DAYTONA HISTORY

In 1903, Hans moved to London, working for a watch import company for two years, then founding ‘Wilsdorf & Davis’ with his friend Alfred James Davis. a lawyer and investor. They imported movements from Jean Aegler factory and sourced dials and cases from other Swiss suppliers.

1908 was a big year for the company. Wilsdorf registered "Rolex" as a trademark and opened their first Switzerland office in La Chaux-de-Fonds. It was said that Wilsdorf wanted his watches to bear a name that was short, easy to say and remember in any language, and which looked good on watch movements and dials.

He said, “I tried combining the letters of the alphabet in every possible way. This gave me some hundred names, but none of them felt quite right. One morning, while riding on the upper deck of a horse-drawn omnibus along Cheapside in the City of London, a genie whispered ‘Rolex’ in my ear.”

Wilsdorf soon distinguished his company from its many competitors by specialising in unusual items, most notably the wristwatch.

A Rolex watch was awarded a Class A precision certificate by the Kew Obervatory in 1914.  This was an exciting distinction considering that normally the award was given exclusively to marine chronometers.   It was the very first time a wristwatch had achieved this honor in England and paved the way for Rolex to become one of the most respected brands in the world for its chronometric performance.

But Hans Wilsdorf was not satisfied with just timekeeping excellence. When he established his company in 1905, he had set out with a very clear goal: to produce watches that were able to accompany their owner through the adventure of life. Although his watches kept excellent time throughout static chronometer tests, Wilsdorf wanted to ensure that they would continue to perform their primary function no matter their environment. 

Rolex moved to Geneva, a city renowned internationally for watchmaking. Montres Rolex S.A. was registered in Geneva in 1920.

THE FIRST WATERPROOF WATCH

In 1926, the creation by Rolex of the first waterproof and dustproof wristwatch marked a major step forward. Given the name “Oyster”, this watch featured a hermetically sealed case which provided optimal protection for the movement.

It was to be a game-changing model. With that release, the company was at once placed on a stratospheric trajectory. Marketed as the world’s first waterproof watch (although the brand, along with most others in the industry, prefers to use the term water-resistant these days), the Oyster case was a revelation.

The following year, the Rolex Oyster was put through one of the most arduous tests conceivable when Mercedes Gleitze swam the entire length of the English Channel wearing a Rolex ‘Oyster’. The swim lasted over 10 hours and the watch remained in perfect working order at the end of it.

To celebrate the crossing of the channel, Rolex published a full-page ad on the front page of the Daily Mail proclaiming the success of the waterproof watch. This event marked the birth of the Testimonee concept: “The wonder watch that defies the elements: Moisture proof. Waterproof. Heat proof. Vibration proof. Cold proof. Dust proof.”

The next 80 years brought continued innovation and evolution for the Rolex sport watch. In 1931, Rolex introduced the Rolex Oyster Perpetual, the first waterproof, self-winding wristwatch. They invented and patented the world's first self-winding mechanism with a Perpetual rotor. This ingenious system, a true work of art, is today at the heart of every modern automatic watch. The combination of the water-resistant and dust-proof case, along with an automatic movement secured Wilsdorf's finest creation a place in the pantheon of great watchmaking advancements.

A new beginning - watches & Sport cars

In the 1930s, Rolex and one of the fastest drivers in the world, Sir Malcolm Campbell, became united by the quest for speed. On 4 September 1935, at the wheel of Bluebird – and wearing a Rolex watch – this “king of speed” set a land speed record of over 300 miles per hour (approximately 485 km/h) at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Sir Malcolm broke the world speed record nine times between 1924 and 1935, including five times at Daytona Beach in Florida.

In the early Thirties, racers began to perform on the beach, better talking, the Daytona Beach. They used to run on stock-cars, which were commercially produced cars, modified for racing purposes. these kind of vehicles developed out of the need for fast and efficiency delivery of illegal alcohol during the Prohibition years. The earliest racers were actually ‘bootlegger’ drivers, known as ‘Moonshine Drivers’, who worked hard on their cars to give them further speed and power so as to escape from the police.

In 1992, Rolex became the title sponsor of the Daytona 24 Hours event, replacing the former Pepsi Cola and SunBank title sponsors. The relationship between Rolex and Daytona goes way back. As a matter of fact, the first time a winner received a wrist watch trophy dates back to 1959 in a race held at the Florida’s Super-speedway track. This tradition continued, both at the ‘Daytona Continental’, and at the 24 hours event. Initially the trophy was an Oyster model timepiece. Nowadays, it is a steel or steel & gold Rolex Daytona chronograph, which goes to the first three winning drivers in each category, as well as to the team owner.

Even though Rolex became the sponsor of a car competition for the first time at Daytona, its relationship with car racing actually started some years earlier when Sir Malcom Campbell set the world speed record on land with the Bluebird wearing a Rolex Oyster.