The History and Evolution of the Wristwatch 3

Wristwatches were no longer considered a novelty but were now a wartime necessity, and companies were scrambling to keep up with the demand. One company that enjoyed success during this time was Wilsdorf & Davis, Ltd., founded in 1905, and later renamed The Rolex Watch Company, Ltd., in 1915.

Hans Wilsdorf, the founder and director of Rolex, was a strong proponent of wristwatches since the turn of the century. While others scoffed at them, Wilsdorf continued to experiment with their accuracy and reliability. Thus, some would argue that he did more for their advancement than anyone in history. In fact, he is even credited with sending the first wristwatches to the Neuchatel Observatory (Switzerland), for accuracy testing. They all passed the rigorous battery of tests, which encouraged Wilsdorf to push them even further.

Rolex subsequently received the very first wristwatch Chronometer awards from the School of Horology in Bienne (1910), and the Class “A” Certificate of Precision from the Kew Observatory in England (1914). To this day, Rolex watches consistently receive more Chronometer Certificates from the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres (COSC), than every other watch company in the world, combined.

After the Great War, many soldiers returned home with souvenir trench watches—so named for the trench warfare in which they were used. When these war heroes were seen wearing them, the public’s perception quickly changed, and wristwatches were no longer deemed as feminine. After all, no one would dare consider these brave men as being anything but.

In the final years of the war, wristwatches began to see numerous improvements. Case makers like Francis Baumgartner, Borgel and Dennison introduced revolutionary designs, which aided in making them more resistant to water and dust. These designs were later improved on when Rolex introduced the first truly waterproof wristwatch, the Oyster, in 1926.

Also around this time, new models were first introduced with fixed lugs (often called “horns”), which gave them a more finished appearance. And to aid in their durability, new metal dials superceded porcelain, which had been quite susceptible to cracking and chipping and the fragile glass crystals were replaced with a newly invented synthetic plastic.

Over the next decade, watch companies slowly added additional models to their catalogs, and finally, by the mid-1930s, they accounted for 65 percent of all watches exported by Switzerland. It was an uphill battle, but the wristwatch had finally arrived. They were now accurate, waterproof and, by 1931, perpetually self-winding, when Rolex introduced the Auto Rotor, a revolutionary design, which is used to this day by watch companies around the world.

The success of the wristwatch was born out of necessity, and Rolex continued this tradition by introducing a series of Professional, or “tool watches” in the early 1950s. These models, including the Submariner, Explorer, GMT-Master, Turn-O-Graph, and Milgauss were also designed out of necessity, as they included features and attributes that were essential for a specific task or profession.

Because of its rugged design, variations of the Submariner have subsequently been issued to numerous militaries, including the British Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy and British Royal Marines, as well as the U.S. Navy Seals. Over the years, dozens of companies like Omega, Benrus and Panerai have also supplied specialty watch models for military duty.

Thus, the role of the wristwatch seems to have come full circle. With the general public now leaning toward high-tech, digital gadgets, the classic mechanical wristwatch has once again found its home on the wrists of those brave soldiers who welcomed it some 100 years ago.

Thank you Data from
John E. Brozek
© InfoQuest Publishing, Inc., 2004
International Watch Magazine, January 2004