It all began in 1905 when Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis (Wilsdorf’s brother-in-law) established “Wilsdorf and Davis” in London. The pair’s main focus at this moment was to import Hermann Aegler’s Swiss movements to their shop and putting them in durable watch cases that were manufactured by Dennison as well as other brands. Jewelers then bought these first time pieces and would place their very own name on the dial. The first time pieces produced by Wilsdorf and Davis were marked “W&D” inside of the back of the case.

It wasn’t until 1908 when Wilsdorf established the “Rolex” trademark. He then proceeded to start a shop in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. On November 15, 1915 Wilsdorf registered the “Rolex” name for his company. Sources have said that this name doesn’t mean anything. There’s a rumor that this brand name originated from a French term, horlogerie exquise, which means “exquisite clockwork.” Wilsdorf had the world market in mind when thinking of a name for his watch company. He wanted the name of his company to be easily pronounceable when translated into any language. The name, “Rolex” also is onomatopoeic. When one says the name, “Rolex” it sounds like a watch that’s being wound. The name is also short enough to fit across all sizes of dials. All of the letters in the name are also the exact same size, which allows one to write the Rolex brand name symmetrically.

A Rolex watch was awarded a Class A Precision certificate in 1914 by the Kew Observatory. This was quite the achievement for the brand. Before this award was given to a Rolex, it was only ever given to valuable marine chronometers.

In 1919, the brand suffered some trouble. Wilsdorf made the decision to leave England because of wartime taxes placed on luxurious imports. Also, taxes were placed on exports, including gold and silver, which were used in making the time piece cases. This ultimately made costs way too high. Wilsdorf then moved the brand to Geneva, Switzerland. The company was then founded as the well-known Rolex Watch Company. Later on, Wilsdorf felt it was time for a name change and changed the company name to Montres Rolex, SA and then again to Rolex, SA. Wilsdorf decided to set up the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation where he placed his total Rolex shares in 1944. This way, Wilsdorf would always know that at least some of his company’s money is going to charity. To this day, a private trust owns the brand. The shares are never traded on stock exchanges.

In 2007, Rolex ranked No.71 on BusinessWeek Magazine’s annual list of the top 100 most valuable brands in the world.

Today, Rolex is one of the top luxury watch makers. These watches are some of the few that continue to only gain value over time.