padi65
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The Rolex Watch Company the Humble BeginningDuring the Rolex early period many different types of watches were made, and Rolex did not have complete control over their movement factory, they were only a minority shareholder. The full name of the company tells the story "Aegler, Société Anonyme, Fabrique des Montres Rolex & Gruen Guild A.," this means, in translation, Aegler incorporated, manufacturer of Rolex & Gruen Guild A Watches. At this time ownership of the factory was split between three parties, Herman Aegler (movements), (Hans Wilsdorf of Rolex) and the Gruen brothers, Frederick Gruen and George Gruen.Now Aegler manufactured movements for both companies, who then sold the completed watches in their respective territories; Wilsdorf of Rolex, throughout Europe, Asia and the British Empire; whilst the Gruen brothers sold in the US only. This arrangement worked well until Rolex acquired the patent for the the Oyster case; now they had something new and special which they wished to sell all over the world, not just in their limited territory. However the three way partnership prohibited Rolex from selling their products with Aegler movement in the Gruen brothers' territory (and vice-versa). So Hans of Rolex being a very clever and shrewd man, took a sideways move and fitted their new Oyster cases with a movement from FHF (Fontmelon)factory just down the road from Gruen and then tried to find a US distributor. They came across the firm of Abercrombie and Fitch,this was then a store specialising in sportsman's' equipment; whether you wanted to go elephant shooting in Africa, fishing for salmon or trout in Scotland, Abercrombie and Fitch was the place you went for all your equipment. Everything from fishing rods to double barrelled shotguns could be found under their roof. As the sportsman's store they seemed the ideal place to sell the first oyster watches, which were already building a reputation as the sportsman's watch. It may have seemed the ideal place but it did not work out that way, firstly because Rolex sold the cheaper down-market version of their watches in a high end store, and also because Abercrombie & Fitch did not advertise the watch sufficiently. These Abercrombie & Fitch watches are probably the rarest of all the cushion oysters, in all my life I have only ever seen one; it was signed "Abercrombie and Fitch (Seafarer) on the dial and the case and movement were signed Oyster Watch Company.The case was quite badly pitted because then they were made from a base metal, a chromed zinc material that did not last very long,a bit like the relationship between Rolex and Abercrombie & Fitch.Now they went on to become the USA distributor for The Swiss Heuer watches, probably more of a sportsman's watch to speak of, being mainly chronograph watches.
After a couple of years in the wilderness Rolex decided to give the US market another try. This was after they had been approached by Zell Brothers, a jewellery store chain in the Pacific North West of the USA, headquartered in Seattle. Zell had seen the great success of Rolex in Canada, and in Vancouver in particular (Seattle and Vancouver are only about 150km apart). They asked to be made the exclusive importer for Rolex in the Pacific North West, and Rolex eager to get a US foot hold accepted their proposal. The strange thing is that, despite the Canadian success either Zell or Rolex decided not to use the famed "Oyster" name but substituted the name Turtle Timer, (IMHO undoubtedly Zell) Once again these were non-Aegler (non-Rolex) movements, so as not to disturb the three way relationship with Gruen. Zell were much more successful than Abercrombie/Fitch had been, but can hardly be described as having made a major market breakthrough. I have seen around 5 or 6 pictures of these watches and because they were made when Rolex was using real stainless steel the cases looked to have lasted much better than the A&F ones ever did. But Zells had two major problems as far as Rolex were concerned; firstly they were a regional not national chain and their insistence on using their own Turtle Timer name and not Oyster meant that Rolex would never reap the benefit of any of the new oyster case success.
Zell Rolex Turtle Timer.
Now most of these problems were solved when Rolex gained the right to enter the US market themselves when the Gruen brothers left the board of Aegler in mid 30s selling their shares to the two remaining parties; their place on the board of the company was taken by Emil Borer who really invented the oyster case,and who was Herman Aegler's brother in law, the technical director of Rolex.And much more significantly the man who supposedly invented the Perpetual movement for the company but the fact is he only improved a aquired patent.Now this new movement was the first one from Aegler (Rolex), that was not made available to Gruen, and so gave Rolex a unique advantage when they were able to take advantage of their new found ability to enter the US market; which they did just as the US entered WW11, around 1942.And today although the Aegler movement factory is now part of the Rolex company, its still run by a member of the Aegler family today
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Xenophon
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Wow, brilliant information Padi. I thought I'd heard or read everything about Rolex but you've pointed out some real gems there
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unclesallie
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Amazing information! Thanks, never thought I'd wake up this morning and learn something brand new (and highly detailed) about Rolex history!
Wonderful!  
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macstiltskin
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Again excellent info Padi, and interesting to "old hands" and newbies like myself also. (no pun intended)
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padi65
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| unclesallie wrote: | Amazing information! Thanks, never thought I'd wake up this morning and learn something brand new (and highly detailed) about Rolex history!
Wonderful! |
How very true we all learn something new most days,but the real Rolex history is sometimes difficult to uncover.
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Tools
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It's always good to have Rolex information available...
