Rolex facts for kids
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Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland
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Formerly
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Wilsdorf and Davis (1905–1919) Rolex Watch Co. Ltd (1919–1919) Montres Rolex SA (1919–1920) |
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| Société anonyme | |
| Industry | Watchmaking |
| Founded | 1905 in London |
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| Headquarters |
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Switzerland
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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Jean-Frédéric Dufour (CEO) |
| Products | Watches |
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Production output
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1.05 million pieces (2021) |
| Revenue | $13 billion (2021) |
| Owner | Hans Wilsdorf Foundation |
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Number of employees
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30,000 |
| Subsidiaries | Montres Tudor SA Bucherer AG |
Rolex SA is a famous Swiss company that designs and makes watches. It is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The company started in London in 1905 as Wilsdorf and Davis, founded by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis. In 1908, they registered "Rolex" as their brand name.
After World War I, Rolex moved its main operations to Geneva, Switzerland. This was because of high taxes on luxury goods in the United Kingdom at the time. In 1920, Hans Wilsdorf officially named the company Montres Rolex SA, which later became Rolex SA. Since 1960, the company has been owned by the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, a private trust that also supports charities.
Rolex SA and its sister company, Montres Tudor SA, create and sell wristwatches under the Rolex and Tudor brands. In 2023, Rolex also bought Bucherer, a company that had sold their watches for a long time.
Contents
The Story of Rolex
How Rolex Began
In 1905, Alfred Davis and his brother-in-law Hans Wilsdorf started a company called Wilsdorf and Davis in London. This company would later become Rolex SA. At first, they brought Swiss watch parts to England and put them into watch cases. They sold these early wristwatches to jewelers, who often put their own names on the watch faces. The first watches from Wilsdorf and Davis usually had "W&D" marked inside the case.
In 1908, Wilsdorf registered the name "Rolex" as the brand for their watches. He wanted a name that was easy to say in any language and short enough to fit on a watch face. He also thought "Rolex" sounded like a watch winding up.
During World War I, Rolex made watches for soldiers. In 1919, Hans Wilsdorf moved the company from England to Geneva, Switzerland. This move happened because of high taxes on luxury imports and gold and silver used for watch cases in England after the war.
The Waterproof "Oyster" Watch
After moving to Geneva, Wilsdorf focused on a big problem: how to stop dust and water from getting inside watches and damaging them. In 1926, a company that made watch cases created a special waterproof and dustproof wristwatch for Rolex. They called it the "Oyster." This watch had a case that was sealed tightly, protecting the parts inside.
To show how well the Oyster worked, Rolex put the watches in aquariums in store windows. In 1927, a British swimmer named Mercedes Gleitze swam across the English Channel wearing an Oyster watch. She became the first person to promote Rolex watches. To celebrate, Rolex put a huge advertisement on the front page of the Daily Mail newspaper for a whole month, telling everyone about the watch's success during her long swim.
The Self-Winding "Perpetual" Watch
In 1931, Rolex created a new invention: a self-winding system called the Perpetual rotor. This was a half-circle weight inside the watch that moved freely with gravity. As a person moved their arm, the rotor would wind the watch automatically. Because of this new feature, the Oyster watch became known as the Oyster Perpetual.
The Hans Wilsdorf Foundation
When his wife passed away in 1944, Hans Wilsdorf created the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation. He put all his Rolex shares into this private trust. This made sure that some of the company's money would always go to help charities. When Wilsdorf died in 1960, the trust took over owning and running Rolex SA.
Rolex's Sister Company: Tudor Watches
Rolex SA sells watches under two brands: Rolex and Tudor. Montres Tudor SA has been making Tudor watches since 1946. Hans Wilsdorf started Tudor because he wanted to offer reliable watches that were similar to Rolex, but at a lower price.
At first, Tudor watches used standard parts from other companies for their inner workings, but they used high-quality Rolex cases and bracelets. Since 2015, Tudor has started making its own watch movements. The first model with an in-house movement was the Tudor North Flag. Tudor watches are sold in many countries around the world.
How Rolex Watches Are Made
Every Rolex watch has a special serial number. This number helps to tell when the watch was made. Serial numbers started in 1926. In 2010, Rolex began using random serial numbers for their watches.
Special Rolex Features
Quartz Watches
Even though Rolex mostly makes mechanical watches (watches powered by springs and gears), they also helped develop early quartz watch movements. Quartz watches use a vibrating crystal to keep time. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Rolex engineers helped design this technology. Rolex even created its own quartz movement called the "5035/5055," which powered the Rolex Oysterquartz watches.
Strong Materials
Rolex uses special materials for its watches. Since 2005, they have used a ceramic material called "Cerachrom" for the bezels (the rings around the watch face) on many of their sports watches. Unlike older aluminum bezels, ceramic bezels do not fade from sunlight and are very scratch-resistant.
Rolex also uses a special type of stainless steel called 904L. Most other Swiss watches use 316L steel. Rolex uses the higher-grade 904L because it resists corrosion better and looks shinier when polished.
Famous Rolex Watch Models
Rolex has three main watch collections: Oyster Perpetual, Professional, and Cellini. The Cellini line includes Rolex's dress watches. The main bracelets for the Oyster line are called Jubilee, Oyster, President, and Pearlmaster. Watch straps are usually made of stainless steel, yellow gold, white gold, or rose gold.
