Reply With QuoteMmm...
* From the opening of the wikipedia article on Rolex
Rolex SA is a luxury watch manufacturer based in Geneva, Switzerland. Originally founded as Wilsdorf and Davis by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London, England in 1905, the company registered Rolex as the brand name of its watches in 1908, and became Rolex Watch Co. Ltd. in 1915
* From How did the word ROLEX originate?" on the Rolex website
He said, “I tried combining the letters of the alphabet in every possible way. This gave me some hundred names, but none of them felt quite right. One morning, while riding on the upper deck of a horse-drawn omnibus along Cheapside in the City of London, a genie whispered ‘Rolex’ in my ear.”
* From the opening of the wikipedia article on Radox
Radox is a brand of personal care products, best known for their range of bubble bath and shower gels. The brand was founded in the United Kingdom in 1908, and is now also available in Ireland, Czech Republic, Australia, Malaysia and South Africa. In September 2009 it was bought by Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever
* From Who we are on the Radox website
Radox first appeared in the UK market in 1908 as a salts foot bath that “RADiated OXygen”. But we’ve come a long way since then.
** Clearly, further research is required **
Last edited by Der Amf; 18th July 2023 at 15:39.
Mmm...
Thats were Ive been going wrong, run a nice hot bath and throw a few Rolex in. For some reason they never dissolve. Must amend the shopping list to Radox
Eureka!
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
Originally Posted by Mr Curta
Radox or Badedas, the first bath time experience intensifier on Everest?
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Has no one gone and looked up exactly when in 1908 the two brand names were registered yet? Tuh.
Wouldnt that be a fantastic turn up.
Didnt get to the top of Everest and got inspiration for their their trade mark from a bath soak.
Free bottle of Matey with every deep sea
The ultimate homage brand
Mr. Curtas Eureka moment did get me searching in a different direction.
Maybe ρολ?ι (roloi) + Radox = Rolex.
Wilsdorf was apparently well educated and good at languages. Plenty of other watch enthusiasts have pointed out that roloi is Greek for clock so Im not being original. The clepsydra experts will know all about it. The Radox connection maybe just completes the picture.
I've always assumed that it was derived from the Greek: ρολόι + excellence
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
"roloi" is modern Greek. Properly it would be "oroloi" (horology) = a speaker of time. I very much doubt any Greek source for Rolex.
How about Rolodex?
Rolodex was apparently first used in 1958.
Thanks for the clarification of roloi.
Makes sense, but Radox is more fun :).
Maybe wearing an oyster-date in a very bubbly bath gave inspiration for the cyclops.
Last edited by HookedSeven; 18th August 2021 at 11:09.
I'm on the wait list for a bottle of Radox, my AD said if I buy 3 bottles of Matey it will help build a special relationship and increase my chances.
As I remember Wilsdorf buggered around with dozens of names including Rolco, Rolexis, Wintex, Genex and, improbably, Lipton. Obviously, there's also Tudor, Marconi and Imperial and more. There was also Lexis, which was close, but not close enough...
The main theme here seems to be 'ex' which I presume is subliminally preparing the potential owner for the reality that owning one costs about as much as a divorce.
It does cheer me up that the very earliest Rolex were made in London though.
Last edited by M4tt; 18th August 2021 at 11:32.
Google found me a pic of Mrs Wilsdorf in the bath... this seems like too much of a coincidence.
Hans like many others at the time was throwing everything at the wall and carried on with whatever stuck.
My understanding is that he was looking for a word that would sound the same in all languages. He was was probably the greatest salesman of the 20th century.
I agree absolutely. He was decades ahead on product placement and pretty damn prescient about what would catch the public mood. More to the point, while pretty well everything he did was derivative and he was very rarely quite the first, he was agile and, again, pulled together the best ideas into genuinely saleable watches incredibly quickly. Perhaps most importantly, the post war reorganisation, management strategy and mission of Rolex has stood the test of time in a way no other has.
Rolex was registered 2 July 1908:
Would you be surprised to hear that the exact moment of Radox's registration is harder to discover?
Oops, I accidentally looked up "Rodox" on google images.
Ray Kroc
And yet this hasn't happened. So very disappointing.
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