Overview

• Declassified MI5 files from 1941–43 labeled Hans Wilsdorf “most objectionable” and cast him as a suspected German spy due to his Nazi sympathies.
• British officials weighed blacklisting Wilsdorf but decided against it to protect Rolex’s extensive trade within Empire markets.
• MI5 reports suggested Wilsdorf’s gifts of free watches to Allied prisoners of war served more as a propaganda maneuver than a charitable act.
• The timing of the POW watch gifts during a Swiss watch import ban in Britain fueled doubts about Wilsdorf’s commercial motives.
• Rolex acknowledged the declassified documents and appointed historian Dr. Marc Perrenoud to lead an independent inquiry with public findings to follow.