Horology history and the oldest watch brands

[Feefo]

Some notes on the oldest watch brands – Jaquet Droz, 1738

The remarkable story of Jaquet Droz is one that would have been worthy of being romanced by Alexandre Dumas. Pierre Jaquet-Droz (1721-1790) was famous for his automata – robot-like wind-up toys that performed human functions such as writing or pouring a cup of tea; others were in the shape of animals, including dogs that barked and birds that sang.

The craftsmanship involved in developing and building such complicated contraptions earned Jaquet Droz the accusation of sorcery, but his machines were so popular that he never faced real troubles.

Jaquet Droz learned clockmaking at a young age eventually setting up workshop in 1738 and developing a deep interest for sophisticated movements which he developed and eventually enhanced with the addition of music and automata. His extravagant products soon attracted the attention of a wealthy clientèle, always on the lookout in that age for the new and bizarre with which to impress peers and higher nobility and possibly climb social hierarchies.

This is how, after an unlucky familiar history (lost the wife and a daughter early), he met George Keith, Earl Marischal, governor of the principality of Neuchâtel, who advised him to present his creations abroad, especially in Spain where he could help introduce him to the court. Jaquet Droz didn’t hesitate to take the invitation, loaded a cart full of automata and went to Madrid. As things worked with absolute sovereigns of that time, after the 7 week trip he had to wait for several months before actually being able to present his work to the royal court. But the wait paid off, King Ferdinand VI of Spain was blown away by the machines, so much so that he bought all of them for a sum that in today’s money could have been something around 1M$.

With the influx of money Jaquet Droz was able to invest even more in automata and complicated clockworks which he perfected and marketed slowly acquiring international notoriety. He visited the courts of France (yes, Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette just 18 years before they lost their heads), Flanders, Russia, England, where he decided to set up a workshop. London gave him the opportunity to expand worldwide, going as far as China, where he was represented by the famous James Cox trading company, and becoming the first clockmaking brand to be imported there. Jaquet Droz original pieces are still preserved in the Imperial Palace Museum today.

Long story short, Jaquet Droz became a successful international brand with three production and profit centers: one in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a second in London as well as a third in Geneva dedicated to low-volume watchmaking production. Sales were handled by agents in France for the most part, but also in London and Canton. 1788 was the peak of JD’s success. But, being his success was exclusively dependent on his customers, and being his customers part of the establishment of the times, it all started falling apart with the French revolution. Suddenly the big-shot clients disappeared or were unable to pay their orders. In addition, misfortune again struck JD’s personal life, he died in 1790 and his son the following year. JD’s remaining associate and adoptive son, Jean-Frédéric Leschot, ran into serious financial difficulties. He continued to make high-priced watches, snuffboxes and singing birds, but had to show great prudence: customers were notified that he now preferred to be paid cash on delivery and would no longer sell to faraway markets. The Napoleonic Wars, which pitted France against nearly every other nation of Europe, put an end to prosperity for the nobility and well-to-do bourgeoisie. The Continental Blockade, decreed by Napoleon in 1806, killed off any remaining market for very luxurious objects and greatly inhibited trade with England. For Jaquet-Droz & Leschot, this was the end of a period of great creativity and prosperity.

Leschot continued watchmaking as did his offspring, but the brand Jaquet Droz was forgotten and sources are inconclusive.

A Jaquet Droz SA existed in the 20th centuries producing unspectacular watches but this also disappeared in 1963.



The Jaquet-Droz name was revived as a shared brand by the Coopérative de Fabricants Suisses d'Horlogerie (FH) in 1965. For nearly 20 years, a wide range of “Jaquet-Droz” branded watches were distributed and sold worldwide but produced by “150 manufacturers.” It was later incorporated as SAH. This concern also finally failed in 1983.

It was resurrected in 1995 by two former Breguet employees who bought the rights of the name and assembled and sold (get that) replicas of the original JD automata. They also produced “upscale” watches with modest success. Again in financial dire straits, eventually the Swatch Group purchased the brand and relaunched it as a small-production, high-grade watch company that uses updated and modified movements based on Frédéric Piguet calibers (also part of the Swatch Group via Blancpain).

JD’s signature watches today are the Grande Seconde, featuring two overlapping dials set into the main dial; models thereof range today from extremely modern versions with bright white enamel dials and minimal markings to more baroque versions featuring precious stoines´, colourful enamel work and hand engraving.

JD also crafts miniaturized automata that are just as striking today as they were 300 years ago.

