Rolex

Overview

Rolex is maybe one of the most renowned watch brands in the world. There is hardly a person who had never heard this name at least once.

Everybody knows that Rolex are considered to be among the best mechanical wrist watches, though this makes them to quite expensive ones.

The brand has achieved all the fame due to the difficult way the executives have chosen in order to reach there heights of the watch-making world. The price of the innovations brought by the watchmakers from Rolex into the watch industry is very high as there were many new things invented.

History of Rolex Watches

Rolex is a rather young watch-making company in comparison with other famous companies, such as Vacheron Constantin (founded in 1755), Audemars Piguet (founded in 1875), Patek Philippe (founded in 1839), TAG Heuer (founded in 1860), Longines (founded in 1832) or Omega (founded in 1848).

The brand Rolex started its existence in 1908, whereas the company started producing watches in 1905 when the German Hans Wilsdorf founded the watch-making enterprise along with his brother. At those times it was still to difficult to create a watch mechanism small enough to fit a wrist watch, so Rolex manufactures pocket watches of highest quality, which enjoyed a great popularity among rich people.

However the company owner was not going to wait until other watchmakers would invade the market with the 'world's-first' watches. Thus innovations in the industry were chosen as the main direction of the company's activity and hence growth of the company.

As already mentioned, everybody knows what Rolex is, though not everyone knows that thanks to Rolex the watch market is that what it is. The first men's wristwatch was the invention of Cartier, whereas Rolex was the first to receive a Swiss chronometer patent for a wrist watch.

After making Rolex wrist watches most reliable and precise in the world, Wilsdorf has picked another challenge for him and his technicians. His next accomplishment was making the watches waterproof. He achieved this by screwing down the case back and the crown. The name for these timepieces Wilsdorf picked up after trying to open an oyster at a party.

This happened in 1926. The same year Mercedes Gleitze had the Rolex Oyster on her wrist while swimming over the English Channel.

The new Rolex Oyster watches were not really praised by the public, whereas Wilsdorf believed in their potential success. He advertised these timepieces in his shops by sinking them into aquariums.

In 1931 came another revolutionary invention from Wilsdorf - the rotor. The rotor was a part of the watches' mechanism, which used the natural gravity to automatically wind up the watch on the wearer's wrist. This was the first Rolex Perpetual movement.

The year 1945 brought the Rolex Datejust model - this was the first ever chronometer certified watch with an automatic date change. In 1953 appeared the Submariner - another world's first watch - it is the first watch with an automatic movement able to resist the water pressure on the depth of almost 330 feet (100 meters).

Such models of watches as Daytona, Cellini and others have also assisted various courageous people in their pioneering missions. For example the Perpetual movements watches have accompanied Sir Edmund Hilary in his ascent on the Mount Everest and Jacques Piccard during the exploration of the ocean's depths. The Rolex Oyster Perpetual watch has even broken the sound barrier and has been in outer space. These facts are not to wonder as every single Rolex watch is subjected to a series of tests based on various criteria of evaluation.

Among the ambassadors of Rolex watches there are most famous and extraordinary people to be found. Roger Federer was among the latest to join other tennis players as Andy Roddick, Marat Safin, Justine Henin-Hardene, Patrick Rafter and other prominent people from various entertainment fields and sports.

Thanks to the fact that Hans Wilsdorf has left the company to the Wilsdorf foundation the brand Rolex was able to be independent and to withstand the buys and merges, which have taken place in this branch. Today Rolex is the largest single watch brand having a year's profit of about 3 billion US dollars with an annual production of between 650 and 800 thousands watches.

Recent Collections

Rolex has earned itself a great fame during almost a century of existence and flourishing on the expensive market of wrist watches. This was possible to the fact of perpetual innovational streak of the watchmakers, designers and technicians.

The most important words to name when speaking about Rolex watches' collections are the Submariner, Air-King, Oyster, Datejust, Cellini, Yachtmaster and of course the GMT Master. All these watches cannot be called actual collections, though there are many variations of these models combining different properties and qualities for different needs.

External Links

Official Site

Rolex Today - Professional Yachting

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