Rolex: What Exactly Makes Having One So Special?
While, not too many of us own one, it’s almost certain that most of us are familiar with this luxury watchmaker and their quality timepieces. Much like the watch itself, the history of Rolex is quite intricate.
In the year 1905, at the age of 24, Hans Wilsdorf founded a company specializing in the distribution of timepieces. At the time, wristwatches were not regarded as precise or very reliable, however Hans Wilsdorf sought to change that. The visionary strongly believed that wristwatches could transition from the mediocre clocks that they were – to become reliable timepieces that also made a fashion statement. Hans worked hard on what he believed in. His life’s work concentrated on the quality of the movement, and his relentless quest for precision led to the company’s quick success. In 1910, the Rolex was the first ever wristwatch to receive the Swiss Certificate of Chronometric Precision – more on that in a bit. Ten years later, Rolex moved to Geneva, and was registered under Montres Rolex S.A.
After the move to Geneva, the watch quickly made progress in its structural design. The Rolex brought with itself many firsts that are now considered standard in every modern day watch. First came the world’s first waterproof watch (1926), and shortly after (1931) came the first ever, perpetual movement watch. This was the first implementation of a self-winding mechanism with a perpetual rotor in history of timekeeping. This ingenious system raised the bar for the wristwatch, and the mechanism is to this day implemented at the heart of every automatic watch.
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