Rolex was founded by Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law Alfred Davis in England. They established the brand in 1905 as Wilsdorf and Davis. Wilsdorf and Davis originally started off importing Hermann Aegler's Swiss movements, placing them in quality cases and then selling them to jewellers who would then put their own names on the watches. The Rolex brand was only established in 1915.

Wilsdorf wanted a name for his wristwatches that was easily pronounced in any language and thus made up the name 'Rolex'. Wilsdorf left England in 1919 as wartime taxes on luxury imports as well as export duties on silver and gold became exorbitant and it was no longer attainable to manufacture the watches there. The company was moved to Geneva, Switzerland where it was established as the Rolex Watch Company, since then, it's name has been changed to Montres Rolex, SA and Rolex, SA.

Among the company's innovations are:

Day-Date
The first wristwatch with an automatically changing day and date on the dial

Oyster
The first waterproof wristwatch

Oyster Perpetual Submariner
The first wristwatch case waterproof to 100m

Datejust
The first wristwatch with an automatically changing date on the dial

GMT Master
The first wristwatch to show two time zones at once