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AMAZING how much watch HISTORY literally starts with Rolex.....

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#1 ·
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From Wikipedia some really interesting reading. I was doing a little research and found some good stuff - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolex

AMAZING how much watch HISTORY literally starts with Rolex.....

From Wikipedia -

Rolex watches are popularly regarded as status symbols [/sup]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolex#cite_note-Time_Magazine-1[/sup]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolex#cite_note-New_York_Times-2[/sup]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolex#cite_note-Guardian_UK-3[/sup]and BusinessWeek magazine ranks Rolex #71 on its 2007 annual list of the 100 most valuable global brands.[5][/sup] Rolex is also the largest single luxury watch brand by far, producing about 2,000 watches per day, with estimated revenues of around £1.75 billion (US$3 billion) (SwFr3.02 billion) (2003 figures)

History
In 1905 Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law Alfred Davis founded "Wilsdorf and Davis" in London.[7][/sup] Their main business at the time was importing Hermann Aegler's Swiss movements to England and placing them in quality watch cases made by Dennison and others. These early wristwatches were sold to jewellers, who then put their own names on the dial. The earliest watches from Wilsdorf and Davis were usually hallmarked "W&D" inside the caseback.
In 1908 Wilsdorf registered the trademark "Rolex" and opened an office in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.[7][/sup] The company name "Rolex" was registered on 15 November 1915. The word was made up, but its origin is obscure. Wilsdorf was said to want his watch brand's name to be easily pronounceable in any language.[6][/sup] He also thought that the name "Rolex" was onomatopoeic, sounding like a watch being wound. It was also short enough to fit on the face of a watch.[6][/sup] One story, never confirmed by Wilsdorf, is that the name came from the French phrase horlogerie exquise, meaning "exquisite clockwork".[8][/sup] 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.[9][/sup]
In 1914 Kew Observatory awarded a Rolex watch a Class A precision certificate, a distinction which was normally awarded exclusively to marine chronometers.[6][/sup]
In 1919 Wilsdorf 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.[7][/sup] The company moved out of the United Kingdom because taxes and export duties on the silver and gold used for the watch cases were driving costs too high.[8][/sup]
Upon the death of his wife in 1944, Wilsdorf established the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation in which he left all of his Rolex shares, making sure that some of the company's income would go to charity. The company is still owned by a private trust and shares are not traded on any stock exchange.[8][/sup]
In December 2008 the abrupt departure of Chief Executive Patrick Heiniger, for “personal reasons”, was followed by a denial by the company that it had lost SwFr1 billion (approx £574 million) invested with Bernard Madoff, the American asset manager who pleaded guilty to an approximately £30 billion (approx US$50 billion) world-wide Ponzi scheme fraud.

Innovations:
Among the company's innovations are:
Automatic Movements
The first self-winding Rolex wristwatch was offered to the public in 1931, 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 eliminated the problem of over-winding a watch and harming its mechanism

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.[12][/sup] Within about five years of research, design, and development, Rolex created the "clean-slate" 5035/5055 movement that would eventually power the Rolex Oysterquartz

Water Resistant Cases
Rolex was also the first watch company to create a wristwatch water resistant to 100m (330ft).[14][/sup] Wilsdorf even had a specially made Rolex watch attached to the side of the Trieste bathyscaphe, which went to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The watch survived and tested as having kept perfect time during its descent and ascent. This was confirmed by a telegram sent to Rolex the following day saying "Am happy to confirm that even at 11,000 metres your watch is as precise as on the surface. Best regards, Jacques Piccard
 
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#4 ·
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well I think you could call it more "WINDOW SHOPPING" lol

way out of my current price zone.

but reading the history is completely fascinating.
 
#7 ·
Welcome to our forum! Is there a particular reason you have replied in an eight year old thread?
 
#9 ·
interesting information. I am not a fan of Rolex nor do I see them as a "luxury" watch. More of a mid priced watch at the lower end of what some call the luxury market. But many do not share that opinion including a very good friend of mine who owns many Rolex and Tudors.
 
#11 ·
This post is from 2009 [emoji16]

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
 
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