, Tudor watches have been manufactured by Montres Tudor SA using movements supplied by ETA SA. Since 2015, Tudor has begun to manufacture watches with in-house movements. The first model introduced with an in-house movement was the Tudor North Flag. Following this, updated versions of the Tudor Pelagos and Tudor Heritage Black Bay have also been fitted with an in-house caliber.[30][29]
Tudor watches are marketed and sold in most countries around the world. Montres Tudor SA discontinued sales of Tudor-branded watches in the United States in 2004, but Tudor returned to the United States market in the summer of 2013 and to the UK in 2014.[31][32]
Watch manufacturing[edit]
Rolex GMT Master II gold and stainless steel (ref. 116713LN)
While Rolex mostly produces mechanical watches, it also participated in 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.[33] Within about five years of research, design, and development, Rolex created the “clean-slate” 5035/5055 movement that would eventually power the Rolex Oysterquartz.[34]
Material-wise, Rolex first used its “Cerachrom” ceramic bezel on the GMT-Master II in 2005, and has since then implemented ceramic bezel inserts across the range of professional sports watches. They are available on the Submariner, Sea Dweller, Deepsea, GMT Master II, and Daytona models. In contrast to the aluminum bezel which it replaced, the ceramic bezel color does not wear out from exposure to UV-light and is scratch resistant.[35]
Rolex uses 904L grade stainless-steel; in contrast, most Swiss watches are made with 316L grade steel. Rolex uses the higher grade, as it is more resistant to corrosion and when polished, leaves a more beautiful luster.[35]
Rolex serial numbers[edit]
Each Rolex comes with a unique serial number, which can help indicate its approximate production period. Serial numbers were first introduced in 1926 and were issued sequentially, until 1954, when Rolex restarted from #999,999 to #0. In 1987, there was an addition of one letter to a 6-digit serial number and in 2010, to the present date Rolex introduced random serial numbers.[36]
Notable inventions[edit]
Among the company’s innovations are:
- In 1910, the first watchmaker to earn chronometer certification for a small lady wristwatch.[11]
- In 1926, produced the Oyster case, the first reliable waterproof wristwatch case that was based on a screw-down crown. To this end, Rolex acquired the Perragaux-Perret screw-down patent, added a clutch and combined the screw-down crown with a threaded case back and bezel.[37] Wilsdorf even had a specially made Rolex watch (the watch was called the “DeepSea”) attached to the side of Trieste, which went to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The watch survived and tested as having kept perfect time during its descent and ascent. This was confirmed by a telegram sent to Rolex the following day saying “Am happy to confirm that even at 11,000 metres your watch is as precise as on the surface. Best regards, Jacques Piccard”.[11] Earlier waterproof watches such as the “Submarine Watch” by Tavannes used other means to seal the case.
- In 1931, released a wristwatch winding mechanism featuring a rotor, a full 360 degrees rotating weight to power the watch by the movement of the wearer’s arm.[38] As well as making watch winding unnecessary, it also kept the power from the mainspring more consistent, resulting in more reliable timekeeping. Fully rotating weights later became part of the standard winding mechanism of self-winding wristwatches. A preceding self-winding mechanism by Harwood instead used a weight that moved in a 270 degrees arc hitting buffer springs on both sides.[39]
- In 1945, introduced the first chronometer wristwatch with an automatically changing date on the dial (Rolex Datejust Ref. 4467).[14] An earlier wristwatch with a date changing mechanism by Mimo was not chronometer certified.
- In 1953, released a case waterproof to 100 m (330 ft) (Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner Ref.6204, 1953). Although this has been commonly publicized as the first diving watch, Omega made 21 years earlier, in 1932, the Marine, which could stand 135mts, 35mts more than the 1953 Rolex Submariner, and also Blancpain produced before Rolex their Fifty Fathoms in 1953, 10 months before Rolex.[40]
- In 1954, produced a wristwatch which showed two time zones at once (Rolex GMT Master ref.6542, 1954).[41] Yet again, it was not the first company to do so, as the Longines DualTime preceded the GMT by a full quarter of a century.
- In 1956, made a wristwatch with an automatically changing day and date on the dial (Rolex Day-Date, 1956).[42]
Counterfeits[edit]
Rolex watches are frequently counterfeited and often illegally sold on the street and online. Counterfeit Rolex watches vary in quality: some use cheap movements, while others use automatic movements, and some use an ETA movement. O. J. Simpson wore a counterfeit Rolex during his 1994 murder trial.
source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolex
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