The original Rolex Prince watches shared the identical movement to the very popular Gruen watches of the day...............
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padi65
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| Tools wrote: | It's always good to have Rolex information available...
The original Rolex Prince watches shared the identical movement to the very popular Gruen watches of the day............... |
The full name of the company tells the story "Aegler, Société Anonyme, Fabrique des Montres Rolex & Gruen Guild A.," this means, in translation, Aegler incorporated, manufacturer of Rolex & Gruen Guild A Watches. At this time ownership of the factory was split between three parties, Herman Aegler (movements), (Hans Wilsdorf of Rolex) and the Gruen brothers, Frederick Gruen and George Gruen.Now Aegler manufactured movements for both companies,the ones in the Rolex Prince were marked Aegler RWC or Rolex.Just to keep the agreement old Hans had with the Gruen brothers at that time.
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GJ
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Very nice info....
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Tools
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The original Gruen Watch Company building is part of the Rolex complex. Very cool to some of us old Gruen fans.......
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SLS
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Great info, thanks for posting that! Odd they chose "Turtle Timer" as a name of a watch.
Scott
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East Bay Rider
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Great info. Thanks. That was all new to me.
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padi65
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| SLS wrote: | Great info, thanks for posting that! Odd they chose "Turtle Timer" as a name of a watch.
Scott |
Agree Scott information is very sketchy about Rolex early years but IMHO it was Zell brothers who choose the name Turtle timer.But Rolex was desperate to get the the USA market so went along with Zell. Perhaps if the Gruen brothers did not sell out to Rolex we might have been all wearing Turtle Timers. 
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SLS
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| padi65 wrote: | | SLS wrote: | Great info, thanks for posting that! Odd they chose "Turtle Timer" as a name of a watch.
Scott |
Agree Scott information is very sketchy about Rolex early years but IMHO it was Zell brothers who choose the name Turtle timer.But Rolex was desperate to get the the USA market so went along with Zell. Perhaps if the Gruen brothers did not sell out to Rolex we might have been all wearing Turtle Timers. |
My first thought was that the watch would always be slow! 
Scott
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padi65
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| SLS wrote: | | padi65 wrote: | | SLS wrote: | Great info, thanks for posting that! Odd they chose "Turtle Timer" as a name of a watch.
Scott |
Agree Scott information is very sketchy about Rolex early years but IMHO it was Zell brothers who choose the name Turtle timer.But Rolex was desperate to get the the USA market so went along with Zell. Perhaps if the Gruen brothers did not sell out to Rolex we might have been all wearing Turtle Timers. |
My first thought was that the watch would always be slow!
Scott |
LMAO.
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Tools
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| padi65 wrote: | | SLS wrote: | | padi65 wrote: | | SLS wrote: | Great info, thanks for posting that! Odd they chose "Turtle Timer" as a name of a watch.
Scott |
Agree Scott information is very sketchy about Rolex early years but IMHO it was Zell brothers who choose the name Turtle timer.But Rolex was desperate to get the the USA market so went along with Zell. Perhaps if the Gruen brothers did not sell out to Rolex we might have been all wearing Turtle Timers. |
My first thought was that the watch would always be slow!
Scott |
LMAO. |
In today's marketing world, whoever thought that one up for a watch would be collecting his pay at the unemployment window..............
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padi65
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| Tools wrote: | | padi65 wrote: | | SLS wrote: | | padi65 wrote: | | SLS wrote: | Great info, thanks for posting that! Odd they chose "Turtle Timer" as a name of a watch.
Scott |
Agree Scott information is very sketchy about Rolex early years but IMHO it was Zell brothers who choose the name Turtle timer.But Rolex was desperate to get the the USA market so went along with Zell. Perhaps if the Gruen brothers did not sell out to Rolex we might have been all wearing Turtle Timers. |
My first thought was that the watch would always be slow!
Scott |
LMAO. |
In today's marketing world, whoever thought that one up for a watch would be collecting his pay at the unemployment window.............. |
Would agree Larry to a point but the point Zell was trying to make was the waterproofness of the watch.And Turtles can move quite fast if they want to underwater between 25-35 MPH.
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padi65
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| padi65 wrote: | | Tools wrote: | | padi65 wrote: | | SLS wrote: | | padi65 wrote: | | SLS wrote: | Great info, thanks for posting that! Odd they chose "Turtle Timer" as a name of a watch.
Scott |
Agree Scott information is very sketchy about Rolex early years but IMHO it was Zell brothers who choose the name Turtle timer.But Rolex was desperate to get the the USA market so went along with Zell. Perhaps if the Gruen brothers did not sell out to Rolex we might have been all wearing Turtle Timers. |
My first thought was that the watch would always be slow!
Scott |
LMAO. |
In today's marketing world, whoever thought that one up for a watch would be collecting his pay at the unemployment window.............. |
Would agree Larry to a point but the point Zell was trying to make was the waterproofness of the watch.And Turtles can move quite fast if they want to underwater between 25-35 MPH. |
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Lion
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Thanx for the great information about the earlier history of Rolex. Always interested in learning more!!!
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