You may have noticed the words Oyster Perpetual written on the face of almost all Rolex watches. If, like me, you’ve wondered what shellfish have to do with luxury timepieces, let me tell you the story.
The year is 1925, it’s a typical wet and stormy day in London, you look around and notice nobody’s wearing a watch. “Why?” You ask. It’s because Rolex hadn’t invented waterproof watches yet.
In 1926, after years of research and 21 years after the founding of Wilsdorf and Davies, Rolex released the Oyster, the worlds first water and dust proof watch, marking the beginning of a long line of world firsts from the watchmaker. The oyster case was revolutionary for its time, the movement was protected inside a shell inside a shell. One noteworthy feature of the Oyster was that it had a bezel resembling a modern day fluted bezel, only originally it wasn’t for aesthetic reasons. It was in place to allow a machine to grab the ledges and screw the front down onto the watch tighter than was previously possible. Today, the fluted bezel used by Rolex is an aesthetic homage to its history, and the term Oyster Perpetual defines a self winding waterpoof watch. Seen on the faces of all modern day Rolexes with the exception of the Cellini & 1908 lines.
To celebrate the launch of the model and to bring it to the public eye, Rolex made headlines. Wilsdorf gifted the young swimmer Mercedes Gleitze with a Rolex Oyster for a crossing of the English Channel. The crossing took 15 hours, after which Wilsdorf inspected the watch before holding it in the air and proclaiming ‘Look! It works!’ Gleitze became the first Rolex brand ambassador, as not only was this a world first for watchmaking, it was the first time a British woman swam the English Channel. In celebration, Rolex printed a full page advert in the daily mail, in which they announced they had revolutionised watchmaking by producing a timepiece capable of defying the elements. In one of the most impressive feats of physicality ever performed.
