A famous quote from Hans Wilsdorf neatly sums up the man he was: “We want to be first, and Rolex will be regarded as the number one brand, the best.” It is not enough to say that history proved him right, with Rolex becoming a benchmark worldwide. The point is to understand how he managed to bring his ambitions to life through hard work and innovation, while keeping part of his private life shrouded in mystery—and becoming one of the most famous watchmakers.
Innovative mind, visionary man… There is no shortage of adjectives when one mentions Hans Eberhard Wilhelm Wilsdorf. Yet while they highlight the discreet genius of a pillar of 20th-century watchmaking, they do not shed light on the private life of the founder of the Rolex brand. The man is, in fact, thoroughly mysterious—almost as much as the necessarily magical workings of his watches, marvels of precision.
Anyone who consults his official biography published by Rolex must make do with four austere lines citing four key dates—his birth in Bavaria in 1881, the creation of his own company in London in 1905, the invention of the Rolex brand in 1908, and his death in 1960. That is all. For the rest, one must dig deeper and go back in time to learn that Hans Wilsdorf was born to Protestant parents in Catholic Bavaria, in Kulmbach; that he was the youngest of three children; and that he was orphaned at the age of twelve.
After finishing his studies in Switzerland, he was hired there as a clerk in a watchmaking firm before emigrating to London in 1903. There, two years later, at the age of 24, he founded his own company, Wilsdorf & Davis, with financial support from his brother-in-law James Davis, husband of his sister Ana. The company imported watch movements made in Switzerland, in Biel/Bienne, as a guarantee of quality for the design of its own watches. Wilsdorf’s entire project rested on a bold wager: to produce highly accurate wristwatches at an affordable price, at a time when the pocket watch still reigned supreme. It proved a wise choice, as his creations were soon exported throughout the British Empire. In 1908, he devised the new name for his brand—five letters that would become the most famous in watchmaking: Rolex.
The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 changed everything. Wilsdorf felt the rising anti-German sentiment in England to the full. But it was above all tax considerations that pushed him to relocate to Switzerland, to Biel/Bienne, to escape the 33% import tax imposed by the British government. Rolex SA then moved to Geneva in 1919. More than two decades later, in 1946, he would also found his second brand there: Tudor.
The rest of Wilsdorf’s life is intertwined with the evolution of the Rolex range, as though his existence beat only to the rhythm of timepieces. Here, there is a brilliant marketing move sketched out at the height of the Second World War, when he sends Rolex watches to British officers held prisoner by the Germans on the other side of the Swiss border, with invoices to be paid after the end of the conflict (a discreet way to signal his allegiance to the Allies while distancing himself from the Nazi regime). There, it is the creation of the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation in 1944, after his wife’s death—a foundation largely devoted to charitable works, to which he bequeaths all his shares in the Rolex company.
Rolex, or the creation of the world’s most famous brand
The history of Rolex is inextricably linked to that of Hans Wilsdorf. For his range of wristwatches, which he intended to launch in the wake of founding Wilsdorf & Davis, the German businessman wanted a short name, easy to remember and pronounce in every language. He could already see it adorning the dials of his watches. Using an alphabet, he tried thousands of letter combinations to find the right one—the most universal—but to no avail. It was during a walk in London that the name Rolex was whispered in his ear—by “a genius,” as he would put it.
To reach the top of the watch podium, Wilsdorf bet on prestige and quality—of the movements, of chronometric precision, of objects made exclusively by hand. In 1910, a Rolex won the first certificate of good performance ever awarded to a wristwatch, issued by the Biel/Bienne evaluation center, the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC). In 1914, it was another Class “A” precision certificate delivered by the Kew Observatory in Great Britain; until then, this distinction had been reserved for marine chronometers. Since then, almost all Rolex production has been subjected to the tests required to obtain the COSC certification. Over time, Wilsdorf extended this quality standard by establishing a meticulous after-sales service, carried out by staff specially trained in dedicated schools.
Rolex is, without question, the number one luxury watch brand. A leading position that, as the years go by, faces no challenge. A brand that has become a major benchmark worldwide, thanks to its founder. A century after its creation, the brand continues to grow its sales: in 2014, more than 780,000 Rolex watches were sold, generating revenue of €4.35 billion.
Watches and men
Hans Wilsdorf was not only a brilliant businessman—the visionary who laid the foundations of modern marketing by communicating in a targeted way about his products, as that episode of watches sent to imprisoned British officers proved: a masterstroke of publicity. He also created timepieces of unfailing quality and precision, which accompanied those who wore them on extraordinary human adventures.
The Hans Wilsdorf mystery
Innovative mind, visionary man… There is no shortage of adjectives when one mentions Hans Eberhard Wilhelm Wilsdorf. Yet while they highlight the discreet genius of a pillar of 20th-century watchmaking, they do not shed light on the private life of the founder of the Rolex brand. The man is, in fact, thoroughly mysterious—almost as much as the necessarily magical workings of his watches, marvels of precision.
