Three Challenges to Hurdle

Hans Wilsdorf revolutionised the world of watchmaking by overcoming three major challenges in order to turn wristwatches into genuine instruments for everyday use.

These three major challenges are precision, waterproofness and self-winding - hallmarks taken for granted in the modern day but unfathomable during wristwatchmaking infancy. The first was to produce small movements as precise as marine chronometers, the absolute references of the period. The second was to develop a robust and waterproof case to protect the movements from external factors such as dust, moisture, splashes and perspiration. And the third was to fit the watch with a self-winding system that would offer the wearer greater convenience.

The Challenge of Precision

Hans Wilsdorf had made precision his top priority. In 1910, a Rolex was the very first wristwatch to obtain a chronometer certificate - an official mark of precision.

Granted by an official watch rating centre in Switzerland, it showed for the first time that a wristwatch could be as precise as a pocket watch, the benchmark in those days.

In 1914, when the Kew Observatory in Great Britain the highest authority for chronometric precision at the time awarded a "Class A" precision certificate to a Rolex wristwatch, the watchmaking world received the news with astonishment. For the first time, Rolex had proved that a wristwatch could rival the most precise of timepieces.

The Challenge of Waterproofness

The next challenge was waterproofness. The precision and durability of a wristwatch would be seriously compromised if its case did not keep out water and dust. In 1926, Rolex scored another breakthrough, having conceived and patented the world's first waterproof case and named it the Oyster.