Luxury Watches

Marketing the Oyster

Rolex invented the first truly waterproof watch case in 1926. Rolex called it's waterproof case, the "Oyster". Rolex has persistently marketed its Oyster over the years, sometimes the results are amusing.

Mercedes Gleitze. Rolex likes to say that "in 1927, a young woman named Mercedes Gleitze swam across the icy waters of the English Channel wearing a Rolex Oyster."

In 1927, Miss Mercedes Gleitze, successfully swam across the English Channel in 15 hours. Two weeks later a Dr. Dorothy Logan claimed to have also swam across the English Channel in 13 hours. Dr. Logans swim was shown to be a hoax. This cause people to question Miss Gleitze’s claim. Because of this, Miss Glietz decided to swim the channel again, her Vindication swim. Rolex, desirous of marketing its Oyster watch supplied Ms. Gleitze with a gold Rolex Oyster watch for her Vindication swim. This attempt was a failure, but her effort was enough to convince the public that she had accomplished it before as she had claimed. So while Miss Glietz did swim accross the channel, she did not do it wearing a Rolex. When she did bring a Rolex she was seven miles short. Still the Rolex did survived the 10 hours and 24 minute attempt across the Channel.

Also, Miss Glietz did now wear the Rolex it one her wrist. It was hanging round her neck by a riband during this swim.

Submariner. In 1953 Rolex created the Submariner, the first watch ever to be sold which guaranteed water resistance to 100 meters. In 1956, the Submariner was...

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