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The story of the Rolex watch is inextricably entwined with the story of Hans Wilsdorf, who drove forward the progress of the company, and the technical developments that led to the accurate, waterproof, self winding wristwatch. Many others contributed, and it would have happened without him, sooner or later, but the fact remains than he is the central figure in the story. This picture of Hans Wilsdorf is from the Rolex Jubilee Vade Mecum published by the Rolex Watch Company in 1946. The Vade Mecum takes the form of four small booklets in a slip case, and was printed in a limited edition of 1,000. The booklets are:

I have copy number 619, except for volume three which is from copy number 270. All four booklets are stamped "Rolex Watch Division, C.P.O. Box 721, Tokyo, Japan" so I guess they must have all been in the same office at one time and got switched around. However, if the owner of Rolex Vade Mecum 270 reads this and wants to swap volume three, then please get in touch!

Hans Wilsdorf - Early Days

Hans Wilsdorf was born in Kulmbach, Bavaria, Franconia (Germany) on March 22, 1881, the second son of a family of three. His mother's early death was soon followed by that of his father and in 1893, when he was 12, his uncles decided to liquidate his father's business and use the proceeds to place the children in a very good boarding school in Coburg. Wilsdorf showed a particular liking for mathematics and languages, which drove him to travel and work in foreign countries. He apprenticed at a firm of pearl exporters whose sales organisation covered the whole world, which experience he felt was invaluable throughout his whole career. In 1900, aged 19, he started work at the major clock and watch exporting firm Cuno Korten in La Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland, for a wage of 80 Francs per annum, and became their English language correspondent and clerk. La Chaux de Fonds, along with Geneva, formed the hub of the high-quality watchmaking industry at the time. There, Wilsdorf was exposed to the most influential people and practices in watchmaking, which would later be an important asset in the founding and success of Rolex. In 1903 Wilsdorf moved to London to work for another watch making firm. Growing in confidence with the experience he gained from this and his previous employment, he set about establishing his own firm.

Foundation of Wilsdorf and Davis

In 1903 Wilsdorf moved to London, where he worked for a large watch store. Two years later, in May 1905 at the age of 24, he borrowed money from his sister and brother-in-law Alfred Davis, and founded the firm of Wilsdorf & Davis, 83 Hatton Gardens, London E.C. Their first speciality was a travelling watch, called a portfolio watch cased in fine quality leather. But Wilsdorf was convinced that the wristwatch was the way of the future. In 1902 while in La Chaux de Fonds, he had become aquainted with the firm of Hermann Aegler in Bienne, who produced a small lever escapement movement with a reputation for precise time keeping and good availability of spare parts due to the modern precision production methods pioneered by Aegler. In 1905 Wilsdorf went to Bienne and agreed with Hermann Aegler for the firm to manufacture wristwatch movements to Wilsdorf's specification, and placed the largest order for wristwatches ever seen at that time. The first wristwatches produced under this arrangement were mens and ladies in silver cases with leather straps. Their immediate success after the autumn launch prompted Wilsdorf to introduce a selection of designs in gold cases. In 1906 the expanding bracelet was launched by an important jewellery firm, and Wilsdorf immediately made this available as a very popular option on his watches.

Rebberg Movements

Aegler supplied Wilsdorf &Davis with movements manufactured in its ebauche factory in the Rebberg district of Bienne and hence these early movements are often referred to as "Rebberg" movements, even if they are not stamped with the Rebberg name. Rebberg was a registered trade mark of Aegler.

Wilsdorf had the movements supplied by Aegler fitted into cases made by the Swiss case maker Francis Baumgartner, and the Birmingham, England case maker Dennison. Aaron Lufkin Dennison (1812-1895) had pioneered mass production watch making in the USA, but ran into financial difficulties in a turbulent financial period in 1857. In 1862 he moved to England and set up the Dennison Watch Case Co. of Birmingham. Watch cases supplied to Wilsdorf & Davis were usually stamped "Dennison Watch Case Co" but Dennison also used the case maker mark "ALD" for Aaron Lufkin Dennison. It seems that Wilsdorf & Davis imported watches already cased in silver cases, but that it was better economically to have the expensive gold cases made in Britain and then the movements put into them in the UK to avoid the high import taxes on the gold.