Anyone who consults his official biography published by Rolex must make do with four austere lines citing four key dates—his birth in Bavaria in 1881, the creation of his own company in London in 1905, the invention of the Rolex brand in 1908, and his death in 1960. That is all. For the rest, one must dig deeper and go back in time to learn that Hans Wilsdorf was born to Protestant parents in Catholic Bavaria, in Kulmbach; that he was the youngest of three children; and that he was orphaned at the age of twelve.
After finishing his studies in Switzerland, he was hired there as a clerk in a watchmaking firm before emigrating to London in 1903. There, two years later, at the age of 24, he founded his own company, Wilsdorf & Davis, with financial support from his brother-in-law James Davis, husband of his sister Ana. The company imported watch movements made in Switzerland, in Biel/Bienne, as a guarantee of quality for the design of its own watches. Wilsdorf’s entire project rested on a bold wager: to produce highly accurate wristwatches at an affordable price, at a time when the pocket watch still reigned supreme. It proved a wise choice, as his creations were soon exported throughout the British Empire. In 1908, he devised the new name for his brand—five letters that would become the most famous in watchmaking: Rolex.
The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 changed everything. Wilsdorf felt the rising anti-German sentiment in England to the full. But it was above all tax considerations that pushed him to relocate to Switzerland, to Biel/Bienne, to escape the 33% import tax imposed by the British government. Rolex SA then moved to Geneva in 1919. More than two decades later, in 1946, he would also found his second brand there: Tudor.
The rest of Wilsdorf’s life is intertwined with the evolution of the Rolex range, as though his existence beat only to the rhythm of timepieces. Here, there is a brilliant marketing move sketched out at the height of the Second World War, when he sends Rolex watches to British officers held prisoner by the Germans on the other side of the Swiss border, with invoices to be paid after the end of the conflict (a discreet way to signal his allegiance to the Allies while distancing himself from the Nazi regime). There, it is the creation of the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation in 1944, after his wife’s death—a foundation largely devoted to charitable works, to which he bequeaths all his shares in the Rolex company.
Rolex, or the creation of the world’s most famous brand
The history of Rolex is inextricably linked to that of Hans Wilsdorf. For his range of wristwatches, which he intended to launch in the wake of founding Wilsdorf & Davis, the German businessman wanted a short name, easy to remember and pronounce in every language. He could already see it adorning the dials of his watches. Using an alphabet, he tried thousands of letter combinations to find the right one—the most universal—but to no avail. It was during a walk in London that the name Rolex was whispered in his ear—by “a genius,” as he would put it.
To reach the top of the watch podium, Wilsdorf bet on prestige and quality—of the movements, of chronometric precision, of objects made exclusively by hand. In 1910, a Rolex won the first certificate of good performance ever awarded to a wristwatch, issued by the Biel/Bienne evaluation center, the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC). In 1914, it was another Class “A” precision certificate delivered by the Kew Observatory in Great Britain; until then, this distinction had been reserved for marine chronometers. Since then, almost all Rolex production has been subjected to the tests required to obtain the COSC certification. Over time, Wilsdorf extended this quality standard by establishing a meticulous after-sales service, carried out by staff specially trained in dedicated schools.
Rolex is, without question, the number one luxury watch brand. A leading position that, as the years go by, faces no challenge. A brand that has become a major benchmark worldwide, thanks to its founder. A century after its creation, the brand continues to grow its sales: in 2014, more than 780,000 Rolex watches were sold, generating revenue of €4.35 billion.
Watches and men
Hans Wilsdorf was not only a brilliant businessman—the visionary who laid the foundations of modern marketing by communicating in a targeted way about his products, as that episode of watches sent to imprisoned British officers proved: a masterstroke of publicity. He also created timepieces of unfailing quality and precision, which accompanied those who wore them on extraordinary human adventures.
- In 1926, he designed the Rolex Oyster, the first truly waterproof watch, fitted with a hermetically sealed case.
- In 1931, he invented the self-winding Rolex Perpetual. This system, which winds itself through simple wrist movements, is the origin of all similar mechanisms found in today’s watches.
- In 1945 came the launch of the Datejust: not only was it the first self-winding wristwatch to also offer a chronometer complication, but as another innovation, a date window on the dial displayed the date.
- In 1927, the Englishwoman Mercedes Gleitze swam across the English Channel wearing a Rolex Oyster on her wrist, definitively proving, after 10 hours immersed, its perfect water resistance.
- In 1933, the first flight over Everest was carried out by a crew wearing Rolex Oyster watches.
- In 1935, racing driver Malcolm Campbell wore a Rolex watch when he set a land speed record in Utah at over 485 km/h, at the wheel of a Bluebird.
- In 1953, when Everest was conquered by John Hunt’s team, several of the climbers had adopted Rolex watches. That same year, to celebrate the event and ride the wave of this success, Wilsdorf launched the Oyster Perpetual Explorer.