Saturday, December 15, 2018

In Search Of Hans Wilsdorf...



In Search Of 


Hans Wilsdorf


What an amazing week it has been in the world of Rolex. Seeing Rolex's founding father, Hans Wilsdorf almost come back to life on Rolex.org is so heartwarming and interesting! As a leading Rolex historian I have been in pursuit of unearthing and sharing Hans Wilsdorf's story for over a decade. Why? Because Hans Wilsdorf is one of the most successful and interesting entrepreneurs in the history of the world.

Hans Wilsdorf, Founder of Rolex in 1952


When I started Jake's Rolex World 11 years ago, there was almost zero information available anywhere on Hans Wilsdorf—and this frustrated me to no end. More than anything, it make me dig that much faster and deeper, and the result of all my research can be seen in my story titled, "The Complete History Of Rolex Leadership. Part 1: Founder Of Rolex—The Hans Wilsdorf Story, "Ghost In The Machine.

Now Rolex seems to be more committed than ever to documenting his amazing story, and I hope they continue to share more details on what made him tick! In the coming years I hope to put even more puzzle pieces in place to complete my biography of Hans Wilsdorf!!! The single most inspirational detail about this endeavor is that I have only been able to put together so much detail based upon so many of my incredible international readers who constantly send in Hans Wilsdorf puzzle pieces.

As a matter of fact, the photo above just seemed to magically appear in my inbox minutes ago, and it came from a dedicated reader of mine named Alan who lives in Hong Kong, and is an AMAZING researcher!!! I have never seen the photo above of Hans Wilsdorf before today, and I am certain there is much more rich Wilsdorf content out there, and together we will find it and share it with the world!!!





LIEDL Jewelers

Linz, Austria

Founded in 1830



The source of this amazing Hans Wilsdorf photo is from the leading Rolex Authorized Dealer in Austria named LIEDL, which has been around since 1830. From what I understand, like with many of the Rolex authorized dealers in existence today, Hans Wilsdorf personally granted LIEDL their Rolex dealership, which made them the very first Rolex Authorized Dealer in Austria. LIEDL is the oldest jeweler in Linz and has was founded in 1830. As a matter of fact, Claudio Fallerini who was the chief architect of Rolex first took a look at the old LIEDL shop on Landstrasse, he said, "This can be really nice!"



LIEDL is pictured above in a recent photo and is located on Linzer Landstrasse. LIEDL has been offering high-quality mechanical watches for 188 years! Maximillian Carmann is the master watchmaker at LIEDL and has been a watchmaker for a quarter century. Maximillian is the only qualified master watchmaker in Upper Austria with all Rolex special training.




As an added bonus to this story I am including the only known video footage of Hans Wilsdorf which was filmed in 1959—one year before he passed away. Hans Wilsdorf speaks French in this interview and even if you don't speak French you get a good idea of his personality.