Rolex Watches

The story behind Rolex Watches

Quality, innovation, and success are all words that represent Rolex watches.

Hans Wilsdorf founded Rolex in 1908. Together with his brother in law, Wilsdorf wanted to create accurate and reliable watches. In an age where most Swiss watch makers were busy producing large sized pocket watches, Wilsdorf wanted to create the more practical, yet more complex, wrist watch. With a chronometer rating awarded from the Swiss School of Horology, had the accuracy side covered. However, due to moisture and dust getting into the watches, reliability was still an issue.

This brings us to Wilsdorf's first milestone innovation for wrist watches, the screw crown and casebook mechanism. In 1926, Wilsdorf gave birth to his Oyster line of rolex watches. The Oyster was the first truly airtight water and dust proof wrist watch in the world. The big break for the Oyster came in 1927 when Mercedes Gleitze swam across the English channel wearing the Oyster watch and came out of it with the watch still keeping accurate time. With this landmark event, Rolex watches gained instant appeal and all rival watch brands began to offer water resistant watches.

In addition to waterproof cases, Rolex watches developed other innovative ideas that have changed the watch industry. One of these examples would be the world's first automatic watch in the Oyster Perpetual watch. The Oyster Perpetual contained a tiny rotor which wound itself with the flick of a wrist. This truly paved the way for no-maintenance watches. And with the end of World War II, the name of Rolex spread to America on the wrists of American GI's and started the love affair between Rolex watches and the United States.

When the world started going quartz and the era of mechanical timekeeping was coming to an end, Rolex watches stood firm. Rolex was probably the only major watch company that did not resort to the quartz boom and stood by its tradition. This is also what makes Rolex watches so incredible and prestigious.

Rolex watches are the symbol of success and tradition. Standing firm and undaunted in the face of struggle, Rolex has become a brand to be trusted and coveted.

For more information on Rolex watches, visit the official Rolex website as well as the resource pages we've listed below.

And be sure to check out our pages about Breitling Watches, Cartier Watches, Casio Watches, Citizen Watches, and Fossil Watches elsewhere on this site.