“There’ll Always Be A Christmas” - Rolex

World War II’s Darkest Hours - Rolex, Perseverance, Marketing, & Hope

In December 1942, the Second World War raged in the lead-up to the Christmas holiday. As the Allies formally acknowledged the "cold-blooded extermination" of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe, Soviet forces on the Eastern Front encircled the German 6th Army, with heavy fighting and casualties on both sides as the Germans tried and failed to break through in what would become known as the Battle of Stalingrad. 

Neutral since 1815, Switzerland was in a unique position. War is hell, but it’s also a business, and for a Swiss watch industry plagued by trade restrictions and export issues, providing watches to warfighters on both sides of the conflict bolstered a fragile bottom line. Rolex, founded by Hans Wilsdorf in 1905, wasn’t the luxury and cultural icon it is today, but the Crown had already developed a reputation for brilliant marketing, sometimes stepping beyond the bounds of vapid copy and into the profound. 

We came across two remarkable advertisements from 1942 and 1943 in Rolex Magazine that transcend the watch industry. Whether they are altruistic or motivated by self-interest is open to interpretation, but they are undeniably profound given the historical context.  

“There’ll Always Be A Christmas” - December 1942

(Photo Credit: Rolex Magazine)

Rolex was known for holiday-themed advertising. Ads from the 30s and 40s read “Make it Rolexmas”, “Decide to give a Rolex”, and “Gifts of precision”, each highlighting aspects of Rolex’s watches to spark a value-based buying decision. In 1942, with the holidays approaching, Rolex created an ad for the United States market that departed from conventional product-focused messaging, portraying an Allied watchstander in a pea coat, set against a starry night sky, binoculars in hand, taking a moment to check his Rolex watch. The text read, “There’ll Always Be A Christmas”, and continued: 

From the dawn of Christian civilization down through the ages, to this moment when hatred again has split the world asunder, neither latitude nor longitude, not time or place, has dimmed the glory and the spirit of this day. More significant than ever is the symbol of giving which ancients and moderns have observed in commemoration, and at this Yuletide, when the future is vague but faith and hope are strong, no gift can be more significant of courage and trust, then the priceless gift of time by Rolex.

Rather than selling watches as such, the Crown reached for the ineffable: vigilance, faith, and the enduring significance of time. There was no hard sell, no call to action or promises of victory, only a message of hope and perseverance during an impossibly dark time.

“O, Little Star of Bethlehem” - December 1943 

(Photo Credit: Rolex Magazine)

Rolex continued this messaging the following year with another advertisement, depicting two children playing in the rubble by what appears to be a bombed-out church. Remarkably, the ad, which, according to Rolex Magazine, ran in Vogue, doesn’t even feature a watch and serves more as wartime reassurance than a commercial promotion. 

The image of children looking toward the Star of Bethlehem, paired with language about ending tyranny, restoring justice, and reuniting families, echoed the Allied framing of the war as a moral struggle grounded in faith and liberty. With rationing, casualties, and uncertainty shaping daily life, Rolex again avoided overt salesmanship in favor of a more supportive and moving message. 

Rolex & Allied Prisoners of War 

British Royal Air Force (RAF) officers who were prisoners of war at the German camp Stalag Luft III during World War II. (Photo Credit: Rolex Magazine)

What makes these advertisements especially significant is how closely they aligned with what Rolex was doing off the printed page during the period. Setting aside Switzerland’s neutrality, Hans Wilsdorf was quietly running a humanitarian and strategic effort to provide material support to Allied prisoners of war across Europe. 

Allied victory was by no means guaranteed in 1942. However, Wilsdorf decided to allow POWs, many of them British Royal Air Force (RAF) officers, to order Rolex watches for delivery to various European POW camps, including Stalag Luft III, which would become the scene of one of history’s most daring escapes. 

Nutting’s Rolex chronograph 3525 sold at auction for the equivalent of $87,000 in 2007. (Photo Credit: Antiquorum)

One such watch, a stainless-steel Rolex chronograph, reference 3525, was delivered to RAF Corporal James Nutting, who participated in building the tunnels that would become part of the escape of 76 Allied prisoners in March of 1944. How many of the escapees, of whom only three actually made good their escape, and 50 of whom were later executed on Hitler’s personal orders, wore Rolex watches, we may never know. For more on the story of Rolex’s role among Allied POWs, click HERE. 

According to some accounts, as many as 3,000 watches were ordered by and delivered to prisoners of war based on nothing more than the promise that these men would settle up with Rolex when the war ended. For Wilsdorf, the maneuver was likely part altruism, providing hope in the form of a tool for tracking the passage of time, and part marketing, betting not only that the Allies would win the war but also that these POWs would be liberated with Rolex watches firmly entrenched in the hearts and minds of men who would go on to become “The Greatest Generation”. 

It’s Never Just a Watch 

A tank crew of the 4th Battalion, the Royal Tank Regiment, 4th Armoured Division, unpacks a Christmas parcel. (Photo Credit: Imperial War Museum)

The Swiss watch industry's wartime record is complex, with watchmakers, including Rolex, supplying watches not only to the Allies but also to the Germans and Italians. There are even some reports indicating that British intelligence investigated Hans Wilsdorf, a naturalized British citizen born in Bavaria, Germany, for potential ties to Nazi Germany.

But the WWII era advertisements, including Rolex’s “There’ll Always Be A Christmas” campaign, reveal unique insight into Rolex’s founder and foreshadowed a style of storytelling that Rolex would later refine and institutionalize. Whether these messages were driven by conviction, calculation, or necessity is impossible to determine with certainty. The overlap between messaging and action is notable, though its underlying motivation remains open to interpretation.

An original example of Rolex's "There'll Always Be A Christmas" ad. (Photo Credit: Ad Patina)

In December 1942 and 1943, when victory was uncertain and reunion far from assured, the advertisements offered readers a quieter, emotionally resonant message: belief in time, hope, and the promise of tomorrow. 

Eighty years on, as uncertainty and disorder again define the global landscape, the message of these advertisements still resonates today.

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