Rolex
Discoveries and visions, extreme expeditions, perfect technology of manufacture, recognition and esteem. Any of these is adherent to Rolex brand , undoubtedly the best-known brand in the world. It is a synonym of the premium quality and prestige. The history of Rolex brand is accompanied with greatest discoveries and patents in the watchmaking industry.
Rolex was the first brand in the world to acquire the quality certificate, it was the first in the world to devise the waterproof watch and the first to introduce a self-winding clock drive, today known as „Perpetual rotor“. It was the first to launch a watch with a date on the watch face and a watch with two time zones.
Rolex watch win superiority if dived to 11,000 meters to the Mariana Trench bottom or climbed to the highest spot of the Earth, Mount Everest.
All those are reasons why you wear more than a clock drive when wearing a Rolex on your wrist.
History
| 1881 | Hans Wilsdorf, the founder of Rolex company was born in Kulmbach, a small town in Germany. |
| 1905 | With his brother-in-law, he founded Wilsdorf & Davis in London, a company of his own specialised in import and sales of Swiss watches. |
| 1908 | He registered ROLEX brand. It is quite likely that the name was derived from horologerie exquise. However, Hans Wildorf never affirmed the explanation. |
| 1910 | He was the first to be given a wrist watch quality certificate. |
| 1912 | The company was moved from London to Geneva and has stayed there since. |
| 1914 | The first wrist watch to be awarded a prestigious certificate, at CLASS A precision certificate, by Kew Observatory, London. Since then, Wilsdorf decided to make tests and certify all of the watches he manufactured. One test took 45 days at 3 different temperatures. |
| 1926 | Rolex invented the first waterproof watch in the world – Oyster. |
| 1927 | To prove the premium quality and absolute resistance against dust, dirt , impacts and water, Rolex provided an Oyster Perpetual watch to Mercedes Gleitze, an English swimmer, and she was wearing it when she made the English Channel on 7-10-1927 in 15 hours and 15 minutes. The watch remained intact. |
| 1931 | In this year, Rolex triumphed again. It was the first in the world to invent a clock drive that is wound up by itself, by a single move of the hand. Today, it is known as „Perpetual rotor“. |
| 1945 | As another significant discovery, Rolex introduced the first wrist watch with the date on the face named Oyster Perpetual Date. |
| 1953 | Introduction of Oyster Perpetual Submariner – water resistant to the depth to 100 m then. Introduction of Oyster Perpetual Explorer. In the year, Sir Edmund Hillary, John Hunt and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay conquered Mount Everest, the highest peak of the world. All of them were wearing Oyster Perpetual Explorer. |
| 1955 | Introduction of Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master – the first model of a watch showing two time zones at a time. |
| 1956 | Introduction of Oyster Perpetual Day-Date. The first model displaying the days of the week in the whole word. Today, it is available in twenty-six languages. |
| 1960 | Deep Sea Special. The first watch that dived to the deepest place of the earth, the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Introduction of a legendary model Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona. Until the present days, the model is sometimes called “Paul Newman”, by the famous actor who wore it in “Winning“, a film shot on the race circuit of Daytona, USA. |
| 1967 | Introduction of Oyster Perpetual Sea-Dweller. Water resistant to the depth of 610 m then. |
| 1971 | Introduction of Oyster Perpetual Explorer II. |
| 1978 | Oyster Perpetual Sea-Dweller water resistant to the depth of 1,200 m. |
| 1992 | Introduction of Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master. |
| 2005 | Introduction of Rolex Prince – a replica of Rolex Prince of 1920. |
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