In what year was Hans Wilsdorf born?

Hans Wilsdorf was born in 1881.

Wilsdorf was born on 22 March 1881 in Kulmbach, Bavaria, then part of the German Empire. He grew up in a Protestant family with two siblings, but became an orphan while still young after the deaths of his parents.

His early commercial training eventually led him into watchmaking. In 1905, he founded the London firm Wilsdorf & Davis with Alfred Davis. The company began by importing Swiss movements and placing them in watch cases, before developing the Rolex brand name in 1908.

Wilsdorf is often described simply as Swiss because Rolex is headquartered in Geneva, but he was German-born and later became a British citizen. He established Tudor as a sister brand in 1926 and remained central to Rolex's development until his death in Geneva in 1960.