This year marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Oyster by Rolex. The watch, the company behind it, and the institution Rolex would become all began with Hans Wilsdorf, who was not a watchmaker. He was a visionary who saw possibilities where others did not and who felt, in many ways, a sense of responsibility that others did not. That sense of responsibility may have been shaped by his own experience. Wilsdorf lost his parents at an early age and endured a difficult childhood. Those early hardships fostered resilience, self-reliance, and stewardship, values that would later become closely associated with the company he built. Let's look at the landscape of watchmaking 100 years ago, in 1926, when the founder of Rolex had just introduced his new creation, the Oyster. The world was entering an era in which accurate timekeeping was becoming increasingly personal rather than being reserved for..
