Rolex

Line

• Gian Riccardo Marini (CEO)
• Bertrand Gros ( Chairman )

The Rolex SA is an independent watch company based in Geneva ( Switzerland ). Due to the very strong brand position Rolex is the most copied watch brand in the world. The only quality watches are offered in the upper price segment (from € 4,000 ).

History

Founder of the company was the Kulmbach Hans Wilsdorf, who went in 1900 to La Chaux -de-Fonds in Switzerland, and found work at an import - export business. After pocket watches he ordered there with success in master watchmakers, will receive a certificate of accuracy from the Observatory in Neuchâtel for this and she had then exported to the UK, he decided in 1905 to become self-employed in London. Founded this year Wilsdorf & Davis company pursued the business purpose of importing Swiss watches founded in 1878 Bieler company Aegler SA to the UK. Since it was common at this time that watches bearing the name of its seller and not the manufacturer, stood for Wilsdorf, the question of choice of name and of strategy.

Rolex was the first company that wrote the brand name on the dial, but this change was gently carried out, so that still watches were delivered without Rolex imprint in the 1930s. In addition, located on the brand name, a five-pointed crown, but which was only added in the 1940s. This crown has also undergone some changes over the years and is consolidated in today's design only since the late 1950s. The often quoted statement, the name Rolex was as a portmanteau of the French " horlogerie exquisite " or the Spanish word " reloj excelente " originated, is not occupied. There are no official sources for the origin of the name.

1908, the brand name Rolex was officially registered, and 1910 received a Rolex the first award. Wilsdorf recognized long before its competitors in the future of wristwatches, which were until 1920 not yet widespread. It was believed at that time, the case of wristwatches is too small for the work could run accurate and reliable. Wilsdorf proved the opposite, because he received for such watches accuracy certificates.

In 1915, England rising due to the First World War, an import tax on watches of 33.3 %, so that the global distribution was no longer handled through London and thus the Rolex headquarters was moved to Biel. Some years later the headquarters moved to Geneva.

The world's first patented waterproof clock was introduced in 1926 under the name Oyster. The Mercedes Gleitze undertook on 7 October 1927 as the first Englishwoman to the official attempt to swim the English Channel. Wilsdorf recognized the opportunity to publicize his new clock to the public. He gave Mercedes Gleitze an Oyster - clock, on the condition they contribute to their channel crossing and so the whole world to prove the outstanding technical quality of its invention. Gleitze agreed. Their attempt failed due to the adverse weather conditions only just before reaching the French coast.

The clock, however, had survived the hardships; they had proved to be tight and ran after eight hours in cold water nor accurate. For Hans Wilsdorf therefore the attempted channel crossing the Mercedes Gleitze was a triumph, and he launched on November 24, 1927 for 4000 pounds an ad on the front page of the London Daily Mail newspaper. These promotional measure catapulted the name Rolex abruptly into the public eye and turned the company into a well-known brand. The barrel-shaped design used from the 1930s has since remained largely unchanged.

1931 was built by Rolex for the first time in the waterproof watch Oyster Perpetual an automatic movement ( self-winding ) and patented by Rolex world. Further milestones in the company's history was the 1953 presented Submariner, waterproof to 200 m (now up to 300 m ), which evolved from the Submariner model Sea-Dweller (1971 ), which was among the first wristwatches with a helium valve for deep sea divers (waterproof to 610 m, 1980: up to 1,220 m, from 2008 to 3'900 m) decreed, or the Oyster Perpetual Day Date. Rolex developed for the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953, the Controlled Model Explorer, the temperature differences of up to 70 ℃ coped. In 1954, the GMT-Master was introduced, which can display a second time zone on a 24 -hour hand in conjunction with a rotating bezel. It was followed in 1985 improved GMT -Master II with independently adjustable hour hand. 2007, a revised model was introduced and successfully introduced on the market. For collectors enjoys the old model, not least because of his iconic two-tone bezels, growing in popularity. On January 23, 1960, fixed to the bathyscaphe by Jacques Piccard Rolex special edition appeared 10,916 m deep in the Mariana Trench. The clock in an extremely massive body with a hemispherical glass was exposed to on their surface the pressure of one ton.

