Rolex for beginners for all
Rolex has long been known as a horological status symbol. From the small business owner to the billionaire hip hop mogul, Rolex is arguably the largest and most prominent luxury watch company in the world.
From the basic stainless steel models under $10,000 to the binged out diamond bezels that fetch over $50,000, the fact is that Rolex has managed to acquire and maintain one of the most diverse client bases the world has ever seen. It consistently ranks high on lists of the top global brands and is influential the world over.
The History of Rolex
When two men married into the same family decided to start the company, it was originally named Wilsorf and Davis after the founders Hans Wilsorf and his brother-in-law Alfred Davis.
Initially intended to just be an importer of Aeigler’s Swiss watch movements to England, the company which would eventually become Rolex SA, was registered in London, England in 1905.
Wilsorf and Davis began to import the Swiss movements and place them in watches made by Dennison and others that they proceeded to sell to jewellers who put the name W&D on the inside of the case back and allowed the independent jewellers to place their own names on the dials.
It wasn’t until 1908 that Wilsorf registered the trademark “Rolex” and opened an office in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. The name Rolex is often discussed, but widely believed by horologists to be a made up name that was used because it was onomatopoeic and easily pronounced in any language or accent. It reminded Wilsorf of the winding sounds of the watch and it is believed that these reasons are why the name Rolex was chosen to eventually become the name of their brand. It also helped of course, that the name was short enough to fit on the face of a watch and symmetrical.
By 1914, Wilsorf and Davis’ watches were so well established and known that the Kew Observatory awarded Rolex with a Class A precision certificate that was normally only awarded to marine chronometers. In 1919, Wilsorf left England due to the wartime taxation levied against luxury imports in addition to the exportation duties on silver and gold. With costs increasing, he moved the company to Geneva, Switzerland where he renamed it the Rolex Watch Company. Over the next few decades it would be changed again to Monres Rolex, SA and finally to Rolex, SA as it’s known today.
Wilsdorf quickly became well known as a charitable man and positioned himself as quite the contributor when he began replacing the Rolex watches of Britain’s soldiers who were captured as prisoners of war during World War II. When the POWs were captured and sent to camps the Rolex watches they had began purchasing were seized and confiscated by the Nazis. Many pilots had began to wear Rolex watches by the beginning of the 1940s as the quality superseded that of the generic watches they were issued by the military. In fact, one of the most well documented uses of a Rolex was when the watch was used to time the highly publicized Great Escape.
Vintage Rolex Watch
It was that one, of the 3000+ watches awarded to Royal Air Force pilots that was sent when a letter was received by Hans Wilsorf, written by a POW named Corporal Clive James Nutting.
Nutting had written to Rolex the same as many other servicemen, knowing that his precious watch would be replaced free of charge until the war was over. The watch, a stainless steel Rolex Oyster 3525 Chronograph was mailed to Nutting directly from Wilsorf and delivered to Stalag Looft II on July 10, 1943 with a note informing Nutting he “should not even think” about paying for the timepiece before the end of the war. What Wilsorf didn’t know at the time was the watch was specifically ordered for the purpose of orchestrating the Great Escape.
Far more expensive than the usual Speed King model ordered by airmen, Nutting used the chronograph to time the patrols of the prison guards as well as the 76 escapees through the tunnel on March 24, 1944. Eventually, after the war, Nutting did receive a bill for the watch for a grand total of just £15. In May, 2007, the watch was sold at auction for £66,000. Then, in November 2013, the Rolex Speed King owned by Flight Lieutenant Gerald Imeson during the Great Escape sold at auction for £60,000.
In 1944, one year before the war ended, Wilsorf wife tragically died. Wilsorf was very concerned that due to the massive growth of his company and with the United States showing interest due to his charity towards the captured servicemen, that his hard-earned money would simply go into the pockets of already wealthy investors should the company ever go public. To prevent such a thing from occurring, he established the Hans Wilsorf Foundation and left all of his shares to the charity to ensure that at least a portion the company’s income would go to charitable initiatives. To this very day Rolex is privately owned and it’s ownership lays in trust with the Hans Wilsorf Foundation. Despite its size, Rolex does not trade publicly on any stock market.
Today, Rolex is one of the world’s most powerful companies and the largest luxury watch brand in the world. They produce an average of 2,000 watches each day and maintain record revenues of upwards of $7 billion each year.
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did thumbs up to all
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