History of Tudor


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Tudor collector watches

“For several years I have been studying the possibility of making a watch that our dealers can sell at a lower price than our Rolex watches and that is worthy of the same traditional confidence. So I decided to set up a separate company to manufacture and sell this new watch. This company is called Tudor Watches SA.”

We are on March 6, 1946 and the author of these remarks is none other than Hans Wilsdorf, a leading figure in the world of high-end Swiss watchmaking for having created Rolex in the first decade of the twentieth century. In this statement, he officially unveils not only TUDOR, but also the strategy of positioning and communication that he has in mind for the brand.

Hans Wilsdorf’s intuition is as brilliant as it is simple: at this time, the market of the wristwatch is booming. We are still far from the logic of optimization of resources implemented today by so many major financial groups and brands. And the public is ready to recognize and appreciate a product whose technical, aesthetic and functional characteristics, as well as distribution, would be guaranteed not by a newcomer to the market, but by a brand like Rolex, already renowned in the World for the quality of its production.

Hans Wilsdorf’s statement is not rhetorical. It is then a commitment, not to say a program: between 1947 and 1952, TUDOR first launched the TUDOR Oyster model, then the TUDOR Oyster Prince line, which embody this successful alliance between Precision and reliability, style, technique and quality of production. Hans Wilsdorf is proud and proud to be personally associated with the birth of this new brand in the first advertisements devoted entirely to TUDOR, which appeared at that time.

The TUDOR mark is initially symbolized by a decorative rose, the emblem of the dynasty that reigned over England for a long time. The Tudor inspired Hans Wilsdorf with the name of his new company, but this sponsorship never inspired him to rest on his laurels.
The brand is born under the most favorable auspices. Equipped with technical features like the Oyster waterproof case and an automatic movement, TUDOR will not reduce these strengths to their purely functional appearance, but will make them stylistic watches designed to
The modern and active man, both by their qualities and by their aesthetics. Accompanied in its first steps and well introduced by Rolex, the TUDOR brand quickly takes its place, until completely free from the brand to the crown.

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