Rolex

Rolex began in London, not Geneva. In 1905 Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis established a business selling watches made with Swiss movements. Wilsdorf wanted wristwatches to be taken seriously as accurate instruments, at a time when the pocket watch remained the established choice for men.

He pursued evidence that a customer could recognize. A Rolex wristwatch received a precision certificate in Bienne in 1910. Four years later, one earned a Class A certificate at Britain's Kew Observatory. The name Rolex, registered in 1908, was short enough to put on a small dial. The business moved to Geneva in 1919.

Accuracy alone did not make a watch suitable for everyday use. Dust and moisture could damage a movement, and wearing it outside a pocket exposed it to both. Rolex's 1926 Oyster case used screwed components, including the winding crown, to seal the mechanism.

Mercedes Gleitze gave Wilsdorf a particularly effective demonstration of that protection. After completing an English Channel crossing in 1927, the swimmer undertook another attempt to answer doubts about her achievement. For this second, “vindication” swim, she carried a Rolex Oyster. She had to leave the water after more than ten hours; the watch was reported to be working.

The distinction matters: the Rolex accompanied the later attempt, not her completed crossing. It was nevertheless an extraordinary test for a small watch. Wilsdorf followed it with a prominent newspaper advertisement. Technical evidence and the skill to publicize it were becoming part of the same business.

In 1931, the Perpetual winding system added a rotor that could turn with the wearer's movements and wind the mainspring. Oyster described the protected case; Perpetual described the automatic winding. Those words still appear together on Rolex dials.

The company that developed around them became a large industrial manufacturer. Its Swiss operations divide the work among movement making in Bienne, cases and bracelets at Plan-les-Ouates, dials and ceramic components at Chêne-Bourg, and development, final assembly and testing at Acacias. The work includes casting gold alloys as well as assembling tiny mechanical parts by hand.

That is a substantial change from the London business buying Swiss movements. Rolex's familiar designs can make the company look static from outside. Behind them is a long expansion of what it makes and controls for itself.