summarize key points of its contents . please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article . please discuss this issue on the article s talk page . may 2012 rolex sa type privately held company industry watch manufacturing founded london united kingdom 1905 1905 founder hans wilsdorf alfred davis headquarters geneva switzerland area served worldwide key people gian riccardo marini ceo 1 products air king cellini day date datejust datejust ii datejust 41 daytona explorer ii explorer gmt master gmt master ii lady datejust milgauss oyster perpetual pealmaster sea dweller sky dweller submariner yacht master yacht master ii production output 751 285 cosc movements 2011 2 services maintenance repair revenue us 4.7 billion 2016 owner wilsdorf foundation number of employees 2 800 3 subsidiaries montres tudor sa website www.rolex.com rolex sa is a swiss luxury watchmaker . the company and its subsidiary montres tudor sa design manufacture distribute and service wristwatches sold under the rolex and tudor brands . founded by hans wilsdorf and alfred davis in london england in 1905 as wilsdorf and davis rolex moved its base of operations to geneva switzerland in 1919 . forbes ranked rolex 64th on its 2016 list of the world s most powerful global brands . 1 rolex is the largest single luxury watch brand producing about 2 000 watches per day . 2 the company is owned by the hans wilsdorf foundation a family private trust which does not pay corporate tax . contents 1 history 2 innovations 2.1 automatic movements 2.2 quartz movements 2.3 water resistant cases 2.4 collections 2.5 certified chronometers 2.6 ceramic bezels 3 brands 4 rolex watch models 4.1 modern models 4.1.1 price 5 significant events 5.1 watches for pows and help in the great escape 5.2 murder investigation 6 counterfeits 7 hans wilsdorf foundation 8 gallery 9 see also 10 references 11 external links history edit alfred davis and his brother in law hans wilsdorf founded wilsdorf and davis the company that would eventually become rolex sa in london england in 1905 . 4 wilsdorf and davis main commercial activity at the time involved importing hermann aegler s swiss movements to england and placing them in high quality watch cases made by dennison and others . these early wristwatches were sold to jewellers who then put their own names on the dial . the earliest watches from wilsdorf and davis were usually hallmarked w & d inside the caseback . in 1908 wilsdorf registered the trademark rolex and opened an office in la chaux de fonds switzerland . 4 the company name rolex was registered on 15 november 1915 . the book the best of time rolex wristwatches an unauthorized history by jeffrey p. hess and james dowling says that the name was just made up . 5 one story never confirmed by wilsdorf recounts that the name came from the french phrase horlogerie exquise meaning exquisite clockwork 6 or as a contraction of horological excellence . wilsdorf was said by whom to want his watch brand s name to be easily pronounceable in any language . 7 he also thought that the name rolex was onomatopoeic sounding like a watch being wound . it is easily pronounceable in many languages and as all its upper case letters have the same size can be written symmetrically . it was also short enough to fit on the face of a watch . 7 in 1914 kew observatory awarded a rolex watch a class a precision certificate a distinction normally granted exclusively to marine chronometers . 7 in 1919 wilsdorf left england due to wartime taxes levied on luxury imports as well as to export duties on the silver and gold used for the watch cases driving costs too high 6 and moved the company to geneva switzerland where it was established as the rolex watch company . its name was later changed to montres rolex sa and finally rolex sa . 4 upon the death of his wife in 1944 wilsdorf established the hans wilsdorf foundation a private trust in which he left all of his rolex shares making sure that some of the company s income would go to charity . wilsdorf died in 1960 ; since then the trust has owned and run the company . 6 in december 2008 following the abrupt departure of chief executive patrick heiniger for personal reasons the company denied that it had lost 1 billion swiss francs approx 574 million 900 million invested with bernard madoff the american asset manager who pleaded guilty to an approximately 30 billion worldwide ponzi scheme fraud . 8 rolex sa announced heiniger s death on 5 march 2013 . as of 2010 update rolex watches continue to have a reputation as status symbols . 9 10 11 12 innovations edit among the company s innovations are the first waterproof wristwatch oyster 1926 the first wristwatch with an automatically changing date on the dial rolex datejust ref .4467 1945 7 the first wristwatch case waterproof to 100 m 330 ft rolex oyster perpetual submariner ref .6204 1953 13 the first wristwatch to show two time zones at once rolex gmt master ref .6542 1954 the first wristwatch with an automatically changing day and date on the dial rolex day date 1956 14 the first watchmaker to earn chronometer certification for a wristwatch 1910 6 automatic movements edit the first self winding rolex wristwatch was offered to the public in 1931 so called the bubbleback due to the large caseback preceded to the market by harwood which patented the design in 1923 and produced the first self winding watch in 1928 powered by an internal mechanism that used the movement of the wearer s arm . this not only made watch winding unnecessary but kept the power from the mainspring more consistent resulting in more reliable time keeping . quartz movements edit rolex participated in the development of the original quartz watch movements . although rolex has made very few quartz models for its oyster line the company s engineers were instrumental in design and implementation of the technology during the late 1960s and early 1970s . in 1968 rolex collaborated with a consortium of 16 swiss watch manufacturers to develop the beta 21 quartz movement used in their rolex quartz date 5100 . 