Was Rolex Founder Hans Wilsdorf a Nazi Spy?

In August 2025, a sensational Telegraph article written by Steve Bird and Sophie Fenton titled “Rolex founder was suspected Nazi Spy” generated some interest in the virtual hallways of Watches of Espionage. We tend to be agnostic regarding watch brands and focus more on the importance of how watches are used in intelligence and special operations. Still, the possibility of a link between Nazi espionage and the Rolex founder was certainly well within our purview.  

I asked our friend J.R. Seeger, a 22-year veteran of CIA’s Directorate of Operations, to review the reporting and provide an unbiased assessment of the allegations in the context of WWII espionage. Given J.R.'s operational experience and work for the CIA’s historical staff, focusing on WWII intelligence operations, I was confident he could cut through the sensationalism to create an informed analysis of the veracity of the allegations.

An Unbiased Assessment of the MI5 Files, Swiss Police Reports, & Wartime Paranoia that Fueled Allegations that Rolex’s Founder Crossed Lines During World War II

By J.R. Seeger

While the claims surrounding Rolex’s founder are nothing new, they reentered the limelight over the summer thanks to an article published in The Telegraph. In the article, authors Bird and Fenton refer to “previously classified documents” in the British National Archives from “Box 500” (one of the file categories attributed to the British Security Service, aka MI5). These files revealed that from 1941 to 1943, the Service did investigate Hans Wilsdorf as a known Nazi sympathizer and identified him as what the article calls “most objectionable” and “suspected of espionage.” At this point, Wilsdorf was living in Geneva, but was a UK citizen having been naturalized in 1911 after famously founding Rolex in 1905.

One of the documents published in The Telegraph, as identified by Jose Pereztroika. (Photo Credit: The Telegraph/National Archives)

As part of its investigation, the British consul in Geneva during World War II reported to MI5 in 1941 that Wilsdorf’s brother was directly involved with the Nazi propaganda efforts in Europe. The consul’s report continued, “there was no doubt whatever” about Wilsdorf’s political views, even though he allowed POWs to order Rolex watches for delivery to various European POW camps. The file includes a 1941 letter from the Ministry of Economic Warfare stating that MI5 should review the possibility of blacklisting Wilsdorf, but to do so might harm trade inside the British Empire. The article concludes with the statement that the Rolex company has already engaged a well-respected Swiss historian, Dr. Marc Perrenoud, to review Wilsdorf’s actions during World War II.

Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf.

A Second Opinion - Pierre-Yves Donzé

Despite the sensational headline, these allegations are not new. In 2024’s The Making of a Status Symbol: A Business History of Rolex, Pierre-Yves Donzé provides greater detail on both the British interest as well as the Swiss Federal Police investigations of Wilsdorf during World War II. In a full page of footnotes, Donzé reviews the files available in Switzerland, including the British predication for the investigation to the Swiss authorities and the subsequent investigation. He quotes a 1941 police report’s conclusion:  

“The information gathered shows that Wilsdorf is a fervent admirer of the Hitler regime. He does not hide his satisfaction when events favourable to Germany occur. However, we have not seen or heard of any pro-Hitler propaganda or suspicious activity on his part. The above-mentioned person is not unfavorably known to our judicial services and has not been convicted… From a political point of view, Wilsdorf is known to our services as a ‘Nazi’. A check of his correspondence was carried out in 1940, but nothing suspicious was found.” 

While there does not appear to be, either in The Telegraph’s reporting or Donze’s research, credible evidence suggesting any actions undertaken by Wilsdorf in support of the Nazi regime during the Second World War, detailed investigations appear to support that Wilsdorf was suspected of being sympathetic to or supportive of the Nazi party. 

Context Matters - British Intelligence in WWII

Between 1939 and 1943, MI5 was caught in political and administrative dilemmas. On the political front, the UK government and most especially Prime Minister Winston Churchill were caught up with what is best described as “Fifth Column” mania. During the war, “The Fifth Column” referred to groups or individuals within a country secretly working to aid an enemy through espionage, sabotage, or propaganda. The quick defeat of Belgium, Holland, and France was attributed less to German Army and Air Force prowess and more to the role of Nazi collaborators and saboteurs in the occupied countries.  

In World War I, the British government had conducted a massive internment program of “enemy aliens”, and MI5 was tasked with planning and conducting a similar program to combat the Nazi threat. Given the cosmopolitan nature of the United Kingdom at the outbreak of World War II, this task was daunting. Still, many inside the UK government and MI5 were convinced that the Nazis intended to conduct sabotage and subversion in the British homeland before a future invasion. This translated into investigations initiated on virtually every naturalized citizen from Germany and Italy, including Wilsdorf.

MI5’s Wartime Growing Pains

In those same years, MI5 was under the direction of Vernon Kell, who had been the director of the service for 40 years. His handling of those initial war years investigations was not dynamic, nor were the investigations designed to support the calls for large-scale internment. Further, his service was small, and while it had focused on Nazi-supported organizations as well as British Fascist movements, MI5 was simply not operating at the speed demanded by the Prime Minister.  

When MI5 did succeed in a major counterespionage operation in 1940 involving US diplomat Tyler Kent, naturalized British citizen Anna Wolkoff, and German intelligence, it only created an even louder call for more investigations on any and all “enemy aliens” and especially those who were involved in the British economy. It was only when Kell was replaced by Sir David Petrie, and MI5 turned its focus on counterintelligence operations, capturing Nazi spies and doubling back against the Germans through the Twenty Committee (aka the Double Cross System) that investigations like the one targeting Wilsdorf and other naturalized citizens were closed.

Final Thoughts

While there are sure to be further files uncovered and more secrets revealed as Dr. Perrenoud and others expand their research, the most likely conclusion so far is that Wilsdorf was potentially a Nazi sympathizer during the 1930s through the early, successful days of Nazi expansion in World War II. British tax and tariffs policies had significantly reduced his market share in Britain, and that had pushed Wilsdorf to other markets even after his early successes in the UK. Those political decisions could have easily changed his loyalties from his naturalized homeland to his birthplace. 

However, any claim that he was a Nazi spy or provided material or other forms of support to Germany at the time appears grossly exaggerated. This was a period in the war when British officials were demanding that MI5 “round up the usual suspects”, defined as any and all naturalized British citizens from Germany and Italy. We know from the MI5 files and subsequent books and memoirs that MI5 captured all of the German spies early in the war, and there was no “Fifth Column” threatening Britain.

"Italian Navy Frogman wearing a re-breather suit in the center of the photo and we see the diver on the far right wearing the now trademark 47mm Panerai." (Photo Credit: Panerai Magazine)

The fact that Rolex worked with the Italian company Panerai in the late 1930s to supply movements and cases for wristwatches used by Italian naval frogmen in Decima Flottiglia MAS would certainly have encouraged British scrutiny. This was especially true after Italian Navy commandos severely damaged the battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant in Alexandria harbor in December 1941. 

In the end, Rolex watches used as tools were far more important than the political leanings of the founder.

*This article has been reviewed by the CIA's Prepublication Classification Review Board to prevent the disclosure of classified information.

All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the US Government. Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or implying US Government authentication of information or endorsement of the author’s views.

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