Suhail
04-21-2009, 06:11 AM
Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf born was in Kulmbach, Germany on March 22nd, 1881. Orphaned at the age of 12, he grew up in one of the better Swiss boarding schools. Very little information is available about his either his parents or how they died. Shortly after graduating, Hans found employment, through a former classmate, at a firm exporting watches that was based in the town of La Chaux-de-Fonds (the Omega watch company was founded there in 1848).
By 1903, Wilsdorf had changed employers and was working for a watch manufacturer in London, England when he decided to take on his brother-in-law (who provided the funding) and start his own company manufacturing pocket watches (in competition with several hundred other already established companies which were also importing mechanisms for assembly and sale in London).
The firm of Wilsdorf and Davis was successful financially but did not branch out into wristwatches until 1905. There had been a sentiment in the general public that wristwatches were somewhat less than masculine in appearance. That greatly limited demand, as well as the fact that while a pocket-watch spent most of its life well protected in the owner's pocket, a wristwatch was constantly exposed to the elements, especially moisture, and was therefore less durable.
A third obstacle was the size and price of the watch mechanisms themselves. To be small enough to fit properly on a wrist, the mechanism would have to be much smaller than that of the ordinary pocket-watch and the higher level of manufacturing difficulty meant a higher level of cost. While Philipe Patek is widely credited with having invented the first wristwatch, it wasn't until 1904 that they were to become considered acceptable for men to wear. In that year Brazilian inventor and aviator Santos-Dumont asked his friend Louis Cartier to make a watch that would be easier from him to check while flying. With the acceptance of the wristwatch concept by European men, the stage was set for explosive growth of the market.
In 1905, Wilsdorf made a deal with a Swiss firm owned by Hermann Aegler to produced mechanisms that were sufficiently reliable to meet Wilsdorf's standards, small enough to fit in a case to be strapped on a wrist and priced at a level that made profitable manufacture a possibility. Over the next three years, wristwatches grew into a profitable segment of the company's product line. By 1908, Wilsdorf had come to the conclusion that his line of wristwatches needed to have a new, distinct identity. The name Wilsdorf and Davis was an unwieldy fit on the small face of a wristwatch and additionally, was difficult to pronounce properly in some languages. There are several apocryphal stories about how the name "Rolex" was chosen (some researchers say it is derived from the French term "Horlogerie Exquise", others credit the inspiration to the sound made while winding a watch), but the thinking behind it is well known; it is easily pronounced in any European language and at only five letters, it is short. On the 2nd of July, 1908, they made it official.
Two years later, in 1910, Wilsdorf, seeking to set his product apart from the competition, took the unprecedented step of sending watches to a Swiss observatory to be tested for accuracy and certified as an official chronometer (the first wristwatch ever to receive this approbation). In 1914, another Rolex received an "A" certificate from the Kew observatory in London. It wasn't long before the Rolex name was on one of every six watches worldwide.
By 1925, that ratio had grown to one in two. Perhaps sensing that the time was right, Wilsdorf starting spending 12,000 Pounds yearly to publicize his brand and within a very short time, five out of every six wristwatches bore the Rolex name.
The next year, 1926, was to see a watershed event: the introduction of the world's first waterproof case, appropriately named the "Oyster" (the company even patented a special device for testing and confirming the case's waterproof status). The key to the watch's water-resistance was a unique, patented double-locking crown. One of the most celebrated of the demonstrations of water-resistance was Mercedes Gleitze's swim across the English channel in 1927, while wearing one of Wilsdorf's products. The next five years saw steady improvements in the quality of Rolex products and extensive innovation, resulting in the 1931 introduction of the "self-winding" version of the watch. It was not a new idea, but it had never been perfected, so the first patent went to Rolex.
Wilsdorf had accomplished an almost unimaginable feat...at the age of 50, his company had introduced the first certified chronometer wristwatch, the first waterproof case as well as first self-winding wristwatches (and held the patents on both), and as a result had achieved absolute dominance in the market.
