Major Milestones of Rolex -

Major Milestones of Rolex

The Rolex company is now over one hundred years old.

First formed in 1908 in Switzerland, and then in 1912 in London, the watchmaker has a reputation built on outstanding quality and stunning beauty.

During the last century, there have been many milestones along the way. The following is a chronological overview of many of them.

1905 German-born Hans Wilsdorf founds a watchmakers with English partner Alfred Davis and call it Wilsdorf & Davis
1908 Wilsdorf & Davis renamed to Rolex in Switzerland
1912 Rolex brand launched in London
1914 Rolex wristwatch awarded the prestigious Class A precision certificate by The Kew Observatory in London
1926 Rolex developed and patented the first airtight, dustproof and waterproof watch and call it the Oyster
1927 The Rolex Oyster crossed the English Channel unscathed on the wrist Mercedes Gleitze
1931 Rolex introduced a self-winding mechanism that provides automatic winding, a feature that would be copied across the world
1945 The Oyster Datejust, the first watch to display the date was released
1947 Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier, wearing his Rolex
1953 Rolex creates the first specialist diving watch – the Submariner. Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stood on the summit on Mount Everest wearing Rolex Explorers
1954 The Oyster Perpetual LadyDate was released
1955 The Oyster GMT Master was released, making it possible for airline pilots to tell the time in any two time zones at once
1956 The Oyster Day-Date was released
1960 The Rolex Bathyscaphe “Deep Sea Special” was taken 35,787 feet into the Mariana Trench and survives
1967 The Oyster Sea-Dweller was introduced, which is waterproof to a depth of 2,000 feet
1971 The Oyster Explorer II was released
1978 The Oyster Perpetual Date Sea-Dweller is taken to a depth of 4,000 feet and remained waterproof
1992 The Oyster Professional range gets a new watch, the Yacht-Master
2003 Rolex releases a special commemorative Submariner to celebrate 50 years of the model

The last decade have been extremely successful for Rolex, and well publicized, so we won’t bore you with the details here. Suffice to say Rolex has had a long and distinguished history so far, there’s no telling what achievements the future holds!

Rolex.

— Featured Photo Credit: BeckerTime’s Archive.

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