15 alongside other manufactures including the omega electroquartz watches . within about five years of research design and development rolex created the clean slate 5035 5055 movement that would eventually power the rolex oysterquartz . 16 water resistant cases edit rolex was also the first watch company to create a water resistant wristwatch that could withstand pressure to a depth of 100 m 330 ft . 17 wilsdorf even had a specially made rolex watch the watch was called the deepsea attached to the side of trieste which went to the bottom of the mariana trench . the watch survived and tested as having kept perfect time during its descent and ascent . this was confirmed by a telegram sent to rolex the following day saying am happy to confirm that even at 11 000 metres your watch is as precise as on the surface . best regards jacques piccard . 6 rolex gmt master ii gold and stainless steel ref . 116713ln collections edit rolex produced specific models suitable for the extremes of deep sea diving caving mountain climbing polar exploration and aviation . early sports models included the rolex submariner 1953 and the rolex oyster perpetual date sea dweller . the latter watch has a helium release valve co invented with swiss watchmaker doxa to release helium gas build up during decompression . the explorer 1953 and explorer ii 1971 were developed specifically for explorers who would navigate rough terrain such as the world famous mount everest expeditions . another iconic model is the rolex gmt master 1954 originally developed at the request of pan am airways to provide its crews with a dual time watch that could be used to display gmt greenwich mean time which was the international time standard for aviation at that time and was needed for astronavigation during longer flights . 6 certified chronometers edit rolex is the largest manufacturer of swiss made certified chronometers . in 2005 more than half the annual production of cosc certified watches were rolexes . 18 to date rolex still holds the record for the most certified chronometer movements in the category of wristwatches . 6 ceramic bezels edit the company is now when starting to introduce ceramic bezels across the range of professional sports watches . they are available on the submariner sea dweller deepsea gmt master ii and daytona models . the ceramic bezel is not influenced by uv light and is very scratch resistant . brands edit wristwatch tudor prince date day ref . 76200 rolex sa offers products under the rolex and tudor brands . montres tudor sa has designed manufactured and marketed tudor watches since 6 march 1946 . rolex founder hans wildorf conceived of the tudor watch company to create a product for authorized rolex dealers to sell that offered the reliability and dependability of a rolex but at a lower price . 19 historically tudor watches have been manufactured by montres tudor sa using movements supplied by eta sa . since 2015 however tudor has begun to manufacture watches with in house movements . the first model introduced with a in house movement was the tudor north flag . 20 following this updated versions of the tudor pelagos and tudor heritage black bay have also been fitted with an in house caliber . 21 22 tudor watches are marketed and sold in most countries around the world including the united states australia canada india mexico south africa many countries in europe south asia the middle east and countries in south america particularly brazil argentina and venezuela . montres tudor sa discontinued sales of tudor branded watches in the united states in 2004 23 but tudor returned to the united states market in the summer of 2013 and to the uk in 2014 . 24 rolex watch models edit rolex daytona stainless steel ref . 116520 rolex sea dweller deepsea with 3 900 m depth rating ref . 116660 rolex yacht master rolex daytona chronograph stainless steel white dial ref . 6263 rolex has three watch lines oyster perpetual professional and cellini the cellini line is rolex s line of dress watches . the primary bracelets for the oyster line are named jubilee oyster . and president . modern models edit the name of the watch lines in catalogs is often rolex oyster perpetual or rolex ; rolex oyster and oyster perpetual are generic names and not specific product lines except for the 36 mm oyster perpetual model . the air king is the least expensive oyster perpetual watch . the date is related to the air king but adds a date display . certain models from the date and datejust are almost identical however the datejust has a 36 mm case and a 20 mm bracelet compared to the date s 34 mm case and 19 mm bracelet . modern versions of the oyster perpetual date and datejust models share rolex s 3135 movement with the most recent change to the 3135 movement being the introduction of rolex s parachrom bleu hairspring which provides increased accuracy . as the date and datejust share a movement both have the ability to adjust the date forward one day at a time without adjusting the time ; this feature is not confined to the datejust . the datejust is available in a wider range of metals and has a greater range of dials available . notable models include datejust daytona day date gmt master ii milgauss oysterquartz sea dweller submariner yacht master yacht master ii price edit in the uk the retail price for the stainless steel pilots range such as the gmt master ii