China is one of the first countries in the world to invent rolling bearings. In ancient Chinese books, the structure of axle bearings has long been recorded. From the archaeological relics and materials, China's oldest bearing with the prototype of modern rolling bearing structure appeared in Xuejiaya Village, Yongji County, Shanxi Province, from 221 to 207 BC (Qin Dynasty). After the founding of New China, especially since the 1970s, under the strong impetus of reform and opening up, the bearing industry has entered a new period of high quality and rapid development.

At the end of the seventeenth century, the British C. Vallo designed and manufactured ball bearings, and installed on the mail truck trial and the British P. Worth patented ball bearings. At the end of the eighteenth century, H.R. Hertz of Germany published a paper on the contact stress of ball bearings. On the basis of Hertz's achievements, R. Stebbeck of Germany and A. Palmer of Sweden conducted a large number of experiments, which contributed to the development of the design theory and fatigue life calculation of rolling bearings. Subsequently, N.P. Petrov of Russia applied Newton's law of viscosity to calculate bearing friction.

The British O. Renault conducted a mathematical analysis of Thor's discovery and derived the Reynolds equation, which laid the foundation for fluid dynamic pressure lubrication theory. In the early form of linear motion bearings, a row of wood poles was placed under a row of rafts. This technique may be traced back to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza, although there is no clear evidence. Modern linear motion bearings use the same principle of operation, except that balls are sometimes used instead of rollers. The earliest sliding and rolling element bearings were made of wood. Ceramics, sapphires or glass are also used. Steel, copper, other metals, plastics (such as nylon, bakelite, Teflon and UHMWPE) are commonly used.

From heavy-duty wheel axles and machine tool spindles to precision timepiece components, rotary bearings are required for many applications. The simplest rotary bearing is a bushing bearing, which is simply a bushing sandwiched between the wheel and the axle. This design was subsequently replaced by a rolling bearing that replaced the original bushing with a number of cylindrical rollers, each of which resembled a single wheel. The first practical rolling bearing with cage was invented by watchmaker John Harrison in 1760 for the production of the H3 chronograph.

An example of an early ball bearing was found on an ancient Roman ship found in Lake Nami, Italy. This wooden ball bearing is used to support a rotating table top. This ship was built in 40 BC. It is said that Leonardo da Vinci described a ball bearing around 1500. Among the various immature factors of ball bearings, it is important that collisions occur between the balls, causing additional friction. But this can be prevented by putting the ball in a small cage.

In the 17th century, Galileo made the earliest description of the "fixed ball" or "cage ball" ball bearings. But for a long time afterwards, mounting the bearings on the machine has not been achieved. The first patent on the ball channel was obtained by Carmarthen's Philip Vaughan in 1794.

In 1883, Friedrich Fisher proposed the use of a suitable production machine to grind steel balls of the same size and roundness. This laid the foundation for the creation of an independent bearing industry. The initials of "Fischers Automatische Guß stahlkugelfabrik" or "Fischer Aktien-Gesellschaft" became trademarks and were registered on July 29, 1905.

In 1962, the FAG trademark was revised and used today, and in 1979 became an integral part of the company.

In 1895, Henry Timken designed the first tapered roller bearing, and after three years patented and established Timken.

In 1907, Sven Winquist of SKF Bearing Factory designed the earliest modern self-aligning ball bearings.