A Bit Of Rolex History.

[padi56]

And sorry for the repost but reading the Rolex watch forum lately which is now mainly about ££$$ if I buy this or that will it go up in value. Worrying and fretting about a few seconds out of 86400 in a day. The history of the Rolex brand is a gone and forgotten subject and what this forum was started for, so this post might help some of the newer members what the forum was originally about. Now if this post offends some that are only interested in value this or that, fretting over a few seconds or minor scratches, or making up new silly nicknames, then I apologise whole heartily for the long read which I know is hard for some to do today.

RWC The Early Years And for those who do not know what RWC is its the Rolex Watch Company now called Rolex.

During the Rolex early period many different types of watches were made, and Rolex did not have complete control over their movement factory, they were only a minority shareholder. The full name of the company tells the story "Aegler, Société Anonyme,Horologies D Excellence Fabrique des Montres Rolex & Gruen Guild A.," this means, in translation, Aegler incorporated, manufacturer of Rolex & Gruen Guild A Watches. At this time ownership of the factory was split between three parties, Herman Aegler (movements), (Hans Wilsdorf of Rolex) and the Gruen brothers, Frederick Gruen and George Gruen. Now Aegler manufactured movements for both companies, who then sold the completed watches in their respective territories; Wilsdorf of Rolex, throughout Europe, Asia and the British Empire; whilst the Gruen brothers sold in the US only.

This arrangement worked well until Rolex acquired the patent for the the Oyster case; now they had something new and special which they wished to sell all over the world, not just in their limited territory. However the three way partnership prohibited Rolex from selling their products with Aegler movement in the Gruen brothers' territory (and vice-versa). So Hans of Rolex being a very clever and shrewd man, took a sideways move and fitted their new Oyster cases with a movement from FHF (Fontmelon) factory just down the road from Gruen and then tried to find a US distributor. They came across the firm of Abercrombie and Fitch, this was then a store specialising in sportsman's' equipment; whether you wanted to go elephant shooting in Africa, fishing for salmon or trout in Scotland, Abercrombie and Fitch was the place you went for all your equipment. Everything from fishing rods to double barrelled shotguns could be found under their roof. As the sportsman's store they seemed the ideal place to sell the first oyster watches, which were already building a reputation as the sportsman's watch. It may have seemed the ideal place but it did not work out that way, firstly because Rolex sold the cheaper down-market version of their watches in a high end store, and also because Abercrombie & Fitch did not advertise the watch sufficiently.

Now these Abercrombie & Fitch watches are probably the rarest of all the cushion oysters, in all my life I have only ever seen one; it was signed "Abercrombie and Fitch (Seafarer) on the dial and the case and movement were signed Oyster Watch Company. The case was quite badly pitted because then they were made from a base metal, a chromed zinc material that did not last very long, a bit like the relationship between Rolex and Abercrombie & Fitch. Now they went on to become the USA distributor for The Swiss Heuer watches, probably more of a sportsman's watch to speak of, being mainly chronograph type watches.


After a couple of years in the wilderness Rolex decided to give the US market another try. This was after they had been approached by Zell Brothers, a jewellery store chain in the Pacific Northwest of the USA, headquartered in Seattle. Zell had seen the great success of Rolex in Canada, and in Vancouver in particular (Seattle and Vancouver are only about 150km apart). They asked to be made the exclusive importer for Rolex in the Pacific Northwest, and Rolex eager to get a USA foot hold accepted their proposal. The strange thing is that, despite the Canadian success either Zell or Rolex decided not to use the famed "Oyster" name but substituted the name Turtle Timer, (IMHO undoubtedly Zell) Once again these were non-Aegler (non-Rolex) movements, so as not to disturb the three way relationship with Gruen. Zell were much more successful than Abercrombie/Fitch had been, but can hardly be described as having made a major market breakthrough. I have seen around 5 or 6 pictures of these watches and because they were made when Rolex was using real stainless steel the cases looked to have lasted much better than the A&F ones ever did. But Zell had two major problems as far as Rolex were concerned; firstly they were a regional not national chain and their insistence on using their own Turtle Timer name and not Oyster meant that Rolex would never reap the benefit of any of the new oyster case success. Now in these early days of Rolex only about 1 in 5 had the name Rolex on the Dial, the rest were blank dials when they left the factory .But after the arrival of the oyster case most of the oyster cased ones did have the name Rolex on the dial, but still only a few companies were still allowed, to put there names on the dial like Goldsmiths,Asprey, Bucherer plus a few more.Tiffany were the final store retailers name to ever to be seen on a Rolex dial, and now any genuine Tiffany named Rolex mainly the sports models bring high prices indeed

Now most of these problems were solved when Rolex gained the right to enter the US market themselves when the Gruen brothers left the board of Aegler in mid 1930s selling their shares to the two remaining parties; their place on the board of the company was taken by Emil Borer who really invented the oyster case, and who was Herman Aegler's brother in law, the technical director of Rolex, and much more significantly the man who supposedly invented the Perpetual movement for the company. But the RWC got the patent for the first auto wrist watch from John Harwood from the Isle of Man UK he made the first auto wind wristwatch .Now this new movement was the first one from Aegler (Rolex), that was not made available to Gruen, and so gave Rolex a unique advantage when they were able to take advantage of their new found ability to enter the US market; which they did just as the US entered WW11, around 1942/3.

