ROLEX From 1908 Hans Wilsdorf, (Bavaria 1881 - Geneva 1960), settled in 1900 in La Chaux de Fonds, Swiss Canton of Neuchatel, working at Cuno Kourten, a manufacture of watches of all kinds and all qualifies. In direct contact with the Swiss and foreign watch world he gained a wide commercial and technical knowledge of the trade. In 1903 he moved to London and in 1905 started his own business with his sister and brother-in-law, establishing the firm " Wilsdorf and Davis", manufacture of watch cases and distribution company of wristwatches. By 1908 the company produced watches with English cases by those makers who had for generations furnished the best watch-makers in England. On 2nd July 1908, Hans Wilsdorf introduced the trade-mark "Rolex" which was registered with number 24001, located at the company's technical office of La Chaux de Fonds. That office then moved to Bienne where in 1910 Rolex obtained the first "Bulletin de marche" ever awarded to a wristwatch from the Observatory of Bienne and, in 1914, obtained the first "A" Class Certificate for a wristwatch from the Kew Observatory. In 1919, Hans Wilsdorf, now a British citizen, moved to Geneva establishing the Rolex Head Office " Manufacture des Montres Rolex". As of 1925, the trade-mark Rolex really became popular and the manufacture was fully established at worldwide level, inventing and patenting in 1926 the "Oyster", the first truly waterproof watch-case in the world. Thereafter the main models were: the first "Prince" (1929), the first "Rolex Oyster Perpetual" (1931), with the world record award for precision wristwatches (1936) was marketed the first "Rolex Precision" with hooded lugs and the Rolex Oyster "Centregraph"(1937). From 1939, Rolex introduced the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Chronometer , the first chronographs including the square chronograph and the split-second chronograph. In 1944, Hans Wilsdorf created an institution, the "Hans Wilsdorf Foundation", to manage the various companies associated with Rolex. Production continued with the Date Just (1945), the Precision Chronograph "Gabus" (1949), the first Rolex Oyster Perpetual Chronometer with moon phases and date plus the Turn-o-Graph (1950), the Submariner, the first automatic waterproof wristwatch, (1953), the first lady Rolex Oyster Perpetual Chronometer and the GMT-Master model (1954) and the Day-Date model (1956). In 1960 Hans Wilsdorf died and was succeeded in 1963 by his protégé, André J. Heiniger, (b. 1921, La Chaux de Fonds), who continued to manage the firm in the same spirit as his predecessor, while introducing a modem conception of marketing , reorganising the company's after-sale service as well as the sale and retail centres, making the company still stronger and efficient through its management and distribution, establishing Rolex as the largest and most successful company for luxury watches. From 1961 Rolex produced the first series of the Oyster Cosmograph, the Sea-Dweller (1971), the Daytona (1976), the Rolex Oyster Quartz (1978), the GMT-Master II (1983), the new Daytona series (1988), and in 1990 Rolex celebrated the 10 million chronometers produced until then. The firm today is led by Patrick Heiniger, son of André J. Heiniger.