The Birth of the Rolex Brand

In 1907 Wilsdorf opened an office in La Chaux de Fonds for marketing wristwatches, and coined the name Rolex. Some have speculated that this was derived from hoROLogie EXcellence, but in the Vade Mecum Wilsdorf says that Rolex was chosen because it was "a short yet significant word, not cumbersome on the dial (thus leaving room enough for the inscription of the English trader's name) and, above all, a word easy to memorise. It has a pleasant sound and its pronunciation remains unvaried in whatever European language it is spoken". But he doesn't reveal where the name came from, so we shall probably never know. His description of the way the word is short, easy to remember and pronounce echos the words of George Eastman, who registered the trademark Kodak on 4th September 1888. Eastman said his criteria for the name were that it should be short, one cannot mispronounce it, and it could not resemble anything or be associated with anything but Kodak. I am sure Wilsdorf had this in mind when he devised the name Rolex.

Wilsdorf registered Rolex as a brand name in 1908, and requested Aegler use it on all of his watches. Aegler wanted their own name to appear on the watches they manufactured, but reluctantly agreed to Wilsdorf's request. At first the Rolex name was stamped or engraved on the case and movement only; the dial being left free for the retailer to apply their name. Rolex was then a new and unknown name, whilst most of the stores they supplied had been in business for a long time, so naturally people would have more faith in a watch with the name of "The Goldsmiths Company" or "Asprey" on the dial.

Wilsdorf realised that as long as the retailers continued to put their names on the dial, they had control of what they purchased and sold, because they could put their name to any watch they chose. Although by having the movement and case branded with the Rolex name Wilsdorf could build up a reputation with the retailer, this would mean nothing to the customer who would rarely if ever look inside his watch. Wilsdorf was determined to produce the best wrist watches possible, believing that this was the key to success. He also realised that he would get better orders and more control over the wholesale price of his watches if he could build up demand so that customers would go into the shop and ask for, or better still insist on, a Rolex watch by name.

In addition to the various publicity events, such as obtaining the world's first chronometer certificates for some of his wristwatches as described below, Wilsdorf began to push forward the Rolex brand. Initially he applied labels to the back of the watches, but this was not enough. So from 1921 he began to ship watches with the Rolex name printed on the dial. At this time watches were shipped in small boxes, each containing 6 watches. To start with only one watch in each box had the Rolex name on the dial, then later two of them, and slowly he increased the number of Rolex branded watches sold. However, this was too slow for Wilsdorf and in 1925 he started an intensive advertising campaign costing £12,000 each year. The retailers then gradually accepted that four, and then five out of every six were branded. With the launch of the Rolex Oyster in late 1926, Wilsdorf was able to insist that all Oysters should have Rolex on the dial. Wilsdorf continued the advertising of his watches in pace with his increasing branding, culminating on November 24, 1927 when he took over the whole of the front page of the Daily Mail, at a cost of £1,600, with a full page advert for "The marvellous Rolex wrist watch - The World's best by every test" and stated that "All Good Jewellers throughout the British Empire stock Rolex watches". By his branding and advertising campaigns, Wilsdorf effectively turned the tables on the retailers: no longer would he have to approach retailers and ask them to stock his watches, customers would demand Rolex branded watches, and the retailers would have to come to him!

Timekeeping Precision

Wilsdorf was a perfectionist and never ceased pressing Aegler to improve the timekeeping of watches they made for him. In 1910 Aegler submitted as its manufacture a Rolex wrist watch to the Bienne testing station at the School of Horology. On March 22nd 1910 this watch received a First Class certificate and thus became the first wristwatch to be officially certified as a chronometer in Switzerland. (NB: Chronometer refers to a precision watch that is tested in various temperatures and positions, thus meeting the accuracy standards set by the official institute in Switzerland, which is only achieved by the finest quality movements. It should not be confused with Chronograph, which refers to any watch with a stopwatch function, whether the time keeping is of high accuracy or not.) Aegler registered Rolex as its trade name in 1913 for the manufacture of watches and watch parts.

On July 15th 1914, a small 25mm diameter Rolex wristwatch received a Class A precision certificate from the Kew Observatory in Greenwich, which had previously only been achieved by marine chronometers. The certificate required passing a series of tests over 45 days. The watch was tested in five different positions and three different temperatures, including ambient (65 degrees Fahrenheit), oven-hot, and refrigerator-cold. Wilsdorf said that this was a red letter day in the development of the firm, a day that he would never forget. Wilsdorf asked Aegler from then on to submit all Rolex calibers for chronometer tests. The ability of a wristwatch to maintain accurate time keeping could no longer be doubted.

