Rolex Innovations / Inventions Founder -Did you know?

[Ian Limm]

A short summary from various articles for your easy reference.

Hans Wilsdorf (March 22, 1881 - July 6, 1960) was a German watchmaker, and the founder of Rolex (1908) and Tudor.

Hans Wilsdorf was born in Bavaria (Germany) in 1881 to a successful, middle-class family of iron mongers. Became an orphan at the age of 12, had unhappy childhood.

Upon the death of his wife in 1944, he established the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation in which he left all of his shares in Rolex, making sure that an amount of the company's income would go to Children's Charities for orphans around the world.

Wilsdorf died in Geneva on July 6, 1960.

The company remains a foundation to the present day.

At the turn of the 20th century (1900) ,the swiss watchmaking industry made only pocket watches Hans Wilsdorf was the first to produced the first watch to be worn on the wrist.

In 1930, Hans Wilsdorf also invented the Rolex Oyster Perpetual movement which was also the first movement in which the self winding centrally mounted semi-circular weight movement which could rotate through a full 360° rather than the 300° of the 'bumper' winder. Rolex's version also increased the amount of energy stored in the mainspring, allowing it to run autonomously for up to 35 hours.

In addition, Rolex is also known for the following innovations:-

1)The first wristwatch with an automatically changing date on the dial (Rolex Datejust, 1945)

2)The first wristwatch case waterproof to 100 m (330 ft) (Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner, 1953)

3)The first wristwatch to show two time zones at once (Rolex GMT Master, 1954).made at the request of PAM AM Pilots.

4)The first wristwatch with an automatically changing day and date on the dial (Rolex Day-Date 1956)

5)The first watchmaker to earn chronometer certification for a wristwatch.

Do add on if you know more or have any comments.

[Oceanklassik]

Tx for sharing. Had a good read.

[m33pok]

wow did'nt know rolex had these inventions
i just knew after reading

[exxondus]

wow nice read. thanks for sharing!

[feilong108]

wow...thanks for sharing the info...nice reading material on a nice holiday...

[psee]

Interesting read! Thks for sharing

[ten10]

A very informative post bro Ian.

Thx so much for sharing with us.

cheers,
ten10

[zidaneong]

Thanks for sharing.

[daytona 6263]

A short summary from various articles for your easy reference.

Hans Wilsdorf (March 22, 1881 - July 6, 1960) was a German watchmaker, and the founder of Rolex (1908) and Tudor.

Hans Wilsdorf was born in Bavaria (Germany) in 1881 to a successful, middle-class family of iron mongers. Became an orphan at the age of 12, had unhappy childhood.

Upon the death of his wife in 1944, he established the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation in which he left all of his shares in Rolex, making sure that an amount of the company's income would go to Children's Charities for orphans around the world.

Wilsdorf died in Geneva on July 6, 1960.

The company remains a foundation to the present day.

At the turn of the 20th century (1900) ,the swiss watchmaking industry made only pocket watches Hans Wilsdorf was the first to produced the first watch to be worn on the wrist.

In 1930, Hans Wilsdorf also invented the Rolex Oyster Perpetual movement which was also the first movement in which the self winding centrally mounted semi-circular weight movement which could rotate through a full 360° rather than the 300° of the 'bumper' winder. Rolex's version also increased the amount of energy stored in the mainspring, allowing it to run autonomously for up to 35 hours.

In addition, Rolex is also known for the following innovations:-

1)The first wristwatch with an automatically changing date on the dial (Rolex Datejust, 1945)

2)The first wristwatch case waterproof to 100 m (330 ft) (Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner, 1953)

3)The first wristwatch to show two time zones at once (Rolex GMT Master, 1954).made at the request of PAM AM Pilots.

4)The first wristwatch with an automatically changing day and date on the dial (Rolex Day-Date 1956)

5)The first watchmaker to earn chronometer certification for a wristwatch.

Do add on if you know more or have any comments.

Well some of those fact are not 100% absolutely true.

First Perrelet invented the first self winding mechanism around 1770,later Breguet improved it and called his winding system perpetuelles.Now this is perhaps where Rolex got there idea to call all there automatic watches Perpetual.But it was John Harwood from the Isle of Man in the UK around 1923 took out a UK patent for the very first automatic winding watch.Now he went on with backing to produce many thousands of these watches.But mainly owing to the depression in the mid 1920s to 1930s in the UK he went bust and out of business.Now old Hans Wilsdorf of Rolex being a very clever but very shrewd man bought and took up this John Harwood patent for the Rolex Watch Company. And in the very early 1930s incorporated it into the Borgel type oyster design case another one of Hans Wilsdorf acquired patents.And also with the newly acquired Paul Perregaux and Georges Peret,waterproof screw down crown system,this was a Swiss patent they first took out in 1925 .Now Hans Wilsdorf saw this system would be fine for the oyster case so he quickly negotiated to have the Perregaux and Peret patent assigned to him. Wilsdorf then later obtained a British patent on October 18, 1926. And with the Oyster case and this acquired Harwood patent auto wind mechanism that only then wound around 300 degrees.But Rolex did improved the design by the help of Hans brother in-law,who made it more efficient by winding a full 360 degrees.And then had a power reserve of around 36 hours,after the auto watch and the oyster case Rolex really took off the rest is just pure marketing genius by Hans Wilsdorf..

[SamGMT]

Very informative, thanks for sharing!

[Darkangel]

Well some of those fact are not 100% absolutely true.

First Perrelet invented the first self winding mechanism around 1770,later Breguet improved it and called his winding system perpetuelles.Now this is perhaps where Rolex got there idea to call all there automatic watches Perpetual.But it was John Harwood from the Isle of Man in the UK around 1923 took out a UK patent for the very first automatic winding watch.Now he went on with backing to produce many thousands of these watches.But mainly owing to the depression in the mid 1920s to 1930s in the UK he went bust and out of business.Now old Hans Wilsdorf of Rolex being a very clever but very shrewd man bought and took up this John Harwood patent for the Rolex Watch Company. And in the very early 1930s incorporated it into the Borgel type oyster design case another one of Hans Wilsdorf acquired patents.And also with the newly acquired Paul Perregaux and Georges Peret,waterproof screw down crown system,this was a Swiss patent they first took out in 1925 .Now Hans Wilsdorf saw this system would be fine for the oyster case so he quickly negotiated to have the Perregaux and Peret patent assigned to him. Wilsdorf then later obtained a British patent on October 18, 1926. And with the Oyster case and this acquired Harwood patent auto wind mechanism that only then wound around 300 degrees.But Rolex did improved the design by the help of Hans brother in-law,who made it more efficient by winding a full 360 degrees.And then had a power reserve of around 36 hours,after the auto watch and the oyster case Rolex really took off the rest is just pure marketing genius by Hans Wilsdorf..

A twist to the story...nice....

[Explorer69]

Good info here... Rolex should dig into a bit of its history and use it as their marketing tool. There is so much rich history that ROlex can tap on and educate the masses.

[Oceanklassik]

Do they really need to?

[Explorer69]

Well IMHO, Rolex in Asia is seen for its status symbol rather be appreciated for its innovations and functionality.

[wind128]

Thank you for posting! Also good to learn about history of significant watch brands.