![]() ![]() With administrative worries attended to, Wilsdorf turned the company's attention to a marketing challenge: the infiltration of dust and moisture under the dial and crown, which damaged the movement. In 1920 the company's name was officially changed to Montres Rolex SA and later to Rolex SA In 1919, Hans Wilsdorf moved the company from England to Geneva, Switzerland, because of heavy post-war taxes levied on luxury imports and high export duties on the silver and gold used for the watch cases. ![]() In November 1915, the company changed its name to Rolex Watch Co. He also thought that the name "Rolex" was onomatopoeic, sounding like a watch being wound. Wilsdorf wanted the brand name to be easily pronounceable in any language, and short enough to fit on the face of a watch. He opened an office in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. In 1908, Wilsdorf registered the trademark "Rolex", which became the brand name of watches from Wilsdorf and Davis. ![]() The earliest watches from Wilsdorf and Davis were usually hallmarked "W&D" inside the caseback. These early wristwatches were sold to many jewellers, who then put their own names on the dial. Wilsdorf and Davis's main commercial activity at the time involved importing Hermann Aegler's Swiss movements to England and placing them in watch cases made by Dennison and others. Alfred Davis and his brother-in-law Hans Wilsdorf founded Wilsdorf and Davis, the company that would eventually become Rolex SA, in London in 1905.
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