Rolex Luxury Watches

Rolex SA (/ˈroʊlɛks/) is a Swiss luxury watchmaker. The company and its subsidiary Montres Tudor SA design, manufacture, distribute and service wristwatches sold under the Rolex and Tudor brands.

Founded by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London, England in 1905 as Wilsdorf and Davis, Rolex moved its base of operations to Geneva, Switzerland in 1919.

Forbes ranked Rolex 64th on its 2016 list of the world's most powerful global brands. Rolex is the largest single luxury watch brand, producing about 2,000 watches per day.

The company is owned by the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, a family private trust which does not pay corporate tax.

History

Alfred Davis and his brother-in-law Hans Wilsdorf founded Wilsdorf and Davis, the company that would eventually become Rolex SA, in London, England in 1905. Wilsdorf and Davis' main commercial activity at the time involved importing Hermann Aegler's Swiss movements to England and placing them in high-quality watch cases made by Dennison and others. These early wristwatches were sold to jewelers, who then put their own names on the dial. The earliest watches from Wilsdorf and Davis were usually hallmarked "W&D" inside the case-back.

In 1908 Wilsdorf registered the trademark "Rolex" and opened an office in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. The company name "Rolex" was registered on 15 November 1915. The book The Best of Time: Rolex Wristwatches: An Unauthorized History by Jeffrey P. Hess and James Dowling says that the name was just made up.

One story, never confirmed by Wilsdorf, recounts that the name came from the French phrase horlogerie exquise, meaning "exquisite clockwork" or as a contraction of "horological excellence". Wilsdorf was said to want his watch brand's name to be easily pronounceable in any language. He also thought that the name "Rolex" was onomatopoeic, sounding like a watch being wound. It is easily pronounceable in many languages and, as all its upper-case letters have the same size, can be written symmetrically. It was also short enough to fit on the face of a watch.

In 1914 Kew Observatory awarded a Rolex watch a Class A precision certificate, a distinction normally granted exclusively to marine chronometers.

In 1919 Wilsdorf left England due to wartime taxes levied on luxury imports as well as to export duties on the silver and gold used for the watch cases driving costs too high and moved the company to Geneva, Switzerland, where it was established as the Rolex Watch Company. Its name was later changed to Montres Rolex, SA and finally Rolex, SA.

Upon the death of his wife in 1944, Wilsdorf established the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, a private trust, in which he left all of his Rolex shares, making sure that some of the company's income would go to charity. Wilsdorf died in 1960; since then, the trust has owned and run the company.

In December 2008, following the abrupt departure of Chief Executive Patrick Heiniger for "personal reasons", the company denied that it had lost 1 billion Swiss francs(approx £574 million, $900 million) invested with Bernard Madoff, the American asset manager who pleaded guilty to an approximately £30 billion worldwide Ponzi scheme fraud. Rolex SA announced Heiniger's death on 5 March 2013.

As of 2017 Rolex watches continue to have a reputation as status symbols.

Innovations

Among the company's innovations are:

The first waterproof wristwatch "Oyster", 1926
The first wristwatch with an automatically changing date on the dial (Rolex Datejust ref.4467, 1945)
The first wristwatch case waterproof to 100 m (330 ft) (Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner ref.6204, 1953)
The first wristwatch to show two time zones at once (Rolex GMT Master ref.6542, 1954)
The first wristwatch with an automatically changing day and date on the dial (Rolex Day-Date, 1956)
The first watchmaker to earn chronometer certification for a wristwatch (1910)

Automatic movements

The first self-winding Rolex wristwatch was offered to the public in 1931 (so-called the "bubbleback" due to the large caseback), preceded to the market by Harwood which patented the design in 1923 and produced the first self-winding watch in 1928, powered by an internal mechanism that used the movement of the wearer's arm. This not only made watch-winding unnecessary, but kept the power from the mainspring more consistent resulting in more reliable time keeping.

Quartz movements

Rolex participated in the development of the original quartz watch movements. Although Rolex has made very few quartz models for its Oyster line, the company's engineers were instrumental in design and implementation of the technology during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In 1968, Rolex collaborated with a consortium of 16 Swiss watch manufacturers to develop the Beta 21 quartz movement used in their Rolex Quartz Date 5100.[15] alongside other manufactures including the Omega Electroquartz watches. Within about five years of research, design, and development, Rolex created the "clean-slate" 5035/5055 movement that would eventually power the Rolex Oysterquartz

Items to Consider when Buying a Luxury Watch

1. Overall Design and Materials: Does it appeal to the buyer's eye? What are the materials used? Beyond the staples of Gold, Silver and Titanium there is a wide range of new materials on the market which work beautifully in luxury watches. Avoid anything plated, i.e. gold-plating.

2. The Watch Maker and History: Pick a seller or watch maker with a solid reputation and a untarnished history of making great products. Last place you want to make an exception is when buying an expensive timepiece.

3. Complications: Complications are number of different functions a watch can perform. Do your research of these as the price of a mechanical watch increases exponentially with the number of complex movements.

4. Movement: These are the intricate movements and design on the inside and can be either made in-house (considered better but more costly) or by third-party. If it's done by third-party, look up the reputation of that third-party.

5. Materials & Jewels: Check for number of jewels on the inside as well as out-side displayed jewels. Inner-jewels contribute to smoother and longer lasting mechanical parts.

6. Return Policies: Most reputable watch sellers and makers allow for easy returns if the piece is not to your liking. Sometimes it takes a few times of trial and error to get the right watch your comfortable with and enjoy wearing. A No Hassles return policy is best.

7. Budget: Considering many luxury watches are high in price, some more than a car or home, it may be a good idea to consider your budget or plan to get into a nicer watch. Many places will let you trade in and trade up with additional deposits. This way you can work your way up to a nice mechanical watch after some time and while getting the feel of the type of watch you prefer.