Rolex Watch Dealers

Arguably the best known of all Swiss watchmakers, Rolex was actually started in London by Bavarian Hans Wilsdorf and his English brother-in-law Alfred Davis. The name was registered in 1908. In 1919 the company relocated to Geneva and was established as Montres Rolex SA.

Rolex famously gives its automatic (or self-winding) watches the name Perpetual. Rolex was not, however, the first watch maker to offer this. It was Perrelet who made the first automatic mechanism, which was used in pocket watches. Breguet improved upon this, before Brit John Harwood invented his automatic wristwatch mechanism, which he patented in 1923. It became available to the public in 1928 after he entered a manufacturing arrangement with Fortis.

In 1931, Harwood's Self Winding Watch Company went bankrupt, the same year the Rolex Oyster Perpetual was released, after Rolex had made improvements to Harwood's technique. In 1945 a date display was added, the watch being renamed the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Date Adjust.