A Century On, the Rolex Oyster Still Remains the Standard

There is a story told about Hans Wilsdorf, the Swiss-born founder of Rolex, that speaks volumes about his ambitions. When he contemplated the wristwatch at the dawn of the 20th century, he didn’t notice a delicate accessory tied around a woman’s wrist. He saw the future of timekeeping that was compact, precise, and utterly unstoppable. The only question was how to make it so.

The answer came in 1926 in the form of a revolutionary case sealed so tightly that water, dust, and dirt simply couldn't get in. Rolex called it the Oyster, a name that conjured exactly the right image: Impenetrable and protective, yet containing something precious within. It was the world's first truly waterproof wristwatch with a system of screwing down the bezel, case back, and winding crown against the middle case. It was, in the parlance of the time, a sensation.

Wilsdorf believed profoundly in what he called "proof by trial" — the idea that true excellence could only be demonstrated through real-world performance, not laboratory claims. In 1927, he put his conviction to the ultimate test. British swimmer Mercedes Gleitze wore an Oyster as she crossed the English Channel. The watch emerged from the ordeal in perfect working order, and the headlines that followed announced the Oyster's arrival to a watchmaking world that would never truly return to what it once was. 

Five years later, in 1931, Rolex deepened the Oyster's genius further by introducing the Perpetual rotor — a self-winding mechanism that meant the watch could run indefinitely without ever needing to be hand-wound. Precise, waterproof, and now autonomous: The Oyster had become a companion for life. 

From that original concept grew a remarkable family of timepieces. The Submariner, the GMT-Master, the Explorer, the Milgauss, the Cosmograph Daytona, the Yacht-Master. Each was refined to meet a specific demand: Resistance to magnetic fields, graduated rotating bezels, dual time zones, the chronograph function, etc. Together, they form one of the most recognisable dynasties in the history of design, worn by explorers at the summit of Everest and the bottom of the ocean, by scientists in the field, and champions on the court. 

To mark this extraordinary centenary, Rolex has chosen the Oyster Perpetual — the most elemental expression of its DNA — as the vehicle for celebration. The anniversary Oyster Perpetual 41 comes in a yellow Rolesor configuration: A bezel and winding crown in yellow gold, paired with a case and bracelet in Oystersteel, a nod to the gold-accented cases of some of the earliest Oysters ever made. On its slate dial, the word ‘Rolex’ and the delicate squares encircling the minute track are rendered in the brand's signature shade of green. Where ‘Swiss Made’ once appeared at six o'clock, the dial now reads simply: ‘100 years’. The winding crown, too, bears the number stamped discreetly into its form. It is Rolex at its most restrained and its most eloquent.

The anniversary watch introduces an upgraded Superlative Chronometer certification. For 2026, Rolex has added three new standards to the process: Magnetic resistance, reliability, and an overarching sustainability requirement, applied during the design and manufacturing stages of every timepiece. These supplement the precision, waterproofness, self-winding, and power reserve criteria established in 2015. Independently verified by Swiss organisations and symbolised by the brand's iconic green seal, the certification represents Rolex's most rigorous commitment to excellence yet. 

A hundred years ago, Wilsdorf looked at his creation and believed the future — and the world — lay wide open before it. As history proved, he was right. He often was.