The First World War

With the outbreak of World War 1, soldiers wanted reliable and accurate wristwatches and, as they were not issued with them as standard equipment, they bought their own. This presented an opportunity for Wilsdorf to sell more wrist watches, but the war also led directly to some serious problems. In 1915 the British Government imposed a duty of 33.3% on all imported watches, clocks and parts, and this tax was followed by a ban on all imported gold and silver 1916. This meant that any watches imported into London for checking and subsequent export abroad would be subject to this tax. To avoid paying this tax on watches not destined for the British market, Wilsdorf moved his Swiss office from La Chaux de Fonds into the Aegler factory and expanded its function to include checking all the watches he purchased from Aegler, whether they were bound for London or elsewhere. For the time being the head office of Rolex remained in London.

In 1919 Wilsdorf decided to relocate the headquarters of Rolex from London to Geneva. 1919 also witnessed another major development in the history of Rolex when Wilsdorf and Davis gave nearly 15% of their company’s equity to Herman Aegler. With this exchange, Aegler became the sole supplier of movements to Rolex and in exchange the company's name was changed to Aegler S.A. Rolex Watch Co.

My Rolexes

In 1918 my grandfather purchased a pair of Rolex watches for himself and my grandmother. You can see them in the photograph below, and then the dial, movement and inside case back of my grandfather's watch. The dials are very easy to read. My grandfather's watch in particular has a beautifully simple design; sharp black arabic numerals on a crips white enamel background, the 12 being picked out in red. The hands are elegant and perfectly proportioned, the minute hand being a slender baton and the shorter hour hand a lunette style. Note that the crown is made from gold, a harder material than silver to withstand the rigours of winding every day. My grandmothers watch has a silvered dial with Roman numerals, again the 12 (XII) is picked out in red, and the hands are the same design as on my grandfather's watch. On the 13 ligne Rebberg movement you can see that the plates and bridges have a beautiful engine turned pattern. The small gear wheel is engraved "SWISS MADE" and the larger wheel "ROLEX 15 JEWELS". Inside the case back, but difficult to make out in this photograph, below the "W&D" in the cartouche are stamped ".925" in an oval, the UK symbol for silvery purity of 92.5% or sterling silver, a mark that looks like an omega symbol on a cross in an oval, which is the London assay office mark for imported silver, and below these two, the date letter "C" for 1918. Underneath these stamps are the Swiss silver marks of a bear rampant and 0.935. Either side of these are stamped "Rolex" and "SWISS". My grandmother's watch movement is eactly the same but smaller, with a 10½ ligne Rebberg movement, but the inside back of the gold case is marked "Dennison Watch Case Co." and has the anchor of the Birmingham assay office and date stamp for 1917.

A Note on Hallmarks

London hallmarks around the date of the first world war are easy to remember. They started in 1896 at "a" running in sequence to "u" in 1915, missing out "j" in 1905. They then started again with "a" in 1916, the year of the battle of the Somme, a pivotal event in British history. If you remember 1916, battle of the Somme, letter "a" and the year before, 1915 letter "u" then it is quite easy to work out what is the date of any letter around WW1.

The Waterproof Rolex Oyster

Being a perfectionist, attaining a class A precision certificate from Kew only spurred Wilsdorf on to addressing another shortcoming of the wrist watch: its susceptibility to dust and damp. He was not the first person to make this attempt, but he was the most successful.

In 1891, the Swiss watch case maker François Borgel (1856-1912) patented a case design where instead of having a hinged back cover allowing access to the movement, the case was solid and the movement was screwed into the case from the front on a very fine thread. The fine thread gave only a small passageway for dust or moisture to enter the case, hence the case was rendered more dust and moisture resistant than a normal case. But it was not water tight: the need for the movement to stop rotating when the 12 on the dial was exactly at the 12 o'clock position meant that it was virtually impossible to get the bezel to screw down tight onto the case, and the winding stem was also still an obvious point for dust and water to get in. To remove the movement of a Borgel cased watch, you first pull out spring loaded crown so that the winding stem is clear of the movement, and then the movement and bezel with the crystal unscrews out of the front of the case in one piece. Because of this, the method of setting the hands is unusual. The crown in its normal position winds the spring as usual, but obviously the pulled-out position is now used to release the movement. To allow setting of the hands, a pin just below the crown is pressed in and the crown then moves the hands. The picture shows a Borgel cased watch with the movement unscrewed from the case. You can see the screw thread on the movement, and the holes where the winding stem and pin-set engage with the movement. Rolex used Borgel cases to improve the dust and moisture resistance of their watches, which marked the start of a quest that culminated eventually in the Rolex Oyster.

