Timepieces Trade Market

Tudor : History

Hans Wilsdorf, founder of Rolex, undoubtedly ranks among the champions of brand-marketing in the watch industry.
After 1908, he had a host of proprietary names legally protected: "Princess Royal Wristlet" and "Prince of Wales Lever" (1914), "Lonex" and "Genex" 1920) or "Viceroy" (1921).
Presumably very few of them were actually used.
As a Briton by choice, the Bavarian-born Wilsdorf also wanted "Tudor", in tribute to the dynasty that ruled England from 1495 to 1603.
But this time he was too late, for the name had already been taken by the Geneva jewelry-dealer, Isaac Blumenthal, in December 1906, and the rights had since passed to other owners.
It was only in the early forties that Wilsdorf finally got a look-in, and The Tudor was registered for him as a brand-name.
Since then "the poor-man's Rolex" has simply been called Tudor.
Real Rolex movements will be sought in vain in watches with its signature.
In the "Tudor Oyster" or the "Tudor Oyster-Prince, to mention just a couple of the models with the celebrated "Oyster" case, tick calibers from Ebauches S.A.
Herein lies the subtle difference.