In the beginning of the 20th century, mechanical wristwatches required the wearer to wind the crown in order to power the movement. In 1931 under the leadership of founder Hans Wilsdorf, Rolex patented the Perpetual rotor. This innovation added a half-moon shaped oscillating weight to the movement that would spin 360ยบ with the motion of the wrist and use kinetic energy to provide power to the watch.
The addition of the rotor mechanism made it unnecessary to wind the watch manually, creating the first self-winding or automatic wristwatch movement. All current Rolex models are equipped with automatic mechanical movements that are manufactured in-house by the watchmaker. For more information, check out my blog post about the Perpetual rotor here. The brief video below shows the inner workings of a Rolex movement. You can see the oscillating weight turn around the 45 second mark of the clip.
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