Saving Earth
Rolex’s passion for exploration informs many of its innovations. Take the Oyster, the world’s first waterproof wristwatch, for instance. To test its integrity, it accompanied Mercedes Gleitze in 1927 when she swam across the English Channel—a journey that took 10 hours.
The credit belonged to Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf who saw the world as a living laboratory for his watches, sending them out to the most extreme environments with intrepid explorers. This spirit of exploration continues today, but it has gone from discovering remote