 

[Blackieray]

Long before the Swiss, England was the horology center of the universe. 1500-1700 You had Harrison, Mudge! He invented the lever escapement. not improved on until George Daniels co-axial movement in the 20th century. -Robert Hooke invented the balance spring. Daniel Quare invented a repeating watch movement and a portable barometer. The Huguenots did flee France for England and brought their skills to England. Peter Debaufre patented the application of jewels in watches and clocks in 1704. Everything did eventually gravitate to Switzerland in part because the Brits stuck to tradition and there were watch makers that wanted to break away from tradition.. By 1800 the British manufactured nearly 1/2 the worlds watches. You had Tompion and Graham who worked on perfecting escapements to fit in slimmer cases.
Lest you think I'm riffing off the top of my head, this is an encapsulation of the history of watch making in England from Crown and Caliber. Thanks to Feefo, especially, for feeding our heads!

 

[guarda]

Thanks for sharing, Feefo. The history of JeanRichard is very interesting. It all shows how vast the horology world is.

 

[Feefo]

Thanks for sharing, Feefo. The history of JeanRichard is very interesting. It all shows how vast the horology world is.

Thanks. As soon as I have some time I'll continue. Many brands to explore still.

 

[Storm.]

Thanks. As soon as I have some time I'll continue. Many brands to explore still.

Nice post, great read.

I hear @TESLA760 is into whorology big time

 

[Feefo]

Some notes on the oldest watch brands – Jules Jurgensen, 1740 (actually 1773...?)

There's conflicting sources about names and year of founding.
Jules Jürgensen founded the company in 1773 in Denmark in partnership with Isaac Larpent (1711 - 1788), a finnish born watchmaker. The 1740 date may simply be a mistake or maybe Jürgensen already operated in 1740. (Just so you know there are other important brands I will cover before actually getting to 1773, among others VC and Arnold & son).
There's not much information on Jules Jürgensen himself, but we know that Isaac Larpent de Tripian's family was a huguenot family of French descent who left France to escape the plague. He moved to Kopenhagen with 12 with the mother, the 2 of them the only remnants of a once 11-people family. Larpent began his watchmaking apprenticeship with 12 and finished after 8 years. Before his partnership with Jürgensen he had built about 150 watches.
According to some sources, Jules Jürgensen was the Danish Court's watchmaker.

Larpent & Jürgensen was taken over by Jules' (some name him Jürgen) son Urban in 1811 upon the former's death. Urban is the more significant character in the watch brand's history.

Urban Jürgensen (1776 - 1830) was sent by his father to Neuchàtel and Geneva to learn watchmaking. 1797 he moved to LeLocle to work with Jacques-Frédéric Houriet, and then to Paris where he maybe worked at Breguet's and/or Berthoud's. During this time, he was financed by a 800-taler (silver coins) scholarship granted by the Danish Court. After that he went to London to study Marine Chronometry with John Arnold.
Eventually he returned to Kopenhagen and founded a company (together with Etienne Magnin) that built marine chronometers.
Urban Jürgensen was the first watchmaker to become a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences. In 1815, the Danish King Frederick VI appointed him Royal Court Clockmaker and granted him the exclusive right to supply the Admiralty with chronometers with the title of Royal Sea Clockmaker.

Urban Jürgensen's sons Jules-Frédérique and Louis Urban took over the company upon their father's death in 1830. They changed the name of their father's factory to "Urban Jürgensen & Sønner", which was also the company name.
Meanwhile, the epicenter of the family's business had somehow moved to Switzerland, although they kept production facilities in Kopenhagen as well. 1836 is the official date of the founding of a subsidiary in LeLocle.

It is unclear how the division of labour of the two brothers worked, but it appears that Jules-Frédérique (known simply as "Jules") was way more succesful and talented than his brother and that they somehow managed separate businesses - Urban Jürgensen & Sønner and Jules Jürgensen. In Le Locle, he initially worked with his uncle on his mother's side, Jules Houriet, and developed a characteristic type of pocket watch, the "Jürgensen caliber". The design of the watches was such that they could be produced in large quantities. He acquired a considerable fortune and bought the Le Châtelard estate in Les Brenets. Jules was friends with the French physicist François Arago and the storyteller Hans Christian Andersen. Around 1850, he moved to Paris to the Rue de l'Escale. In 1860, he was based at 24 rue Croix-des-Petits-Champs. In 1865, he patented a watch winding and time setting system. From 1870 to 1880, Gustave Sandoz was his representative in Paris at the Galerie de Valois. Jürgensen was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1874.