1945 saw the introduction of the Oyster Datejust, which automatically displayed the date, followed by the 1956 Oyster Day-Date which added the day of the week. While Rolex has continued to evolve and improve, these were the last two major product changes to the product line.
By 1903, Wilsdorf had changed employers and was working for a watch manufacturer in London, England when he decided to take on his brother-in-law (who provided the funding) and start his own company manufacturing pocket watches (in competition with several hundred other already established companies which were also importing mechanisms for assembly and sale in London).
The firm of Wilsdorf and Davis was successful financially but did not branch out into wristwatches until 1905. There had been a sentiment in the general public that wristwatches were somewhat less than masculine in appearance. That greatly limited demand, as well as the fact that while a pocket-watch spent most of its life well protected in the owner's pocket, a wristwatch was constantly exposed to the elements, especially moisture, and was therefore less durable.
A third obstacle was the size and price of the watch mechanisms themselves. To be small enough to fit properly on a wrist, the mechanism would have to be much smaller than that of the ordinary pocket-watch and the higher level of manufacturing difficulty meant a higher level of cost. While Philipe Patek is widely credited with having invented the first wristwatch, it wasn't until 1904 that they were to become considered acceptable for men to wear. In that year Brazilian inventor and aviator Santos-Dumont asked his friend Louis Cartier to make a watch that would be easier from him to check while flying. With the acceptance of the wristwatch concept by European men, the stage was set for explosive growth of the market.
In 1905, Wilsdorf made a deal with a Swiss firm owned by Hermann Aegler to produced mechanisms that were sufficiently reliable to meet Wilsdorf's standards, small enough to fit in a case to be strapped on a wrist and priced at a level that made profitable manufacture a possibility. Over the next three years, wristwatches grew into a profitable segment of the company's product line. By 1908, Wilsdorf had come to the conclusion that his line of wristwatches needed to have a new, distinct identity. The name Wilsdorf and Davis was an unwieldy fit on the small face of a wristwatch and additionally, was difficult to pronounce properly in some languages. There are several apocryphal stories about how the name "Rolex" was chosen (some researchers say it is derived from the French term "Horlogerie Exquise", others credit the inspiration to the sound made while winding a watch), but the thinking behind it is well known; it is easily pronounced in any European language and at only five letters, it is short. On the 2nd of July, 1908, they made it official.
Two years later, in 1910, Wilsdorf, seeking to set his product apart from the competition, took the unprecedented step of sending watches to a Swiss observatory to be tested for accuracy and certified as an official chronometer (the first wristwatch ever to receive this approbation). In 1914, another Rolex received an "A" certificate from the Kew observatory in London. It wasn't long before the Rolex name was on one of every six watches worldwide.
By 1925, that ratio had grown to one in two. Perhaps sensing that the time was right, Wilsdorf starting spending 12,000 Pounds yearly to publicize his brand and within a very short time, five out of every six wristwatches bore the Rolex name.
The next year, 1926, was to see a watershed event: the introduction of the world's first waterproof case, appropriately named the "Oyster" (the company even patented a special device for testing and confirming the case's waterproof status). The key to the watch's water-resistance was a unique, patented double-locking crown. One of the most celebrated of the demonstrations of water-resistance was Mercedes Gleitze's swim across the English channel in 1927, while wearing one of Wilsdorf's products. The next five years saw steady improvements in the quality of Rolex products and extensive innovation, resulting in the 1931 introduction of the "self-winding" version of the watch. It was not a new idea, but it had never been perfected, so the first patent went to Rolex.
Wilsdorf had accomplished an almost unimaginable feat...at the age of 50, his company had introduced the first certified chronometer wristwatch, the first waterproof case as well as first self-winding wristwatches (and held the patents on both), and as a result had achieved absolute dominance in the market.
1945 saw the introduction of the Oyster Datejust, which automatically displayed the date, followed by the 1956 Oyster Day-Date which added the day of the week. While Rolex has continued to evolve and improve, these were the last two major product changes to the product line.