Rolex is the largest Swiss watch brand

The company produces dozens of collections and produces watches that have become absolute classics, albeit without the complications of the Haute Horlogerie class. Rolex humbly claims to produce very reliable watches of the highest quality.

The current king of the watch industry was born in London. With the help of a residence permit there, the founder of the concern, Hans Wilsdorf, wanted to avoid very high taxes on the import of Swiss watches. The name was invented by Wilsdorf himself: in it he heard the sound of the cocking of the barrel drum, and something similar to the word royal so popular and in demand in Britain. In 1914, the British Astronomical Society issued Rolex watches with a certificate of accuracy class "A" - until that time, only ultra-precise military chronometers received this class.

Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, the British government inflated taxes on the production of luxury goods so much that the company had to move to Switzerland. Rolex watches gained worldwide fame thanks to one of the first PR campaigns in history.

THE BIRTH OF A LEGEND

In 1926, Wilsdorf, who three years earlier was the first in the world to create a dust and water resistant watch, also presented the first truly waterproof watch. He gave it an ergonomic streamlined shape that resembled an oyster. The watch was named Oyster.

In November 1927, a young Englishwoman, Mercedes Gleitze, swam the English Channel in 15 hours and 15 minutes. Someone else would forever rest on their laurels, but Wilsdorf thought about the fact that Miss Gleitze waved her hand several thousand times during her swim, wasting energy almost in vain. Now, if we could convert this energy into a useful channel.

After four years of work, Wilsdorf presented the result of his thoughts and efforts - the first self-winding wrist movement. So the word Perpetual was added to the name Oyster, and this oyster became eternal.

After the Oyster Perpetual was once again the first to be equipped with a disc-date calendar (Datejust), a calendar-date / day of the week (Day-Date) and a chronograph (Daytona), love for it grew to phenomenal proportions.

HOURLY RECORDS

The model owns as 116500LN Rolex almost all the records of the watch business. Not a single watch was in such demand that the roughly 900,000th annual release cannot satisfy it.

All models have an official COSC chronometer certificate, and the line for steel models lasts an average of 2.5 years.

Several world records have been set in Rolex watches: the first ascent to Mount Everest in 1953; diving to the 11,000-meter bottom of the Mariana Trench in 1960, etc. The company equips watches with anchors, spirals and protective covers of its own invention.