The Rolex Logo: The Story Of The Crown

The Rolex "crown" logo is one of the most recognizable brand marks in the world, signifying the Swiss watchmaker's international renown for exclusivity, luxury, and prestige of ownership. It has been around longer than you probably realize, and, much in keeping with the ethos of Rolex, has seen very little change (although that's not to say it's been entirely unchanged) over its decades-long existence. Here's what you should know about Rolex's legendary corporate symbol and the role it continues to play in defining Rolex as a world leader in luxury watches. 

Origin of Rolex Brand Name

Before the Rolex logo came the Rolex brand name. And unbeknownst to many enthusiasts these days, their favorite brand’s name has not always been Rolex. The original name, Wilsdorf & Davis, referenced the surnames of Hans Wilsdorf (above), a German entrepreneur schooled in the business of Swiss watchmaking, and his partner and brother-in-law, Alfred Davis, who founded the original company in London’s Hatton Garden commercial district in 1905. Wilsdorf was an early proponent of wristwatches, which in those days before World War I were still not as widely popular among gentlemen as pocket watches. The company assembled watches from cases and movements imported from Switzerland, where Wilsdorf had previously worked for a watch manufacturer and exporter, and exported them throughout the British Empire. Wilsdorf bought out Davis’s share of the company in 1919, right around the same time that Britain’s imposition of high customs duties spurred Wilsdorf to move the company to Geneva, Switzerland, where it has been based ever since.

The now world-famous name “Rolex” came into being a few years later, in 1908. Unlike the names of many other legendary watch brands, its genesis had nothing to do with family names, places, or any kind of acronyms thereof, and everything to do with marketing. In Wilsdorf’s autobiography, he claimed that he had mulled over dozens of five-letter alphabetical combinations that would be easy to remember, easy to pronounce in many languages, and that would fit elegantly on a watch dial — initially, without much success. Then, one evening during a carriage ride through London, according to Wilsdorf, “a genie” whispered the name “Rolex” into his ear. It fit all of his criteria, in addition to bringing an onomatopoeic charm: pronouncing it reminded him of the sound of a mechanical watch movement being wound. At first, Wilsdorf only put the name “Rolex” on a small percentage of his watches’ dials — at the time, watch sellers commonly put their own branding most prominently on dials — but by 1910, when a Rolex watch famously became the first wristwatch to be awarded a Swiss Certificate of Chronometric Precision, the name was well on its way to widespread usage and eventual legendary status. 

Origin of the Rolex Crown

While the Rolex brand name, in a bold all-caps font, began appearing with regularity on watch dials in the 1910s and ‘20s, It was nearly two decades before it was joined by the now-familiar crown emblem (or, as it is more often referred to by Rolex, the “coronet.” Registered as a trademark in 1925, just one year before the historic debut of the Rolex Oyster case, it is a tall, five-pointed crown with round dots on the tips of the five spires. This symbol would join the Rolex typography on the dials starting in the 1930s, and the logo would change very little in the decades to come, apart from the typography and slight alterations to the design of the crown. 

Photo: Jake's Rolex World

Why did Wilsdorf go with this regal imagery for his brand? As with the Rolex name, much speculation has abounded over the years. Some have suggested that the shape of the “coronet” resembles an outstretched hand modeling a wristwatch. (There’s even a Rolex magazine ad from the 1970s — above, cropped — that lends credence to that theory, though it’s just as possible that hand in the ad is simply emulating the historical logo.) Others point out that Wilsdorf, a longtime resident of the United Kingdom before moving to Switzerland, had an affinity for British royalty, having also registered the “Tudor” brand name in 1926. The five points on the crown also align with the five letters of the Rolex name. And of course, it’s very possible that Wilsdorf, one of the legendarily savvy marketers in watch industry history, simply believed there was no better imagery to convey his brand’s ambition to be “The King of Watches.” 

Where Does Rolex Use the Crown Emblem?

The Rolex coronet is now more ubiquitous than ever in the company’s branding and very much in evidence on its products. In the 1930s, the crown emblem appeared above the Rolex name on the dial below 12 o’clock; in the 1950s, Rolex started using an appliqué of the crown in place of the index at 12 o’clock, on models like the Datejust, Oyster Perpetual, and Air-King, and also began adding it to the surfaces of the watches’ fluted winding crowns (that’s right, Rolex is the only brand that has a Crown on the crown).

The coronet also appears on the closures of Rolex’s signature bracelets, relief-engraved on the robust Oysterlock clasp or more understatedly as its own “CrownClasp” on the classic President bracelet or the new Settimo bracelet introduced in 2025 on the elegant Perpetual 1908 collection. 

Today, the emblematic coronet can even be found in the anti-counterfeiting details with which Rolex now equips all of its watches. The insignia appears subtly as an engraving at 12 o’clock on the rehaut of Rolex watches made after 2005, surrounded by a repeating pattern of the word “ROLEX” that circles the dial. Even more subtly, as of 2002, it is laser-etched into the crystal of every Rolex watch directly over the 6 o’clock marker, barely visible to the naked eye but testifying to Rolex’s meticulous standards of quality and authenticity. 

Evolution of the Rolex Crown Logo

The color scheme of the Rolex logo and crown insignia, also mostly unchanged since their inception, is certainly not random. The gold tones in the crown symbolize prestige and luxury, while the green used for the typography represent wealth and prosperity. Up until as recently as 1965, the original colors were unchanged from those established in the early 20th Century.

The first modification that year saw the golden hue of the crown executed in a more sober, bronze-like color, and the dark green of the text was toned down to a more bluish-gray, albeit using the same font. This colorway appeared in Rolex branding until 2002, when the logo shifted to one more evocative of the original: the crown emblem in “metallic sunburst gold” (hex code #A37E2C, closest Pantone equivalent 7754 C), the Rolex name in “cadmium green” (hex code #006039, close to a Pantone 3425 C). This “back to basics” Rolex crown logo remains in use to this day, continuing to remind consumers and the world at large of one of the company’s earliest slogans: “A Crown for Every Achievement.” You can learn more at rolex.com