There can be no watchmaker less in need of an introduction than Rolex. Founded in 1905, in London, by 24-year-old Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law Alfred Davis, the company was first known as Wilsdorf and Davis. They originally imported movements, housed them in British cases, and sold them to local jewelers. The pair quickly saw the potential for developing their own brand and in 1908, Rolex was born.

In 1931, Rolex developed and patented the perpetual rotor, a self-winding system with a free rotor for the wristwatch, the precursor of such contemporary mechanisms. Rolex was also the first to create a waterproof chronometer wristwatch to indicate the date in a window on the dial. The second innovation appeared on the Datejust, which was launched in 1945 and remains one of the most popular watches in the Oyster Perpetual collection to this day.

Now centred in Geneva, the company turns out more than 1,000,000 watches every year, with each one being assembled by hand and stringently tested before it leaves the factory. Rolex continues to enjoy success with record sales of USD8billion in 2021, giving them a staggering 29% share in the global market for luxury Swiss watches.