In 1872, Jules Jürgensen retired from the business and handed it over to his son Jules (Frédéric) Urban. Jules Jürgensen produced 13,000 watches in Switzerland, signed Jules Jürgensen Copenhagen. He worked very closely with Urban Jürgensen & Sønner Copenhagen. His main export country became the USA. In 1858 he entered into a partnership with the movement supplier Emile Perret. Jules Jürgensen not only had his father's talent, but was also an excellent businessman. He benefited greatly from his family, the Houriets and the relationships he had built up.

By 1912 the family line died, but although we don't have to keep up with their naming chaos anymore (Jules > Urban > Jules-Frédérique - Louis Urban > Jules Urban...) the company's history remains quite animated.
Jules Jürgensen changed ownership some times, it was sold to a U.S.-based company in 1936, but watches were still produced in Switzerland until 1957, when the documentation shows the watches were made by other manufacturers and branded with the Jürgensen name.

In 1974, Mort Clayman, a watch distributor in the U.S. purchased the company. According to the company's website, it has ceased operation, but is still honoring warranties. Mort Clayman died in January 2010, and his survivors closed the company. In 2011, Dr. Helmut Crott, owner of Urban Jürgensen & Sønner acquired the rights from the Clayman family.

In 2021 renowned Finnish watchmaker Kari Voutilainen together with a group of investors acquired the Urban Jürgensen company and was appointed as its CEO.

The website of Urban Jürgensen is a one-pager that promises the issue of high-horology pieces for the 250th anniversary... in 2023.... no signs yet.

Jürgensen watches are mostly classic dress watches with a lot of Breguet influence, but there's some modern designs, too.

 

[Feefo]

Some notes on the oldest watch brands – DuBois et Fils, 1751 (registered 1785)

DuBois claims to be the oldest watch "factory" in Switzerland from 1785. As usual in this cases, the claim is controversial, we have many examples above but the most notable one would be Vacheron Constantin which was in production since 1755. One probably could argue about the definition of "factory", as we have seen one-man shows, little workshops and manufactures so far, what would be what?
Be that as it may, let's start with the brand's history.

The horologic history of DuBois starts with Moise DuBois, who takes over the family's textile trading company in 1720. So the family's heritage is in trading, looking at some pictures and documents you can see how this must have been an affluent upper middle-class merchant family. There is no horology tradition nor members of the family who have studied watchmaking. It's businessmen. In 1743 Moise starts trading with pocket watches and in 1751 he starts producing them in LeLocle, undoubtedly using third party watchmakers.

1760 the company is taken over by Moise's offspring and changes the name in Philippe DuBois et Soeur (poor sister Isabeau, no gender equality at that time, right...). Finally, once Philippe's 3 (?) sons enter the company, they officially register it as DuBois et Fils. According to records, Abraham-Louis Perrelet supplied Philippe DuBois' company with movements, gear train bridges, repeaters, etc.

As a textile/cloth merchant, DuBois had already built up extensive business relationships in Europe and America. This gave the watch business an excellent start. Philippe DuBois & Fils started sales in the USA in 1804. In the 19th century, Du Bois & Fils continued to build up its own stores in countries such as Germany, Holland, Spain and America and flourished. The Frankfurt branch was particularly important due to its proximity to the trade fairs. Over the years, the company became more and more of a trading house and the production of its own watches became less important.

DuBois et fils added the first wristwatches to its catalogue in 1910. The "Autorist" wristwatch with automatic winding via the movement of the lugs is launched in 1931. In 1950, the company decided to concentrate on the production of limited edition timepieces. In the 1980s, the last generation of DuBois owners (Charles Kaussler-DuBois) sells the family business to a German company.

Since then, the brand changed hands a couple of times. Eventually, Thomas Steinemann, an experienced watch manager (background in Fossil and Montres Antima SA) and passionate 'watch aficionado', becomes the new owner of Philippe DuBois & Fils SA in 2010. Two years later, DuBois et fils is the first luxury watch brand in the world to launch a share-based crowdfunding campaign via the company's own website. Within 5 months, a total of 587 people from 21 countries subscribe to DuBois et fils shares and invest CHF 1.5 million in the traditional Swiss brand.

