Hans Wilsdorf
Hans Eberhard Wilhelm Wilsdorf (born March 22, 1881 in Kulmbach ; † July 6, 1960 in Geneva ) was a German entrepreneur and founder of the watch brand Rolex .
Life (1881–1960)
Origin and early years (1881–1905)
Hans Wilsdorf grew (* 1879) and Anna (* 1882) as children in with his two siblings Karl Protestant dominated merchant family in Franconia Kulmbach on. The parents Johann (1846–1893) and Anna Wilsdorf (1855–1882) ran a hardware store on the market square in Kulmbach , today's Heinlein iron shop . At the age of 12 he became an orphan . At a boarding school in Coburg , he met a young Swiss man, through whom he came to La Chaux-de-Fonds at the age of 19 to work as a foreign language correspondent in the watch export business of Cuno Kourten . After he successfully ordered pocket watches from master watchmakers there, received a certificate of accuracy for them from the Neuchâtel Observatory and then exported them to Great Britain , he decided in 1905 to emigrate to the UK himself and set up his own business in London . With his brother-in-law Alfred Davis, he founded the company Wilsdorf & Davis in London in 1905 . Wilsdorf & Davis imported Swiss clockworks from Jean Aegler to Great Britain in order to offer them there as Schweitzer clocks from Wilsdorf & Davis after completion.
Finding a name (1908)
In the early 1900s , it was common for watches to bear the name of the seller and not the manufacturer. This practice presented Wilsdorf with an enormous challenge when choosing a name for the watch models from Wilsdorf & Davis.
The etymological origin of the word for Rolex has not yet been scientifically clarified. Historians and watch collectors disagree on the origin and meaning of the name Rolex. The widely spread assumption that the name Rolex is an acronym from the English words Rol ling Ex port (dt. "Rolling export") has never been proven historically. There are no official sources for the origin of the brand name, the Rolex company itself writes on its website :
Quote: I (Hans Wilsdorf) tried to combine the letters of the alphabet in all directions - with the result that after a while I had hundreds of names available, but wasn't really satisfied with any of them. One morning, while I was sitting on the upper deck of the horse-drawn bus that was traveling along Cheapside in the City of London, a good spirit whispered to me: ROLEX "
On July 2, 1908, Hans Wilsdorf had the brand name ROLEX registered under patent law .
In order to avoid the high import duties during the First World War , Wilsdorf moved the company headquarters from London to Biel in 1915 . On January 17, 1920, Hans Wilsdorf became the sole owner of Montres Rolex SA and officially entered it in the Swiss commercial register.
Marketing success (1927)
In 1926, Rolex introduced the world's first patented waterproof watch under the name Oyster . British swimmer Mercedes Gleitze was the first English woman to attempt to swim across the English Channel on October 7, 1927 . Wilsdorf recognized the opportunity to make his new watch known to the general public. He gave Gleitze an Oyster watch on the condition that it be worn when crossing the canal and thus to prove to the whole world the outstanding technical quality of his invention. Gleitze agreed. Their attempt failed due to the adverse weather conditions just before reaching the French coast. The Rolex Oyster wore the slide around its neck while swimming, withstood the effects of salt water without any problems and still ran accurately after eight hours in cold water. The attempt to cross the canal was a triumph for Hans Wilsdorf, and on November 24, 1927, he launched an advertisement for £ 4,000 on the front page of the London daily Daily Mail . With this advertising campaign , the watch brand Rolex became internationally known. After the death of his first wife, Florence Frances May Wilsdorf-Crotty, who died on April 26, 1944, Wilsdorf founded a charitable foundation in 1945 under the name Fondation Hans Wilsdorf (Hans Wilsdorf Foundation).
Death of Hans Wilsdorf (1960)
On September 19, 1959, Wilsdorf gave his first and only television interview . Hans Wilsdorf died on July 6, 1960 at the age of 79 in his summer residence Escale-Fleurie in Geneva. Wilsdorf was married twice. The marriages were childless. He left a fortune in the millions and 100% ownership rights to ROLEX SA
literature
- Hans Wilsdorf. Montres Rolex SA, Geneva 1960.
- George Gordon: Rolex. Hans Wilsdorf and the Evolution of Time. Hong Kong 1989.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The most famous watches: legends on the wrist . In: Balance sheet from April 14, 2004
- ↑ https://www.heinlein-kulmbach.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52&Itemid=350
- ↑ https://www.bachmann-scher.de/magazin/luxusuhren-markenstories/rolex/rolex-markenstory-und-geschichte.html?tx_bswatches_watches%5Bcategory%5D=20&cHash=5a6b7823ebe9227dc1ce9657708acea9
- ↑ https://www.kulmbach.de/xist4c/web/Hans-Wilsdorf---Kulmbach_id_802_.htm
- ^ Helmut Kahlert, Richard Mühe, Gisbert L. Brunner, Christian-Pfeiffer-Belli: wrist watches: 100 years of development history. Callwey, Munich 1983; 5th edition, ibid. 1996, ISBN 3-7667-1241-1 , p. 501.
- ↑ https://www.rolex.com/de/about-rolex-watches/1905-1919.html
- ↑ https://iwc.com.pk/the-hans-wilsdorf-story-founder-of-rolex/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnZSZxyC0ZQ
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wilsdorf, Hans |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wilsdorf, Hans Eberhard Wilhelm (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German-British entrepreneur, founder of ROLEX-Uhren-AG |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 22, 1881 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kulmbach |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 6, 1960 |
| Place of death | Geneva |