Rolex Brand Celebrates 100 Years of Making Supreme Luxury Watches with the New Rolex Prince

Rolex, the precious name in luxury watches, celebrates its 100 years in business this year.

Rolex has had a special aura in the hearts of luxury watch lovers around the globe being considered the Rolls-Royce of watch brands. The brand positioning in the market has definitely been successful as its watches exudes elegance, reliability, ruggedness and supreme luxury in its own unique way.

But did you know that the origin of Rolex is hardly Swiss?

The Rolex brand, owned by the company of German Hans Wildorf and his brother-in-law Alfred Davis was registered in the UK in 1908. Their company, Wilsdorf & Davis, was founded in London in 1905 and later moved to Geneva in 1919.

Much has been known about the Rolex brand but there’s a certain mystery on how Wilsdorf and Davis got this name up to this day. It is said that Wilsdorf & Davis, coined the name after the brands “Rolls-Royce” and watch brand “Timex” (Timex was a watch brand in the UK since 1879 but was only registered in 1950). Some believe Wilsdorf thought about the name while travelling in London on a bus.

Thereafter, a passion for watch making excellence unfolds.

Rolex introduced the first waterproof watch in the world by patenting the ’screw down crown’. In 1927, Mercedes Gleitze became the first British woman to swim the English Channel wearing a Rolex. A month later, the legendary brand “Oyster” was born. 80 years thereafter, Oyster continues to be Rolex’s single biggest umbrella brand. This is a remarkable history not replicated by any other watch brand in the world.

1931 witnessed the introduction of the world’s first Automatic Rotary Winding Mechanism named ‘Oyster Perpetual’. Soon thereafter, in 1935, Sir Malcolm Campbell set a world speed record wearing a ‘Rolex Oyster Perpetual’.

Rolex was the first wrist watch in the world (1910) to carry ‘Swiss chronometer rating’ which defines highest standards of accuracy and reliability. Not surprisingly, every Rolex watch gets handcrafted and about two hundred craftsmen and technicians work on every single piece before it acquires the Rolex name.

In 1953, when Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing climbed Mount Everest, both wore Rolex watches; Hillary wore a Rolex Oyster and Tenzing, a Bubble back. Tenzing got his Bubble back as a gift from his longtime friend and fellow climber Raymond Lambert and it is currently on display in Rolex’s Geneva headquarters.

One of the quaintest watches Rolex has ever made is the Cellini Prince. The Rolex Prince, developed in 1928, became a bestseller in its time. Prince, being a watch with a rectangular case and dual dial, was a complete departure from Rolex’s design philosophy. There were so few Prince watches made that an old Prince is a collector’s prized dream.

In the centenary year of brand incorporation, Rolex has introduced the new ‘Prince’. This version, rectangular in a 18ct gold case is not for everyone – it is only for those who are head over heels in love with Rolex!