Rolex Crown History
The famous Rolex Crown Logo, also known as the Rolex Coronet is one of the coolest and most recognizable iconic logos in the world. Ever wonder where it came from and what it stands for?
Put very simply, the Rolex crown is highly regal while remaining equally simple, elegant, and timeless. Rolex's founder, Hans Wilsdorf, was an aesthete of the highest order, who was also absolutely fascinated with Royalty, and all things elegant. Despite the fact he experimented like crazy with many different brand names, the one that completely defied and transcended obsolescence was the "ROLEX" name mark and brand.
There has long been considerable controversy and conflicting information surrounding precisely when the Rolex Coronet, or crown logo, was first introduced and registered. For years, various sources have claimed that Rolex began using the iconic emblem as early as 1925, while others have suggested 1931. However, the available historical evidence does not substantiate either of these claims. So let's do what Jake's Rolex World is famous for. Let's separate the fact from the fiction surrounding this enigmatic piece of Rolex history...
The earliest known examples of Rolex watches with Crowns appear in the historical record in 1931 as we see pictured below with the rare Art Deco Rolex Prince tiger stripe model.
Below we see a close up of the ROLEX "SAR" 7-Point Crown logo. This appears to be the earliest documented Rolex Coronet/Crown logo known to scholarship.
If we look closely at the caseback inner engraving pictured below, we see a 7-point crown logo that says "SAR" underneath it. The strange thing is that scholarship has never figured out was SAR is the acronym for. Also, the later Rolex Crown logo we are all familiar with featured a 5-point star, and not a 7-point star.
If we zoom in on the caseback we get a better look at the engraving seen above.
I created the enhanced depiction below to show what the SAR 7-Point crown and RM Parachute engravings looked like.
There is no record of brands other that Rolex that featured the SAR 7-Point Crown logo, and it always seems to be accompanied by the RM Parachute logo, which stood for Robert Meylan, who owned a case manufacturing company in Switzerland.
Leading horological historian, David Boettcher points out despite the fact "The first Rolex Oyster Cases were made by C.R. Spillmann & Co, before the company Robert Meylan was founded. However, many Oyster cases from the 1930s were made by Robert Meylan".
Here is where this story takes the most bizarre, unexpected twist and turn. According to David Boettcher:
Burglary at Rolex
"On the night of 25 July 1938, two men broke into the workshop of Rolex in Geneva on the fifth floor of No. 18, du passage du Terraillet, a passage between Rue de la Rôtisserie and Rue de Marché, and stole 100,000 Swiss francs worth of gold and platinum watch cases.
Rolex had offices on the third floor and a large workshop on the fifth floor. The burglars attempted to break into the third-floor offices, where many finished watches were stored in safes, but the locks held. They then went to the fifth floor and easily broke into an architect's office. From there, they broke through a sliding partition separating the architects' offices from the Rolex workshop. They ransacked the workshop, discarding all the plated watch cases and selecting only those of solid gold or platinum.
In February 1939, Robert Meylan was arrested in connection with this burglary, which he confessed he had carried out with Yves Le Gallou, a notorious French criminal wanted in France for fraud amounting to 500,000 francs carried out in Tahiti, identity theft, and draft evasion.
Meylan admitted to having melted down, in his own factory, the greater part of the watch cases stolen from the Rolex Watch Co, which was his main client. It was revealed that an ingot mould had been brought into the workshop so that the watch cases, which would easily be recognised, could be turned into anonymous ingots and thereby sold.
Robert Meylan was held at Saint-Antoine prison. A few days after his arrest, he informed Mr. Foex, the investigating judge, that the remaining stolen jewellery that had escaped being melted down had been buried near the Chalet de la Dôle by Yves Le Gallou, with the intention of retrieving it later. A first expedition was organized on 24 February, but heavy snowfall frustrated it. A second, better equipped, expedition managed to reach the site despite the heavy snow.
Police officers, equipped with shovels, cleared the snow and then, with pickaxes, excavated the ground. After an hour and a half of effort, they found some gold watch cases buried nearly a metre deep. They eventually retrieved about fifteen kilos of gold and platinum, representing thousands of watch cases, some with their movements still intact, and numerous platinum pieces set with diamonds.
At a subsequent appearance before the investigating judge, Robert Meylan learned, to his considerable astonishment, that a safe deposit box he owned at a financial institution in Lausanne had been opened and that 25,000 francs in gold coins and platinum plates worth 23,000 francs had been found inside. ‘That's my savings,’ he coldly declared, adding that he certainly hadn't declared this ‘nest egg’ to the tax authorities!
