Watchepedia

Hans Wilsdorf—The Legend Begins Have you ever wondered how Rolex came to be Rolex—how the very name became a synonym for excellence? The short answer can be spelled out in two words: Hans Wilsdorf. From its earliest days through the 1970s when new technology enabled other watch makers to flood the market with cheap, practically disposable watches and Wilsdorf was long since dead, Rolex stayed true to its founder’s maverick vision. Rolex endured its greatest challenge and triumphed. By committing to only manufacture high-quality watches and by marketing them in shrewd and imaginative ways, the company weathered the “quartz revolution”…

Virtual oceans of ink (and later, virtual ink) have been spilled writing about the watches worn on the first successful expedition to summit Mount Everest in 1953. There have always been unanswered questions surrounding the epic event (who was first to the top, Sir Edmund Hillary or his Sherpa teammate Tenzing Norgay?) and the questions extend to the watches. Hillary later did advertisements for both Rolex and the British watch company Smiths, saying he had “carried” a Smiths watch “all the way to the top.” ‘Carried’ seems like an odd choice of wording for a wrist watch as opposed to…