Anonymous
ID: 1OsJguwd
8/10/2025, 3:31:38 AM No.512659058
https://archive.is/Z2wXS
Rolex founder was suspected Nazi spy
MI5 suspected that the German founder of Rolex was a Nazi spy, the Telegraph can reveal.
Formerly classified documents at the National Archives show how secret service agents feared Hans Wilsdorf should be blacklisted due to his “strong” sympathies for Adolf Hitler’s regime.
The Second World War papers, dated between 1941 and 1943, state that Wilsdorf was “most objectionable” and “suspected of espionage”.
The file also suggested the businessman may have made much of his decision to offer British prisoners of war (POWs) free Rolex watches despite his real intentions being anything but patriotic.
The papers – many stamped from “Box 500”, the colloquial civil service nickname for MI5 due to its wartime address – show the increasing concern that Wilsdorf, a naturalised British citizen, posed a threat to the Allies.
Wilsdorf was born in Bavaria in 1881 and moved to London in 1903, where he made watches in Hatton Garden before registering the name Rolex and marrying British-born Florence Crotty. In 1919, he based the company headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
By 1941, the British authorities were concerned Wilsdorf supported the Nazis. A report that year from the British consul in Geneva said he was “well known for his strong Nazi sympathies” citing how his brother, Karl, was “reported to be an active member of [Joseph] Goebbels’ propaganda ministry”.
The file claimed the brother would “make use of Hans Wilsdorf in Geneva to put out Nazi propaganda all over the world, and we heard that Hans is, in consequence, being watched by the Swiss federal police”.
An MI5 report from 1943 said the secret service had been “interested in the affairs” of Rolex, from its UK base in Bexleyheath, and its founder “for some time”.
The papers repeatedly said Wilsdorf was “well known” as a “strong Nazi”.
>if you do not have a Rolex watch, then fuck you
Rolex founder was suspected Nazi spy
MI5 suspected that the German founder of Rolex was a Nazi spy, the Telegraph can reveal.
Formerly classified documents at the National Archives show how secret service agents feared Hans Wilsdorf should be blacklisted due to his “strong” sympathies for Adolf Hitler’s regime.
The Second World War papers, dated between 1941 and 1943, state that Wilsdorf was “most objectionable” and “suspected of espionage”.
The file also suggested the businessman may have made much of his decision to offer British prisoners of war (POWs) free Rolex watches despite his real intentions being anything but patriotic.
The papers – many stamped from “Box 500”, the colloquial civil service nickname for MI5 due to its wartime address – show the increasing concern that Wilsdorf, a naturalised British citizen, posed a threat to the Allies.
Wilsdorf was born in Bavaria in 1881 and moved to London in 1903, where he made watches in Hatton Garden before registering the name Rolex and marrying British-born Florence Crotty. In 1919, he based the company headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
By 1941, the British authorities were concerned Wilsdorf supported the Nazis. A report that year from the British consul in Geneva said he was “well known for his strong Nazi sympathies” citing how his brother, Karl, was “reported to be an active member of [Joseph] Goebbels’ propaganda ministry”.
The file claimed the brother would “make use of Hans Wilsdorf in Geneva to put out Nazi propaganda all over the world, and we heard that Hans is, in consequence, being watched by the Swiss federal police”.
An MI5 report from 1943 said the secret service had been “interested in the affairs” of Rolex, from its UK base in Bexleyheath, and its founder “for some time”.
The papers repeatedly said Wilsdorf was “well known” as a “strong Nazi”.
>if you do not have a Rolex watch, then fuck you
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