Rolex Accuracy

ACCORDING TO ACCURACY

Wilsdorf was the visionary man who created an accurate wristwatch that can be compared to the finest contemporary mechanical chronometers around the globe.
In 1905, when Wilsdorf and Alfred James Davis created Wilsdorf & Davis they never imagined how important the company would become. At the very beginning, the company was just two businessmen trying to make a living in a hard environment. When Wilsdorf registered “Rolex” as the trade mark in Switzerland and began to use the name inside the watches on movements and cases, he then started advertising the name in order to make people asking for the watches by their name: Rolex.
In 1914, perfected Rebberg obtained a Kew A certificate for one of their 11”’ movements. The Royal Observatory at Kew (in London) was an outstation of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, where all the initial work on accurate time keeping had been initiated such as: the search for a method of accuracy finding longitude, the institution of an universal time standard, the development of the first marine chronometer and the establishment of a central facility to test timepieces and certify them were all products of Greenwich. Its principal purpose was to teste marine chronometers, whose accuracy was vital to marine navigation until the 1930’s. The Kew tests were designed to time watches for the Royal Navy would offer to purchase it. Beyond that, based on the chronometer tests at Kew major manufacturers could state that their watches were the most accurate in the world becoming another powerful sales promotion device. Wilsdorf put Rolex watches through such test. Rolex was the only watch in the world to hold a Kew A certificate, getting to promote the success.
In order to avoid hurting the watches badly while they were imported to London, Hans Wilsdorf was finally convinced to move the administrative offices of the company from London to Geneva. Later, when it started exporting to United States of America, Wilsdorf made another astute move. While the European market was sinking as a consequence of the war, the American one was rising from the dust. Once again, Rolex was in the right place at the right time.