In celebrating International Women's Day, trailblazing females named Rolex Testimonees have been put under the spotlight.
Empowered women, however, have long been recognised by the Swiss watchmaker, starting with Mercedes Gleitze -- the first British woman to swim across the English Channel in 1927.
Rolex founder Hans Wildorf equipped her with an Oyster watch in a 10-hour English Channel swim, which proved the waterproof claim of the model, whose hermetically sealed case provided optimal protection for the movement.
Sylvia Earle.
An advertisement in the Daily Mail hailed the Oyster as a Wonder Watch. The full-page piece marked the debut of the Testimonee concept featuring Gleitze as the first personality, whose achievement is akin to the excellence of Rolex timepieces.
Launched a year earlier, the Oyster was the world's first water and dustproof watch, whose successor, the Oyster Perpetual, featured an inventive self-winding mechanism with a free rotor that allowed the watch to constantly run by wrist movements.
Since 1931, the Oyster Perpetual has remained one of Rolex's watchmaking pillars.
Reflecting on how "perpetual" philosophically refers to an unceasing quest for excellence, the company has been a strong advocate in supporting ambitious women of all fields, from conservation and cinema to science and sports.
Among Rolex Testimonees, Sylvia Earle, Chris Evert, Kathryn Bigelow and Lydia Ko have proven how women can excel in these different domains.
For more than four decades, Earle has been a pioneer of ocean exploration and a committed advocate of the oceans and their vulnerable ecosystems. In 1970, the American marine biologist led the first ever all-female expedition to live and work underwater, equipped by Rolex.
American tennis champion Evert was 17 when she made her 1972 Wimbledon debut. Evert retired in 1989 with 18 Grand Slam singles titles and a record 90% career winning percentage. Today, she remains a role model, inspiring the next generation of athletes and tennis superstars.
Likewise, at only 17, Ko made sporting history as the youngest world No.1 in golf. That led to the teenager being listed on Time's 100 most influential people in 2014. The Korean-born New Zealander was the top-ranking amateur golfer for a record 130 weeks before turning pro.
Bigelow represents excellence in filmmaking, in being the first and only woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director for The Hurt Locker in 2010, then against four male nominees. Her films have depicted incidents that act as a reflection on society, and have in turn, helped to better redefine that society.
