The life of Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf from Kulmbach W&D - Wilsdorf & Davis

Ferdinand Porsche, Steve Jobs , Bill Gates , Jeff Bezos . One name missing from this list of visionary entrepreneurs: Hans Wilsdorf. At least, that's according to Christian Rupprecht. The author considers him a visionary entrepreneur whose principles are still applied today in companies like Red Bull.

Wilsdorf founded his company Wilsdorf & Davies in 1905, which he later renamed Rolex (a made-up word presumably derived from Rolling Export), transferred to a foundation in 1960, and which is now probably one of the best-known brands worldwide.

The fact that people wear watches on their wrists today is due to Wilsdorf's work, who built and made watches socially acceptable to such an extent that today almost no one uses the once common pocket watch anymore.

Rupprecht almost never got closer to Hans Wilsdorf himself. "I had traveled to Kulmbach for a visit and saw an information sign there. If I had been asked the €64,000 question on 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' about who Hans Wilsdorf was, I wouldn't have known the answer."

Rupprecht, a theologian with a doctorate and an author, became curious and initially found: "Virtually nothing." It seemed that Hans Wilsdorf as a person had never risen above the rank of a footnote in economic history.

The person, the story, and the fact that this person has so little public presence spurred Rupprecht on. "I thought to myself, this has to be told."

Rupprecht chose the form of a novel rather than a non-fiction book. This was also because far too much precise information would have been impossible to obtain for a biography.

Rolex has no interest in a biography

And perhaps some parties have no interest in the person becoming known. Rolex did not support the research on Wilsdorf.

After Rupprecht has worked his way through sources and compiled information, it fits the picture for Rupprecht, is consistent and also part of the secret of why Rolex is so successful as a brand in his opinion: "Hans Wilsdorf never wanted to be in the foreground, it was always only supposed to be about the watch."

Only one filmed interview exists, which Wilsdorf gave in 1959, a year before his death. It is in French.

This is not surprising; Wilsdorf was a foreign language correspondent at the beginning of his career after attending a boarding school in Coburg. The orphan had been placed there by relatives. "He wasn't a watchmaker," says Rupprecht, who traces Wilsdorf's journey in his novel from Kulmbach via the French-speaking La Chaux-de-Fonds and London to Geneva.

Rupprecht makes no claim to historically capture every detail of Wilsdorf's life. Rather, his aim is to bring to light the man, who preferred to remain in the background.

In his view, these achievements couldn't receive enough attention. Early on, Wilsdorf began making his watches available for extraordinary expeditions. The oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau owned a Rolex. The Rolex Deep Sea Special model was also attached to a submarine during its 1960 expedition to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

A pedant who sought precision

After Wilsdorf's death, Rolex successfully used this method to outfit Sean Connery as James Bond, thereby making the Submariner model famous. "Wilsdorf laid the foundation for this type of influencer marketing," says Rupprecht.

According to luxury department store Fenwick, few brands can rival Rolex in pop culture. In a 2023 study, Fenwick recorded 1,318 mentions of the brand.

For Rupprecht, this is the logical goal of Wilsdorf's strategy: "to put a watch on the wrist of every adventurer who wasn't quick enough to get up a tree." When the British woman Mercedes When Gleitze became the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1927, she wore a waterproof Rolex Oyster. Wilsdorf placed an advertisement.

Rupprecht approached the person through research. He wouldn't have preferred to work with him. "He was a stickler," says Rupprecht, "all complaints about the watches had to go through his desk." But he was someone who treated his employees very well and, as a manager, gave the watchmakers maximum freedom, as long as they delivered what was important to him: precision.

Shortly after the death of his first wife, the childless Wilsdorf founded a foundation that still owns the Rolex company and dictates what Rolex should do. Little is known about the statutes of the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation. It is not directly accessible to the public. Only some of the foundation's goals are known. "Everything should take a back seat," says Rupprecht.

"Kindness was his life"

Despite his initial research, Wilsdorf had grown on him as a person. This was also true in light of what Rupprecht had uncovered regarding Wilsdorf's role during the Third Reich. "The same stories keep resurfacing, which, according to my findings, are simply untrue."

In the novel, Rupprecht has the character Wilsdorf explain this chapter in a dialogue. "From everything I could find, he always severed all ties as soon as any connection came close to the Nazis," says Rupprecht.

The novel ends with the death of Hans Wilsdorf on July 6, 1960. He was buried in the family grave in Geneva. A comparatively simple cross bearing the dates of Wilsdorf and his two wives, May Wilsdorf-Crotty and Betty Wilsdorf-Mettler. No mention of Rolex, no reference to his achievements as an entrepreneur. Only, in Wilsdorf's own learned language, "La Bonte Fut Sa Vie" – "Kindness was his life."

Rupprecht sees the foundation for everything that made Rolex one of the world's most famous companies and most successful luxury watch brands after Wilsdorf's death in Wilsdorf's life and work. "My point is to tell his life story. And I found it to be very consistent and very structured right up to the last day."

Interview with Hans Wilsdorf:

Rolex History – The man behind the crown: Hans Wilsdorf

Source: Thorsten Firlus / Handelsblatt / YouTube