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Despite having a History that is more than a century long, Rolex was a considerable late-comer in the watch trade. Where other big time players had come in long before the turn of the century and some even in the early half of the 19th century, Rolex joined in only in the early part of the twentieth century and even so, it only started off as a business for importing quality Swiss movements to London where they were fitted into quality cases that were then sold off to Jewelers who would the put in their own brand names. So when the man behind it all, Hans Wilsdorf, decided to move to Switzerland, registered the name Rolex and started a shop in La Chaux-de-Fonds, he knew that the only way he was ever going to hope to catch up with the other big name players was if he moved with big steps and not just big steps but giant steps. A giant step wasn’t just going to be about producing any other watch, he knew; a giant step would involve doing something that no one had ever before done with a watch. That is why in 1945, the Rolex replica Datejust became the first watch to automatically change the date. This was a big first step, one that would be followed by many, among which was being the first watchmaker to earn a Chronometer certification for a wrist watch. Such phenomenal steps are also why Rolex is the most replicated brand of watches. Nowadays you could get a Rolex Datejust fake far more easily that you could get the real thing and at only a fraction of the price. And since a Rolex Datejust fake is among the watches that anybody in the crowd can buy, the rise of the fake Rolexes may just be seen as another giant step by the watchmaker.