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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.
