Hans Wilsdorf

Orphaned at twelve, Wilsdorf grew up under an uncle’s guardianship and trained in Germany. In 1900 he went to work for a watch business in La Chaux-de-Fonds, and in 1903 he moved to London.^1, 4

In 1905, at 24, he went into business with Alfred Davis as Wilsdorf & Davis, selling wristwatches built around precise Swiss movements from the Aegler works in Biel, when most wristwatches kept poor time. He registered the name Rolex in 1908. Rolex quotes him on where it came from: after trying some hundred combinations of letters, he said, it came to him on the upper deck of a horse-drawn omnibus in the City of London.^1, 2, 5

During the war of 1914 to 1918 he moved the business to Geneva, founding Montres Rolex SA there in 1920. The Oyster followed in 1926, and he made a habit of tying Rolex to feats of sport and exploration, such as Mercedes Gleitze’s swim across the English Channel in 1927, to show that his watches could survive them.^1, 2, 9

He had the Tudor name registered by a Geneva dealer in 1926 and made Tudor a company of its own in 1946, a watch that Rolex agents could sell for less than a Rolex.³

He had no children. After his wife’s sudden death he set up the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation in 1945 and left it all his shares. He died in Geneva in 1960, and the foundation has owned Rolex since.^1, 2, 6