Face of Swiss innovation

LUXURY Swiss brand Rolex was actually founded in London in 1905, with operations moving to Geneva in 1919.

The company was ranked the world’s 64th most powerful luxury brand last year by Forbes magazine.

Its innovations include the first waterproof wristwatch in 1926, the first automatically changing date on the dial in 1945, displaying two time zones at once in 1954, and automatically changing the day and date in 1954.

Models have been created to handle extreme conditions in deep-sea diving, polar exploration, climbing and caving. The most expensive made was the GMT Ice, with a price of £366,000.

In May, an 18-carat Rolex from 1952, owned by Bao Dai, the last emperor of Vietnam, sold for a record £3.8million at auction in Geneva.