Rolex
Rolex SA () is a Swiss luxury watchmaker. Originally founded as "Wilsdorf and Davis" by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London in 1905, the company registered "Rolex" as the brand name of its watches in 1908. In 1919, the company moved its base of operations to Geneva, Switzerland in order to avoid heavy taxation from a recovering post-war Britain, and "Montres Rolex S.A." was registered as the new company name by Hans Wilsdorf in Geneva in 1920. Since 1960, the company has been owned by the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, a private family trust.
Ross (optics)
Andrew Ross (1798–1859) founded his company in 1830, from 1840 he began producing camera lenses signed "A. Ross". During Andrew Ross's lifetime, the company was one of the foremost lens manufacturers. After Andrew's death in 1859 his son-in-law John Henry Dallmeyer left the firm to establish his own optical company in 1860 and the company was run by Ross's son, Thomas, and became known as Ross & Co. By the 1890s was also making Zeiss and Goerz lenses under licence for sale in the UK and the British Empire. Ross patented a Wide Angle lens design and Zeiss took this further to produce their EWA Protars, before World War 1 Ross and Zeiss worked quite closely together, but at the outbreak of War the British Government put Ross in control of the newly opened Carl Zeiss binocular and optical factory in Mill Hill, London.