Rolex SA is a Swiss luxury watchmaker. The company and its   subsidiary Montres Tudor SA design, manufacture, distribute and service   wristwatches sold under the Rolex and Tudor brands. Founded by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London, England in 1905 as Wilsdorf and Davis, Rolex moved its base of operations to Geneva, Switzerland in 1919.

Forbes ranked Rolex 64th on its 2016 list of the world's most powerful global brands. Rolex is the largest single luxury watch brand, producing about 2,000 watches per day.

The company is owned by the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, a family private trust which does not pay corporate tax.

History

Alfred Davis and his brother-in-law Hans Wilsdorf founded Wilsdorf and Davis, the company that would eventually become Rolex SA, in London, England in 1905. Wilsdorf and Davis' main commercial activity at the time involved importing Hermann Aegler's Swiss movements to England and placing them in high-quality watch cases made by Dennison and others. These early wristwatches were sold to jewellers,   who then put their own names on the dial. The earliest watches from   Wilsdorf and Davis were usually hallmarked "W&D" inside the   caseback.

In 1908 Wilsdorf registered the trademark "Rolex" and opened an office in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. The company name "Rolex" was registered on 15 November 1915. The book The Best of Time: Rolex Wristwatches: An Unauthorized History by Jeffrey P. Hess and James Dowling says that the name was just made up. One story, never confirmed by Wilsdorf, recounts that the name came from the French phrase horlogerie exquise, meaning "exquisite clockwork" or as a contraction of "horological excellence". Wilsdorf was said to want his watch brand's name to be easily pronounceable in any language. He also thought that the name "Rolex" was onomatopoeic,   sounding like a watch being wound. It is easily pronounceable in many   languages and, as all its upper-case letters have the same size, can be   written symmetrically. It was also short enough to fit on the face of a   watch.

In 1914 Kew Observatory awarded a Rolex watch a Class A precision certificate, a distinction normally granted exclusively to marine chronometers.

In 1919 Wilsdorf left England due to wartime taxes levied on luxury   imports as well as to export duties on the silver and gold used for the   watch cases driving costs too high and moved the company to Geneva, Switzerland, where it was established as the Rolex Watch Company. Its name was later changed to Montres Rolex, SA and finally Rolex, SA. Upon the death of his wife in 1944, Wilsdorf established the Hans   Wilsdorf Foundation, a private trust, in which he left all of his Rolex   shares, making sure that some of the company's income would go to   charity. Wilsdorf died in 1960; since then, the trust has owned and run   the company.

In December 2008, following the abrupt departure of Chief Executive   Patrick Heiniger for "personal reasons", the company denied that it had   lost 1 billion Swiss francs (approx £574 million, $900 million) invested with Bernard Madoff, the American asset manager who pleaded guilty to an approximately £30 billion worldwide Ponzi scheme fraud. Rolex SA announced Heiniger's death on 5 March 2013.

As of 2010 Rolex watches continue to have a reputation as status symbols.

Brands

Rolex SA offers products under the Rolex and Tudor brands.

Montres Tudor SA has designed, manufactured and marketed Tudor   watches since 6 March 1946. Rolex founder Hans Wildorf conceived of the   Tudor Watch Company to create a product for authorized Rolex dealers to   sell that offered the reliability and dependability of a Rolex, but at a   lower price.

Historically, Tudor watches have been manufactured by Montres Tudor SA using movements supplied by ETA SA.   Since 2015 however, Tudor has begun to manufacture watches with   in-house movements. The first model introduced with a in-house movement   was the Tudor North Flag. Following this, updated versions of the Tudor Pelagos and Tudor   Heritage Black Bay have also been fitted with an in-house caliber. Tudor watches are marketed and sold in most countries around the world   including the United States, Australia, Canada, India, Mexico, South   Africa, many countries in Europe, South Asia, the Middle East and   countries in South America, particularly Brazil, Argentina and   Venezuela.

Montres Tudor SA discontinued sales of Tudor-branded watches in the United States in 2004, but Tudor returned to the United States market in the summer of 2013 and to the UK in 2014.

RECOMMENDATIONS

All Antique watches are mechanical. Many repairs will not be cheap, as most likely they will require replacement of non-standard parts (unlike most late model watches).

• Antique watches should not be beaten or dropped - because repairs may be expensive.
• Antique watches are generally NOT waterproof. This is because waterproofing was not in general production until the middle of the 20th century for most watches. Therefore you should protect your antique watch from exposure to moisture.
• If your watch becomes wet it should be dried off quickly. Carefully open all covers and use a hair drier to blow dry the movement, dial, covers, crown. This will reduce the amount of rust.
• If your watch becomes wet with any kind of salt water you should immediately immerse or spray your watch with fresh (no-salt) water to remove all the salt from the works before drying the watch completely. Any salt left in the watch will combine with moisture in the air to rust metal components of the movement, case etc.
• Winding any mechanical watch tight may break the mainspring. If you can avoid it do not wind the watch hard.
• When adjusting the hands of your watch, move them in a clockwise direction only. Counter-clockwise adjustments may damage the movement. It is desirable to adjust the hands of your watch at the same time every day. An automatic or self-winding watch should be worn for at least 8 hours a day. It is a mechanical watch in which the mainspring is wound automatically as a result of natural motion of the wearer's arm, to provide energy to run the watch, making manual winding unnecessary.
• If you must adjust counter-clockwise make it for small adjustments only (i.e. for minutes, NOT hours).
• Be careful and gentle when adjusting the movement speed (faster or slower). Don't make sharp movements, and don't touch other components in the movement especially the pendulum mechanism.
• Every 2-3 years it is necessary to service and oil vintage watches. If the course of your watches is worsening and the accuracy of the reduction in the duration of the clock (autonomy) from one fully wound spring - it need a service.
• IF the watch is dirty - allow the watch to run down, don't wind it again until you have it serviced by a qualified watch repair expert. Dust will absorb and remove important lubricants and cause the movement pieces to wear down.
• To clean the case, dial and crystal you should use a cloth that does NOT leave fibers as these may get caught up in the movement. Check with your Watch repair expert to get an appropriate cloth.
• Keep your antiques watch away from magnets. Strong magnetic fields may affect the accuracy of your watch since some vintage watches were made with iron based components in the movement.
• Most Cases and Covers are fine components and will not handle abuse well. The watch should not be shaken, beaten, or stressed.
• Antique watches generally experience an error of up to 5-7 minutes a day. Any accuracy of +- 5 minutes is very good.
• Mechanical watch is not recommended to use for engage in extreme sports, and expose them to excessive vibration loads. Recoil force, which take on the clock, affect their reliability and precision. No matter how perfect was not anti-shock mechanism, there is always the chance of excessive load that details of the mechanism can not survive.
• Watch with calendar. It is not recommended to adjust, the date between 20.00 and 06.00, because at this time involved a mechanism for automatic adjustment date. Translation pointers calendars manually in this position arrows may damage the mechanism. Date changes should be made, relegating pre-clockwise to lower sector of the dial (for example, to position 6 (18.00) hours).
• Chronograph watches. In most cases, these watches contain the "start/stop" button and "reset" button. It is strongly recommended not to press the "reset" if the chronograph is running. Before you use the "Reset" button need to stop the chronograph by button "start/stop". Using the "reset" when running chronograph can damage the mechanism of most models of watches.

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Typical Delivery Time

• European Countries: about 7-10 days;
• USA, Japan & other: about 10-14 days.

NOTE: Delivery time may increase because of postal services and/or customs. Please, don't worry and check location of your parcel using provided tracking number. In spite of delays all our previous lots have been successfully delivered!

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