During one of the hearings, Hans Wilsdorf was praised for keeping the Meylan factory working and maintaining the jobs of the employees.
The company Robert Meylan, then at 78 Rue de Lausanne, Geneva, closed down operations and called in creditors in September 1939. The notice reproduced above is a call to all creditors to submit claims, ‘In view of the transfer of his business’."
GENEX S.A.
David Boettcher concludes:
"In February 1940, a new company, Genex S.A., was registered with the purpose of manufacturing watch cases of all kinds, jewellery items and all related business. Hans Wilsdorf had registered the name Genex in September 1920 for watches and watch parts, as well as cases and packaging for them.
Genex S.A. was formed with the explicit purpose of taking over the operation of Robert Meylan's workshop, located at 78 Rue de Lausanne, Geneva, and the assets specified in an inventory dated 30 September 1939."
Genesis of the Rolex Crown
There have been apocryphal stories that say Rolex first registered and began using the 5-point Rolex crown as early as 1925, but there is zero evidence I am aware of to support this claim.
An obvious question is, did the 7-point crown that was engraved on the inside of Rolex casebacks as early as 1931, somehow evolve into a more visually simple 5-point crown logo that ended up on Rolex watch dials? I think this was likely the case.
Nick Gould discovered the following on October 10, 2026, which represent two different sources for the 1934 Rolex crown registrations.
This next one is from the 1934-1936 Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry Trademark book, and one of the most outstanding and interesting details is the fact the crown features Rolex's founder, Hans Wilsdorf's last name as part of the crown logo!?!! It's interesting as it was NEVER commercially published this way, which is all just a big mystery to me. But that is par for the course with Rolex history, as once you solve one mystery, it almost inevitably leads to another unsolved mystery.
The Rolex Magazine Christmas ad pictured below was published in late 1933, and from our research represents the very first use of the 5-point Rolex crown in commerce.
Since we are on the subject, It's interesting to note that Hans Wilsdorf also made and sold watches with his name on the dials as pictured below. It appears he began making his watches not so long after he registered the Rolex crown in 1934.
Nick Gould also found this really interesting Trademark Registration from 1935 for "H.W. GENEVE", as well as "TROPIC-PRUFE". "H.W.", of course being Hans Wilsdorf's initials.
I went digging through my immense archive to try and solve this mystery and I think I may have figured it out!?!!
The absolute earliest Rolex Magazine ad I was able to find in my collection is pictured below and was published in 1935 for a Rolex Prince model. Notice it uses the exact same logo as pictured above in this story with WILSDORF's name being replaced with ROLEX. It appears Hans Wilsdorf first may have started using the Rolex Crown Logo with his Rolex Prince line of curved rectangular doctors watches, which makes perfect sense if you think about it.
The Italian Rolex Magazine ad pictured below was published in 1936, and features the ROLEX word mark front and center with the Rolex Crown Logo behind it. My best guess, is Hans Wilsdorf liked the crown logo so much, he decided ultimately to use it with all his watch models. If my assumption is correct, this represents a pretty major Rolex history breakthrough revelation on the origin of the Rolex Crown/Coronet logo...
Nick also discovered this most interesting Rolex made in 1937 that is signed "ROLEX" and "HANS WILSDORF". My best guess is "ROLEX" and the Rolex Crown resonated with consumers around the world, but since Hans Wilsdorf's name clearly had a German accent, and anti-German sentiment was very high during that same timeframe during World War II, Wisldorf decided to discontinue using it.
The Rolex logo pictured above is from 1942, and notice the ROLEX word mark uses a simplified sans serif typeface.
The earliest versions of the Rolex Coronet logo were somewhat similar to the modern version, yet radically different in that it featured five fingers that were of equal length, as apposed to the more modern versions that are more hand-like with the center finder being the longest. Below we see several different Rolex Coronet logos Rolex registered in 1943. The first example registered in May of 1943, is for just the Rolex Crown/Coronet logo, and the second version includes "OYSTER" with the Crown, and the third version includes the world "PERPETUAL" with the crown.
The 1978 Rolex Magazine ad image pictured below of the five fingers with a watch on the wrist offers an fascinating genesis clue from the Rolex Awards for Enterprise.
If you compare the Rolex logo below from 1963 to the Rolex logo above you can really see how it looks like a 5-finger hand, wearing a watch.