Air-King Watches
Hans Wilsdorf created the Air-King line to honor RAF pilots during the Battle of Britain. The first model came out in 1958. In 2016, Rolex brought back the Air-King as a single model (number 116900). This new Air-King has a larger 40mm case and a special shield to protect it from magnetic fields, similar to the Rolex Milgauss.
Oyster Perpetual Watches
The Rolex Oyster Perpetual watch is a direct descendant of the first waterproof Rolex Oyster watch made in 1926. The name "Oyster Perpetual" is used for many Rolex watches, but it's also a specific collection.
Some models, like the Oyster Perpetual Date and Datejust, look very similar. However, the Datejust models are usually larger and offer more ways to customize them, like different metals, dial materials, and optional diamonds.
Professional Collections
Rolex has made special watches for extreme activities like deep-sea diving, caving, mountain climbing, and flying.
- The Rolex Submariner (1953) and Rolex Sea Dweller (1967) were made for divers. The Sea Dweller has a special valve to release helium gas that can build up during deep dives.
- The Explorer (1953) and Explorer II (1971) were designed for adventurers exploring tough places, like Mount Everest. The Rolex Explorer was launched to celebrate the successful climb of Everest in 1953.
- The Rolex GMT Master (1955) was created for Pan Am Airways pilots. It allowed them to see two time zones at once: local time and GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), which was important for long flights.
Most Expensive Rolex Watches
- In 2017, a Rolex Daytona watch (Ref. 6239) from 1968, which belonged to actor Paul Newman, sold for US$17.75 million at an auction in New York. This made it the most expensive wristwatch ever sold at auction at that time.
- In 2018, another Rolex Daytona, called the "Unicorn" (Ref. 6265), sold for US$5.937 million in Geneva.
- The most expensive Rolex ever made by the factory was the GMT Ice reference 116769TBR, which had a retail price of US$485,350.
Rolex Sponsorships
Rolex supports many different areas:
- Since 1976, the Rolex Awards for Enterprise have given money to people working on important projects.
- The biennial Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative helps young artists by pairing them with experienced mentors.
- Rolex has been the official timekeeper for the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race since 2001.
- Famous athletes and artists like Jackie Stewart, Gary Player, and Kiri Te Kanawa have promoted Rolex watches.
- Rolex is also a sponsor of the Rolex International Jumping Riders Club Top 10 Final in horse riding.
Rolex watches have even gone on amazing adventures!
- In 1960, a special Rolex Oyster Perpetual Deep-Sea Special watch was attached to the outside of a submarine called the Trieste. This submarine went to the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench, reaching a depth of 10,916 meters (about 35,814 feet). The watch worked perfectly!
- In 2012, when filmmaker James Cameron made a similar deep dive, a specially designed Rolex Oyster Perpetual Sea-Dweller Deep Sea Challenge watch was on his submarine's robotic arm.
Rolex's Achievements
Rolex has made many important improvements and inventions in watchmaking:
- In 1926, Rolex created the Oyster case, which was a very reliable waterproof wristwatch case. They used a special screw-down crown and a sealed case back.
- In 1910, Rolex was the first watchmaker to get a special certification (called a chronometer certification) for a small lady's wristwatch, meaning it was very accurate.
- In 1931, they released a self-winding mechanism for wristwatches that used a rotor. This rotor was a weight that spun 360 degrees, winding the watch as the wearer moved their arm. This made winding watches by hand unnecessary and helped watches keep time more accurately.
- In 1945, Rolex introduced the first wristwatch that automatically changed the date on the dial (Rolex Datejust Ref. 4467).
- In 1953, they released a watch case that was waterproof up to 100 meters (330 feet) in the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner Ref. 6204.
- In 1954, Rolex made a wristwatch that could show two time zones at once, called the Rolex GMT Master ref. 6542.
- In 1956, Rolex created a wristwatch that automatically changed both the day and the date on the dial, called the Rolex Day-Date.
Rolex's Impact on Culture
During World War II, Royal Air Force pilots bought Rolex watches to replace their less reliable military watches. If they were captured and sent to prisoner-of-war (POW) camps, their watches were taken away. When Hans Wilsdorf heard about this, he offered to replace all confiscated watches for free until the war ended. Officers just had to write to Rolex and explain what happened. This boosted the morale of the Allied POWs because it showed that Wilsdorf believed the Axis powers would not win the war.
One famous story involves Corporal Clive James Nutting, a British POW who helped plan the "Great Escape." In 1943, he ordered a valuable Rolex Oyster 3525 Chronograph directly from Hans Wilsdorf. Wilsdorf sent the watch to the prison camp with a note saying that an "English gentleman" like Corporal Nutting should not worry about paying until after the war. The watch was believed to be used to time the prison guards' patrols during the escape plan.
Rolex watches are often seen as status symbols, showing success and luxury. The company makes more than 1 million watches every year.
See also
In Spanish: Rolex para niños
- Boule de Genève
- List of watch manufacturers
- Rolex Tower
Literature
- Pierre-Yves Donzé: La fabrique de l’excellence. Histoire de Rolex. Livreo Alphil, 2024, ISBN 978-2-88950-241-7.
