Some houses pass through the decades; others quietly organise them. In the European art of living, a handful of objects have stopped being products and become landmarks: worn, handed down, recognised at a glance. The wristwatch belongs to that rare family, and within it Rolex holds a position no other signature disputes. Founded in London in 1905 by Hans Wilsdorf, then twenty-four years old, the house established within a century a complete grammar — a case, a movement, a vocabulary of shapes — that became the common language of luxury watchmaking.
The Rolex name was registered as a trademark in 1908: short, euphonic, legible on a dial in any language. Two dates then founded the technical legitimacy of the house. In 1910, a Rolex wristwatch received from the Official Watch Rating Centre in Bienne the first chronometric precision certificate ever granted to a wristwatch; in 1914, Kew Observatory in Great Britain awarded a Rolex wristwatch a class “A” precision certificate, a distinction until then reserved for marine chronometers. After the First World War the company moved to Geneva, where Montres Rolex SA was registered in 1920. It is owned today by the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, and has been led since 2015 by chief executive Jean-Frédéric Dufour.
The year 2026 gives that history a particular resonance: the Oyster, unveiled in 1926, reaches its centenary. An invitation to revisit the selection from its source — not a catalogue, but eight creations, each marking a moment in the house’s DNA.
Rolex Oyster Perpetual, the founding blueprint
It all begins with a case. In 1926 Rolex introduced the Oyster, the first waterproof and dustproof wristwatch, sealed by a system of bezel, case back and winding crown screwed down against the middle case. The following year the British swimmer Mercedes Gleitze crossed the English Channel — more than ten hours in the water — with an Oyster on her wrist, which emerged in perfect working order: the house’s very first Testimonee. In 1931 Rolex invented and patented the first self-winding mechanism with a Perpetual rotor. Waterproof case, self-winding movement, certified precision: the Oyster Perpetual gathers the three founding accomplishments, and remains the purest way into the world of the crown.
Explore the Oyster Perpetual collection
Rolex Datejust, the date brought into the light
1945: the house marked its fortieth anniversary with the Datejust, the first self-winding wrist chronometer to display the date in a window on the dial. It arrived with two signatures that made it instantly recognisable: the Jubilee bracelet, created especially for it, and the fluted bezel. Few watches have done as much to establish the idea that a technical object could become a classic of style; the Datejust remains the most elegant link between the workshop and the city.
Rolex Explorer, altitude as a proving ground
On 29 May 1953, at 11.30 a.m., Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the 8,848-metre summit of Everest as members of a British expedition led by Sir John Hunt and equipped with Oyster Perpetual watches. That same year Rolex launched the Explorer, whose legibility — 3, 6 and 9 numerals, luminescent markers, an uncluttered dial — translates a requirement born in the field. The Explorer has kept from that ascent a rare restraint: a watch that tells you nothing beyond what it has lived.
Rolex Submariner, diving turned into elegance
Also launched in 1953, the Submariner was the first divers’ watch waterproof to a depth of 100 metres. Its graduated rotatable bezel, conceived so that immersion time could be read at a glance, became one of the most recognisable designs of the twentieth century. Its destiny reaches far beyond the underwater world: the Submariner established itself as the sports watch par excellence, worn with a wetsuit or under a shirt cuff, losing none of its authority either way.
Rolex GMT-Master II, the doubled horizon
In 1955, commercial aviation redrew the map of the world and Rolex answered with the GMT-Master, designed as a navigation aid for professionals criss-crossing continents. It became the official watch of several airlines, among them Pan American World Airways. Its two-tone bezel, visually separating daytime from night-time hours, entered the visual heritage of the century. The GMT-Master II carries the principle forward with an independently adjustable 24-hour hand: two time zones, a single silhouette.
Rolex Day-Date, the presidential watch
1956: the Day-Date made its debut, available only in 18 ct gold or platinum. It was the first wristwatch to display the date together with the day of the week spelt out in full in a window on the dial. Worn by heads of state and business leaders, it earned its “President” nickname, and remains within the collection the most assured expression of precious metal and useful function brought together in a single gesture.
Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, the chronograph of speed
Launched in 1963 as a new-generation chronograph, the Cosmograph soon took the name that would make it an icon: Daytona. Conceived as the ultimate tool for endurance racing drivers, it was robust, waterproof, and carried a tachymetric scale on its bezel for calculating average speed. Few objects turn function into such graphic clarity: three counters, a bezel, a rhythm. The Daytona made reading time an exercise in style.
Rolex Sea-Dweller, pressure mastered
1967 saw the birth of the Sea-Dweller, waterproof to a depth of 610 metres. To meet the needs of professional deep-sea divers, its case was fitted with a helium escape valve, so that during long decompression phases in hyperbaric chambers the helium from gas mixtures could be released without affecting the watch’s waterproofness. The Sea-Dweller sums up the house’s method on its own — a real constraint, a patented solution, an object that carries the trace of both.
A century of precision, held in trust
That unbroken thread rests on a discipline. Every Rolex movement, already officially certified as a chronometer by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC), is tested a second time by the house after casing, following an exclusive protocol that simulates real wearing conditions. The precision of a Superlative Chronometer is of the order of −2/+2 seconds per day, a tolerance markedly stricter than the one applied to official certification of the movement alone. A hundred years after the Oyster, it is this requirement — quiet, methodical, passed on — that makes every Rolex an object of heritage as much as an object of desire.
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