Founded in 1905 by Hans Wilsdorf, Rolex is now one of the most popular watch brands out there. Rolex has some interesting stories and facts about it, so lets get into it.
Hans Wilsdorf founded Rolex in London, UK. He wanted the name to be something pronounceable by any person of any language, and it had to be in 5 letters. Wilsdorf mixed the letters of the alphabets but couldn’t come up with a name. One day while driving in his car, Hans Wilsdorf said in his head “Rolex”. And fell in love in an instant.
Rolex had many achievements, from the first water resistant wristwatch, to the first self-changing date watch. The first water resistant watch, the Oyster was made in 1926, worn by professional swimmer Mercedes Gleitze in 1927 and she wore it around her neck instead of her wrist an swim with it across the English Channel. As expected, the watch remained ticking. To demonstrate how great Rolex’s genius at marketing, they put the watch in fish tanks in their booths and stores while the watch is working. This technique worked wonders and shocked the public.
Moving on to the first self-changing date achievement. There were already perpetual calendars by that time, and there were tons of date watches, but none of them were self changing. Rolex’s Datejust made in 1945 was the first to do so.
Rolex has so many more achievements throughout the history, but this is just a quick history lesson of early Rolex. There will be a long enough history lesson about Rolex. What was the first self-changing date watch you had?
Refrences:
- https://www.watchfinder.co.uk/articles/technical-self-changing-date
- https://www.christies.com/features/Rolex-First-Underwater-Watch-Ask-A-Specialist-5799-1.aspx
- https://www.rolex.com/world-of-rolex/rolex-history.html
- https://m.rolex.com/about-rolex-watches/rolex-history/1905-1919.html
- https://www.rolex.com/about-rolex-watches/rolex-history/1926-1945.html