In the early 1920s an improved design based upon the Borgel patent design was introduced. The new design involved taking the middle part of the case and threading it on both sides, rotating in opposite directions. The movement and dial then were fitted within a ring that screwed into the caseframe, and the case back and bezel screwed on from the back and the front. Because the orientation of the movement was fixed in the case, the bezel and case back could be screwed down tight and a hermetic seal achieved. Another design was the "Semi-Hermetic" which reduced the gap around the winding stem by providing a very tight, precise fit, and double gaskets. The movement was hinged to the case, with the bezel screwing down over the movement.

These case have been attributed to Francis Baumgartner, but this seems to be an error based on the common initials of FB for François Borgel and Francis Baumgartner. However, all the marks that I have seen so far use the mark registered by François Borgel and used by his successors, initially his daughter Louisa Beauverd-Borgel and later Taubert & Fils who took over the business from Louisa. I am still researching this topic and intend to devote a page to it at a later date, but at the moment I have come across NO evidence for the involvement of Francis Baumgartner in these case designs. Several companies used these cases in the 1920s, including Omega and Longines, until Wilsdorf bought up the patents. However, they still did not seal perfectly at the winding stem opening.

In January 1921 Jean Finger of Longeau, Berne, Switzerland was granted Swiss patent number 89276 for a "Montre à remontoire avec boitier protecteur" literally a watch with a protective box. The watch was placed inside a larger case with a screw-down bezel which formed an hermetic seal totally protecting the watch. Once the bezel was unscrewed, the smaller watch case came out on a hinge to allow the hands to be set and the movement wound. Although this achieved the desired waterproof effect, it had the major drawback that the front bezel had to be unscrewed every day so that the watch could be wound. Apart from being a nuisance to the owner, the case threads and the milling on the bezel wore quite quickly from this continuous use, so this was a far from ideal solution. However, despite the drawbacks a number of manufacturers including Eberhard produced watches using this case design. It appears that Wilsdorf must have liked the design and bought the patent, because a Rolex watch called the "Hermetic" using this case design was produced from 1924 and similar designs from other manufacturers disappeared.

On October 30th, 1925 two Swiss watchmakers in La Chaux de Fonds, Paul Perregaux and Georges Peret, were granted Swiss patent No. 114948 for a moisture proof winding stem, where the crown was screwed down to create a waterproof seal. When Wilsdorf saw this patent, he knew that he had found his solution. He bought all rights to the patent, and then obtained a British patent No. 260,554 for the same system on October 18th 1926. The first "Oyster" watch (so named because it could remain under water for an unlimited time without detriment) was introduced in late 1926. Now that he had a wrist watch unlike any other, Wilsdorf was determined to promote it in any way possible.

On 7 October 1927, Mercedes Gleitze became, at her eighth attempt, the first British woman to swim the channel. She swam from France to England in 15 hours and 15 minutes. Because of a hoax claim (which was soon proven to be false) by Dr. Dorothy Cochrane Logan (using her professional name, Mona McLennan), to have swum the Channel on October 11th in the faster time of thirteen hours and ten minutes, Gleitze's own claim was cast into doubt. To silence the doubters, Gleitze decided to repeat her feat in what was called "the vindication swim". Recognizing a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate the durability of his "Oyster" watch, Wilsdorf offered a new Rolex Oyster watch to Miss Gleitze if she would wear the watch during her swim, to which she agreed. On October 21st at 4:21am she entered the water at Cap Gris Nez. But this time the water was much colder, and she was unable to complete the crossing. At 2:45pm she was pulled semi-conscious from the water after 10 hours and 24 minutes, some seven miles short of the English shore. Although she did not complete the second crossing, a journalist for the London Times wrote "Having regard to the general conditions, the endurance of Miss Gleitze surprised the doctors, journalists, and experts who were present, for it seemed unlikely that she would be able to withstand the cold for so long. It was a good performance." This silenced the doubters, and Mercedes Gleitze was hailed as a heroine. As she sat in the boat, the same journalist made a discovery and reported it as follows: "Hanging round her neck by a riband on this swim, Miss Gleitze carried a small gold watch, which was found this evening to have kept good time throughout." When examined closely, the watch was found to be in perfect condition, dry inside and ticking away as if nothing had happened. One month later, on 24th November 1927, Wilsdorf launched the Rolex Oyster watch in the United Kingdom as the focal point of a full front page Rolex advert in the Daily Mail, and the Rolex Oyster began its rise to fame. The investment of a watch in Miss Gleitze's attempt proved a typically shrewd move by Wilsdorf, and Rolex were still using the event in adverts into the 1950s.