Especially popular in the long run in 1961 presented, based on the Valjoux 72B chronograph model Daytona, which was known by the actor Paul Newman in a film appearance was. In particular, in the version with steel housing, it achieves high collector prices, since this variant is highly sought after. In the 1980s, this model of Daytona was up to his recruitment bought only extremely rare because it was against the competition automatic chronograph perceived as outdated. Only with the introduction of the new model ref 16520 with -based on the Zenith cal 400 automatic movement in 1988, the hand-wound Daytonas were coveted collectors objects. The new steel model of automatic Rolex Daytona was as good as not available because the manufacturing capacity of Zenith was supposedly limited ( the work was also in a variety of watches from Zenith and Ebel installed) and the scarce works by Rolex especially in the lucrative precious metal versions were installed. The resulting long delivery time led to more demand with even longer delivery times. So the myth of steel Daytona was born. This artificial scarcity of steel version was later extended as a marketing tool to increase the exclusivity to other Professional Models ( GMT-Master, Submariner and Sea- Dweller ), which yet were more likely than the chronograph available. Rolex found it in the 1990's inappropriate to rely on a movement from a supplier, and developed a proprietary chronograph movement. The caliber 4130 was introduced in 2000. The current models with this manufactured movement are now ( Ever Rose) and special in ceramic bezels also available in rose gold.

Rolex was part of the consortium that the race delivered himself with the Japanese for the first quartz wristwatch. The Japanese gained scarce, but the Europeans introduced in April 1970 their quartz watches at Baselworld ago. Rolex introduced the model 5100, the Rolex Quartz Date, with the slightly modified from the standard beta -21 caliber. Because of the given work form Rolex Oyster case could not use more because this would have been too great. The resulting clock was only available in yellow or white gold; there were 900 copies made ​​in yellow gold and 99 in white gold, all wearing no normal serial numbers, but merely their limitation notice. The series was sold out before production starts.

A major feature of the beta -21- caliber was the frequency of the second hand, which was moving at 256 hertz over the dial, which results in no visible individual movements; the pointer " hovers " over the dial, as opposed to modern quartz watches.

Following the series in 1973 expiry Rolex went to the development of its own quartz movement, which came on the market in an Oyster case: the Oyster Quartz 1978 presented by Rolex caliber 5035, and later as Oyster quartz Day-Date with the caliber 5055th the works were going as far as possible identical to the caliber of the corresponding automatic watches to ensure a longer and better maintainability. Oyster quartz were to refer to 2002 in the catalog and up to about 2005 on official concessionaires as a residual item.

In 2004, the previously legally independent companies Rolex SA in Geneva and Manufacture des Montres Rolex SA were merged by the Bieler part was taken over by Rolex SA in Geneva.

Corporate strategy

Rolex waived highly complicated watch models, since the manufacturer places great emphasis on durability, precision and reliability. Thus, the oscillation frequency of the built- up to 2000 Daytona chronographs work (a modified Zenith El Primero caliber ) was reduced from 36,000 to 28,800 vibrations, caliber 4030th

Owner of the Rolex Company is founded by Hans Wilsdorf in 1944 profit foundation, the Fondation Hans Wilsdorf. The company is considered to be extremely secretive and are no figures known. Rolex annually produces around 700,000 watches, making it by far the market leader in the luxury watch segment. In 2006 the company generated estimates of the trade newspaper around CHF 2.9 billion and estimates of Branding Institute CHF 3.0 billion. The number of employees is estimated to be 5800 or 7000. According to the company, has over 28 offices worldwide and a network of 4,000 watchmakers in over 100 countries.

