A living laboratory
Chapter II
Exceptional performance and reliability, tested in real-life conditions. Some of the most remarkable records and exploits of the 20th and 21st centuries. The reputation of the Oyster has been forged on the wrists of pioneers and trailblazers who have left their mark on the modern world.
At a time when the concept of a waterproof watch was barely conceivable, Hans Wilsdorf captured the imagination by demonstrating the capabilities of the Oyster in real-life conditions.
In October 1927, he equipped Mercedes Gleitze, a young Englishwoman, with an Oyster when she swam the English Channel. After more than 10 hours in the bitterly cold water, the watch emerged in perfect working order.
From the 1930s onwards, Rolex supported several pioneers pushing the limits of speed, testing the Oyster’s resistance to vibrations and sudden changes in temperature and pressure.
From land speed to supersonic and then hypersonic flight, culminating in the still-unbroken absolute record set by William J. Knight, Rolex equipped legendary pilots who pushed the limits of their discipline.
Rolex began to forge privileged ties with the world of aviation during its golden age in the 1930s.
An endeavour that would extend, from the 1960s onwards, far beyond the stratosphere. On their missions, certain astronauts chose to take their Rolex with them, an object of profound personal significance.
High-altitude conditions provide an excellent environment for assessing a watch’s reliability and durability.
The Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges thus proved to be exceptional open-air laboratories for Rolex.
The robustness and precision of Oyster watches make them instruments of choice for those who confront the power of the elements.
From the slopes of volcanoes to the vastness of the oceans, Rolex watches have accompanied scientists, explorers and adventurers in their achievements.
The Oyster has proven its incredible reliability in the course of numerous expeditions on the pack ice of the poles.
The many polar adventures of which the Oyster has been a part include the British Trans-Arctic Expedition in 1969; the various expeditions, since 1976, of navigator and explorer Janusz Kurbiel to Iceland, to Greenland or in search of the magnetic north pole; Robert Swan’s expeditions to Antarctica from 1985 onwards; Erling Kagge’s conquest of the North Pole in 1990, the South Pole in 1993 and Everest in 1994; and Alain Hubert’s Arctic Arc expedition, a journey from Siberia to Greenland via the North Pole in 2007.
From 1953 onwards, Rolex played a pioneering role in underwater exploration with the Submariner model, a divers’ wristwatch waterproof to a depth of 100 metres (330 feet), and later to 300 metres (1,000 feet).
In 1967, Rolex launched the Sea-Dweller, a divers’ watch guaranteed waterproof to 610 metres (2,000 feet), and to 1,220 metres (4,000 feet) in 1978. Equipped with an innovative helium escape valve, patented at the time, it was the ideal tool for saturation divers – the explorers and pioneers of the deep sea – training to work or to live for extended periods in hyperbaric chambers.