The Self Winding Rolex Perpetual

Now that the problem of water-proofing had been solved, there was just one small remaining issue; namely, that the owner had to unscrew the crown each day in order to wind the watch. There were two side effects of this; (1) sooner or later the owner would forget to screw the crown down tightly again and the watch would no longer be hermetically sealed, and (2)in time the waterproof seals or the threads would wear out, and the same result ensue. This was solved by Rolex in 1931, with the introduction of the "Perpetual" self-winding movement.

The concept of a self-winding watch had first been introduced in 1770 by the Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Perrelet for pocket watches. It worked on the same principle as a pedometer using an oscillating weight inside the watch that moved up and down as the owner walked, which through a set of gears wound the mainspring. Perrelet sold some of his watches to the Parisian clock and watchmaker Abraham-Louis Bréguet who improved the mechanism in his own version, calling his watches "perpetuelles"; the French word for perpetual, and possibly the source of Rolex's name for its automatic movements.

The first self winding wristwatch was invented in 1923 by a watch repairer from the Isle of Man named John Harwood. He took out a UK patent with his financial backer, Harry Cutts from Cheshire, on 7 July 1923, and a corresponding Swiss patent on 16 October 1923. The Harwood system used a semi circular weight that pivoted at the centre of the movement and swung through a 300 degree arc as the wearer moved his wrist or arm, and through a train of gears wound the mainspring. This was called a "bumper" design because the weight ran into a spring bumper at the end of its 300 degree travel, which the wearer could feel. When fully wound, the watch would run for only 12 hours, which was obviously a serious drawback. It did not have a conventional stem winder, so the hands were moved manually by rotating a bezel around the face of the watch. They formed the Harwood Self-Winding Watch Company and commissioned the Swiss firms, Fortis and A. Schild to make the watches, which went on sale in 1928. They were not a great success, and only some 30,000 were made in total. However, the presence of the patent meant that from 1923 no one else could develop a similar or improved version, so progress was essentially halted at a time when the wristwatch was becoming more and more popular. The Harwood company collapsed in 1931 during the Great Depression and, although the patent still existed, there was no one to exercise it so other companies were free to develop their own versions.

Emile Borer, son in law of the Aegler family and head of research and development at the Rolex Bienne factory, took up the Harwood design and used it as the basis for the "auto rotor" of the Rolex caliber 620 Oyster Perpetual. He improved the design so that the centrally mounted semi-circular weight became a rotor which could rotate smoothly through a full 360 degrees and was able to turn both clockwise and counterclockwise, rather than the 300 degrees of the original design. This improved its performance, durability, and feel for the wearer, although it only actually wound in one direction. The Rolex version also increased the amount of energy stored in the mainspring, allowing it to run autonomously for up to 35 hours. Felsa introduced the patented 410 caliber "Bidynator" (bi-directional winding) in 1942; Rolex did not produce a bi-directional automatic winding movement until 1950 with the caliber 1030.

As a result of this innovation, it was no longer necessary to manually wind the watch every day, and the crown was used solely to set the time. As this did not require doing often, due to the accuracy of the watch, the waterproof seal was only disturbed occasionally and there was much less likelihood of wear or forgetting to screw the crown down. Consequently, Rolex Oyster Perpetual watches were now not only the most accurate watches in the world, but also the most durable. The watch was even more accurate than previously, because the tension put on the mechanism by constant winding was more even than that provided by winding done once a day. In another marketing coup, in 1935 a Rolex Oyster went over 300 miles per hour on the wrist of Sir Malcolm Campbell as he set the world land-speed record in his race car at Salt Lake Flats.

Rolexes with Calendars

In 1945, Rolex recorded another highly important patent: a small window was added to the dial at the 3 o'clock position, and a numbered wheel under the dial was moved on at midnight by the mechanism so that the watch showed the date as well as the time. This model was introduced as the "Datejust" and it became an immediate best-seller. It was followed in the early 1950s by the "President" - a man's wristwatch that has a window at 12 o'clock which displays the day of the week. Still not quite as good as the 1901 Goldsmiths watch we met before, with its perpetual calendar showing day, date, month and moon phase, but not bad for a wrist watch!

If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments, then please drop me a line at You don't need to copy the email address, just click on it. I look forward to hearing from you!

Regards - David