When it comes to luxury watches, there truly is one king when it comes to quality, accuracy, durability and of course, its premium pricing, and that is the Geneva, Switzerland-based watchmaking company, ROLEX.
The champion of Swiss movement, the purveyor of accuracy/quality, the choice brand of the wealthy and the a watch that is known for innovation thanks to the drive of its original founder, Hans Wildorf.
But before ROLEX became known as a luxury watch, before it became known as a watch for precision, water resistance style, it was a watch that was the passion and love by its founder to create a watch that was built on quality and at that time, affordability. While ROLEX is now known for luxury and its family member, TUDOR is more on the affordability, the two brands are a testament of the vision of Hans Wildorf and the directors that came after who believed in product.
While founded in 1905, many have to know at the time that watches were pocket watches, those who wore watches on their wrist were not considered as masculine and the path to success was not at all easy.
And “The Watch Book: Rolex – Updated and Extended Edition” by Gisberg L. Brunner focuses on the achievements of Hans Wildorf and the company, as well as showcasing the milestone with each year made by the company.
To put it plainly, this is the definitive book on ROLEX and having owned many watch books, this is the best ROLEX book to own.
But it’s important to note, as it can be confusing, there are numerous versions of this book as it does get updated. As of February 2022, the latest version is December 2021 (aka The 2nd Revised Edition).
I highly recommend purchasing this on Amazon, because at least you know what version you are going to get. Otherwise, if you purchased used on an online auction, you don’t know if you are getting the December 2021, May 2021 or whichever year version because I’m not sure resellers know that there are various versions of this book that has been released, unless it belonged to an actual owner who knows how to list it, as such.
What I like about the book is that it covers the road to success of Hans Wildorf (from his partnership with Alfred James Davis and also how he got his family involved). But the road to success, includes painful and challenging situations along the way. While I’m sure there are information that is derived from Wilsdorf’s 1946 four-part autobiography “Rolex Jubilee Vade Mecum”, I liked the fact that Brunner is able to show his perspective.
For example, we know that the late Andre Heineger was a driving force for Rolex, but it would be a disservice to the Wilsdorf name into ROLEX history without showcasing how Hans Wilsdorf played a major role for the company with his drive, to push for precision, how his wife’s poor eyesight led to the magnifying lens on the date display, his drive to prove a watch could be water resistant courtesy of Mercedes Gleitze of swimming the English channel with the Rolex Oyster waterproof watch around her neck to prove how durable the ROLEX watch is.
I absolutely love the yearly breakdown of ROLEX’s accomplishments up to the year of 2020 (it’s not consecutive years, as you will see a jump from 1971 to 1977 and to 1992), but also showing how the tradition of achieving quality through significant tests of true accuracy, how ROLEX watches are put together by hand (this is the significance which I tend to use in my watch reviews when comparison between Swiss movement and why the price is higher, versus Japanese movement which utilizes technology and assembly lines to produce products at a lower price).
How the ROLEX is used in a variety of situations and also the relationship to automobiles and also a section on ROLEX auctions.
The book is multilingual, similar to other coffee books made by well-known companies in typically English, Deutsch and Francais broken up into three panels.
If anything, this is a book that is about the love of ROLEX, for those who want to know the history of ROLEX and for those who have been on the fence of whether or not to invest in a ROLEX watch.
From its velvet or suede-like green exterior (this is a hardcover book, but rarely do I see books with this type of surface, which is a good choice for a ROLEX book), to the amount of photos from ROLEX’s history from past and present, including personal photos from the Wilsdorf family, not only will I have this book on my coffee table but this is a book which I will truly treasure and have thoroughly enjoyed.
While it may seem as a pricey book for some people, compare to fashion, photography or architectural hardcover full-sized books and it’s similarly priced. I was able to obtain mine much cheaper through Amazon’s Buy 3 for the price of 2 Sale.
For those wondering if going for an older edition makes a difference, I don’t have the original book to compare, but considering its updated and extended, considering the older books are not far off in price compared to this newer version, I personally would go for the latest updated and extended version if possible. Although, it makes me wonder if Brunner will be doing updates each year or every few years, it remains to be seen.
With that being said, Gisbert L. Brunner has created a magnificent book that I will forever cherish and it was quite delightful to read from beginning to end. To put it simply, I love this book!
Gisbert L. Brunner’s “The Watch Book: Rolex – Updated and Extended Edition” deserves my five star recommendation!