Hand-wound and later quartz models in non- Oyster packages have been offered since the late 1960s in the " Cellini " series, named after the goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini ( 1500-1571 ). You were also gradually incorporated formerly independent models such as the Midas series ( since early 1960 ), the Cellini instead Midas lettering was later on the dial. For Cellini series also includes all small Rolex in « Women» Orchid - size as the models that are offered with approximately 20 mm in size since the 1950s.

A lower-priced secondary brand of Rolex watches are tudor, this being the only one of the original is many brands of Rolex, which has survived the time. The Tudor brand works with purchased plants the company ETA SA which are processed in-house. Previously Rolex Oyster case, floors and crowns were used, and only in the 1990s, was converted to its own production. The former side trademarks of Rolex were: Aqua, Genex, Marconi, Oyster (Oyster Watch Co. ), Rolco, Rolwatco, Unicorn and W & D ( Wilsdorf & Davis ).

Rolex is very active in advertising with celebrities from the arts and culture as well as the sponsorship of sports and cultural events. Thus, for example, Roger Federer, Carlo Janka and Lindsey Vonn advertising the watch brand. Konrad Adenauer was also owner of a Rolex, possibly a gift from the company.

Apart from some notable historically based features mainly two basic choices for today's image of the company and its watches have contributed:

Watch Models

Almost all the watch models available today there were in its current manifestation already some 50 years ago. While almost all models have changed over the last decades, however, these changes were significantly technical in nature and were each completed in a very cautious individual steps. For example, until the late 1980s, the Plexiglas step by step against the employed in the Rolex Quartz Date 1970 sapphire glass so was replaced in all models. Among connoisseurs of the used watch market this continuity of the models is regarded as one of the main reasons for the high prices of used Rolex watches that can be achieved even when it is not a rare collectors model.

Design

The Rolex Caliber 3135, all the three -hand watches by Rolex are based in various forms, is both structurally and visually designed for robustness, accuracy and long service intervals. It has some constructive peculiarities on, such as red anodized components, a Breguet spring and a lift mechanism in which the axis of the flywheel is mounted in a seat made of synthetic ruby ​​(usually the rotor mechanism steel is built in steel ball bearings ). The regulator does not take place, as with most mechanical movements, a regulator arm which changes the effective length of the spiral, but on the micro actuator system. The mounted inside of the balance wheel, change star-shaped nuts over their adjustment, the moment of inertia of the balance wheel.

Current caliber

All caliber, which are installed by Rolex are certified by the COSC as a chronometer.

• Rolex 2231, no date (used in Oyster Perpetual )
• Rolex 3130, no date (used in Air-King and Submariner No Date)
• Rolex 3131, no date, with Parachrom -blue- spiral (used in Milgauss )
• Rolex 3132, no date, with Parachrom -blue- spiral (used in Explorer I)
• Rolex 3135, with date (used in Datejust, Date, and Yachmaster )
• Rolex 3135, with date and para chrome -blue- spiral (used in Submariner Date and Seadweller Deepsea )
• Rolex 3136, with date and para chrome -blue- spiral ( used eg in Datejust II)
• Rolex 3156, day of week, with Parachrom -blue- spiral (used in Day-Date )
• Rolex 3187, GMT function, separately adjustable para chrome -blue- spiral and Para - Flex Anti Shock System (caliber hitherto exclusively used in new explorer II - Ref 216570 )
• Rolex 3186, GMT function, para chrome -blue- spiral (used in GMT-Master II and old Explorer II - Ref 16570 )
• Rolex 4130 chronograph function, no date (used in Cosmograph Daytona )

Sponsoring

• Rolex Transatlantic Challenge ( unique sailing regatta 2005)
• ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards
• America's Cup Hall of Fame
• Rolex Awards for Enterprise
• Rolex Sports Car Series

Gallery

The 235-meter high Rolex Towers in Dubai