If you’re looking for a used Rolex, Watch Seller has one of the most extensive ranges in Australia.
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The history of Rolex
Best known watch brand in the world was born in 1908 when Hans Wilsdorf registered the trademark Rolex and opened an office in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. For three years prior, Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law Alfred Davis had been importing Swiss movement to England and placing them in quality cases which were then sold to jewellers who put their own names on the dial.
There is debate over how the name Rolex originated. Some believe it was made up – selected because rolled easily off the tongue, could be pronounced in most languages and mimicked the sound of wound of a watch being wound. Another theory says it came from the contraction of the words horological excellence, using the letters ROL taken from horological and the letters EX from excellence. Either way, it had just six letters and could fit easily on the face of a watch dial.
Wilsdorf, the son of a German ironmonger had been destined to continue the family business until both his parents died within months of each other when he was just 12 years old. From the time of his parents death to the age of 18, he attended boarding school, where he excelled in English. After his studies he started working for watch export company Cuno Korten. Without any experience in the watch industry he was employed as a translator, writing letters on behalf of the company in English. It was here his love of watches began. He studied horology and soon became an expert watch maker and in 1903 moved to London, where at the age of 24, he met Alfred Davis and they decided to start their own watch making company.
They made a good partnership – Wilsdorf knew watches and Davis was an expert in finance and international trade. Davis later married Wilsdorf’s younger sister.
A compulsory stint in the army during the Boer War, two years earlier, had given Wilsdorf an idea to establish a new market in watches. Due to the heat, soldiers did not wear jackets meaning the traditional pocket watch was not fit for use. Some strapped them to their wrists for utility. Until then, wrist watches had been considered for women’s use only. Men of the time said they’d prefer to wear a skirt than a wrist watch but the war saw them come around to the idea.
The Rolex company moved to Geneva Switzerland when the First World War wartime taxes and export duties on luxury goods and precious metals like gold, silver used in the watch cases made production of the watches prohibitive.
The Rolex brand has gone on to be one of the best known status symbols of modern times.