And now the only current company for whom Rolex will "co-brand" a watch is COMEX; an acronym made up of the letters from the company's full name COmpagnie Maritime d'EXpertise. COMEX as everyone now knows are the world's leaders in the provision of diving services to exploration companies all over the globe. It was in November 1967 that A. Zilbach, a Rolex technician who had worked in close collaboration with COMEX received the Swiss patent number 492,246 for a helium escape valve, shared with Doxa to rush it though. This was the result of experiments carried out with early 5513 Submariners which had been fitted with prototypes of this escape valve.These watches were used by COMEX divers for over 2 years without any problems and so the decision was made to produce a standard watch with this feature; it was, of course, the SD. The largest bulk purchaser of these watches was and is COMEX; every diver who works for the company is issued with one and to prevent the watches from being "misplaced" Rolex print the name of the company on the dial of every watch. COMEX themselves also engrave the rear of the watch with their name and a unique serial number. These watches now have become incredibly collectible because they are the ONLY Rolex watch still being produced with another name on the dial. It is somewhat ironic that after almost 90 years of some different retailers' names on some Rolex dials. The only one left is a company who do did not ever sell watches,and that's Comex but this might now have changed.

[blufinz52]

I mean this with all due respect Padi, but you focus as much as on those who are "mainly about ££$$ if I buy this or that will it go up in value", as they are about the investment. Just ignore those posts.

[racerx]

Thanks for posting this, it's a great read.

[brandrea]

What a great read Peter, thank you for posting this.

I did not know about how Rolex began selling their watches in the US, or the relationship with A&F. Very interesting back story.

Information like this is one of the reasons why I joined here in the first place. Thank you

[Robf52]

Always fun to read about Rolex history and learn new details of the early years. Great post. Keep 'em coming!

[dnd2984]

Great read! Thank you

[Jackie Daytona]

Great read. Thanks for posting. I always love reading the history aspect of it all.

Question though. I thought the Rolex COMEX watches came to an end in the early 2000’s. I haven’t been looking, or researching it, but I’ve never seen one much after that early 2000s period or a 6 digit at all.

[enjoythemusic]

Great read PADI, many thanks

[rolexjackson]

Great read as always!

[Avs Fan]

Love reading about the history!

[N0trub]

Thank you enjoyed the read.

[rjd1]

Fascinating stuff, thank you for posting!

[turfmanjon]

Love seeing this historical information, thanks for sharing!


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[travisb]

Great history! Enjoyed the read. Thanks Peter!

[Michael1968]

Thanks for sharing

[GGGMT]

Paddie! Great addition and Thku for the knowledge. And for steering this forum back to the good stuff.


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[Jeffreylucky1]

Thanks for this!

[Sgooter]

Enjoyed reading this. I look forward to more Rolex history posts.
Thanks

[whatsthetime?]

The most informative post I've ever read about the history of Rolex.
Thanks for posting--I'm definitely going to pass this along.

[Gearjockey]

Great read.
Fascinating how they arose from such humble beginnings to become the current heavyweight title-holder.

[slus]

Very interesting. I'll try to lock those early names somewhere in my brain in the off chance I ever run across one somewhere.

[DJ2020]

Thank you so much Peter for taking the time and sharing your knowledge about Rolex. I always find information like this very interesting. I hope you doing well and would love to see more post like this.

TRF needs post like this so people that don't know realize the roots and history of the company that us "old timers" have come to love, appreciate and count on over several decades of ownership.

True owners are proud due to the history and dependability of these watches that they counted on day in and day out before even the existence of cell phones. These are the attributes that made Rolex famous. Not investments to be bought and sold. But as a time piece to be cherished for a lifetime of use.

[Al1969]

Great info Padi. Thank you for posting.

[Meyrin]

Thank you, Padi! I´ve only been here since late 2019 (so one of the "newer members"), but feel like your post was long overdue! I doubt it will change much, but one can always hope!

[bbombers85]

Thank you for this insightful post. The history is always important. I gained a similar appreciation for JLC (previously admired from afar) after visiting the Reverso Stories Exhibition this past weekend.

[Watch-Geek]

Thanks, this was a joy to read!!

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[TimeLord2]

I always enjoy reading your posts Peter. I like your realist attitude because in the end Rolex made watches. Perhaps with a unique history but still just a watch and a tool watch at that, at least originally. Funny how perspectives change.

My dad gave me his 1675/3 when I graduated college—a lifetime ago at this point. I never babied it nor did he. With the few personal assaults for Rolex watches lately in LA he told me I should reconsider wearing it. That said, it's on my wrist now. I am not a flashy person and nobody looks at the watch on my wrist. It might as well be a gold plated Invicta. I had on my equally old Seiko diver one day and some random guys I ran into at a bar thought it was a Submariner. They were staying on a large yacht in the marina. Actually asked me if I know where to get them some Coke as they were in town only for only a few days. Two strikes! True story and completely ridiculous. Hahahaha!

I do think it's more the sentiment and remembrance that makes a watch special. Not the brand. I think my dad might argue that last bit with me but he wears an Apple watch now. He recently gave his Explorer II to my sister. He wanted to give it to me but I told him he should give it to one of my other siblings so they too could have a keepsake from him.

Love my Seiko from my grandparents too, it was a very thoughtful gift. I think of them every time I see it on the wrist of my son. Fortunately it's quartz as he never sets the time and looks at it more as jewelry. Hahahahah! Ridiculous…

[Driver8]

Good read. I knew some of it already, but certainly not all of it so thanks for posting it up.

[Dr.Smellody]

Fantastic history!!

[rcwatchcollector]

I love watches but I don’t care that much to know all the historical facts. And I don’t sell watches so I don’t really care about value either. I just like the fact that they are little mechanical things. And they compliment my inquisitive nature of things mechanical. In fact I might take a watch makers course. To actually learn to work on them as a hobby.


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