A new crowdfunding round starts in 2017, partly to gain more ambassadors and develop new collections. And they try to finance a deal of buying 275,000 vintage Swiss mechanical movements from a Swiss collector. The goal is to use these movements in new watch collections. When this crowdfunding round closes, there are about 900 shareholders from 31 countries. They have 34% of the shares, CEO Thomas Steinemann holds 66%.

The company mainly produces exclusive, complicated wristwatches, mostly with mechanical movements. New is the use of tokenized historical movements such as Record Watch Calibre 1959-2, Calibre AS 1895, AS 1985 or Bidynator by Felsa 692 or 4007 N. The Felsa 692 caliber was sold out in 2022 after only a few days. Each movement is built into a new DBF watch and connected to a blockchain (I'll be damned if I know what that means, apart that we live in a mad world....).

Today, anyone can buy a piece of the company and become a minority shareholder.

From a design perspective, DuBois never really contributed much to the development of new stuff and concentrate today much more on creating unique products marketingwise (coupled with NFTs), but they did/do a decent job with the designs, but nothing too original (the dress watches are to my taste, others less so...). I admit the lug-movement winding mechanism is quite a curiosity, but that waas a one-off exploit.

Now to some eyecandy.

 

[Feefo]

Some notes on the oldest watch brands – Ferdinand Berthoud, 1753

"Among the immense and marvellous productions of mechanics, the art of time measurement by clocks holds pride of place, both for its usefulness and for the varied scope of its inventions".


Now this is an interesting one, not much in terms of marketing but real science.
Ferdinand Berthoud was born 1727 to a clockmaking family in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Clockmaking wasn't the only activity of the family, they actually diversified in different technical crafts and held public positions. It was an influential family who put a good deal of value in proper education.

Ferdinand started his watchmaking apprenticeship with 14 at his brother's workshop and obtained his certificate in 4 years.

Now 18, armed with his skills and probably a decent amount of letters of recommendation, he moved to Paris to improve his skills working with master watchmakers of the French capital as a journeyman. During the reign of Louis XV (1710-1774), 18th century Paris was undergoing an unprecedented period of intellectual influence and scientific inquiry. This was the Age of Enlightenment. Knowledge was the holy grail of all scholars, writers and philosophers, whose research enjoyed the encouragement and support of The French Royal Academy of Sciences. This was the specific context in which Ferdinand Berthoud's expertise as a scientific engineer, his manual skill and his gift for mechanics were able to flourish, marking him out as one of the greatest horologists of the time.

The cherry on the cake of his endeavors occurred in 1753, when, by order of the French Royal Council Ferdinand Berthoud became a master at the age of 26, receiving the official title of Master Watchmaker by special favour of the King himself. One of the deciding factors may have been his equation clock marking leap years, demonstrating his mastery of the art of horology.

From 1755 onwards, Ferdinand Berthoud was entrusted with the task of writing a number of reference articles on watchmaking for the Encyclopédie méthodique, published between 1751 and 1772 under the direction of the writer and philosopher Diderot.

Now starts the work of Berthoud as a scientist and his endeavors to finance and build mil-spec marine chronometers - the mil-spec term used figuratively here, military specification at the time was made by who made the best chronometers that were capable of standing tests of the Navy. Forerunners and best craft in this field was held in England. At the time, both France and England were offering substantial rewards to the first person to discover a practical method for accurately determining the east-west position of a boat on the ocean, a problem that greatly influenced navigation and history from the start of marine exploration. Just think of Magellan and his promise to the King of Spain to demonstrate that the Moluccas were on the Spanish side of the longitude set by the treaty of Tordesillas in which Portugal and Spain split up the world for their exploitation. Although his ambition allowed for the discovery of the Magellan's strait and the first circumnavigation of the globe, the disappointment upon the discovery he wasn't where he had believed may have influenced the decisions that brought to his death in the Philippines. But this is another story altogether. Back to the 18th century.

1763 Berthoud was appointed by the King to inspect the H4 sea watch made by John Harrison in London, the first of several attempts to find out more about it. Harrison refused and only showed him the prior versions (H1 - H3) upon payment of a fee. On a later occasion Harrison demanded the payment of an exorbitant and impossible fee (£4,000) only to explain how his H4 worked. Fortunately though, it was the English horologist Thomas Mudge (1715–1795), famous for his development of the first detached lever escapement and a member of the Board of Longitude, who described the working principle of the H4 watch to Berthoud, without him being able to see it for himself. His trips to London allowed him nonetheless to expand his network and broadcast his work with the local scientific community and 1764 he even became an "associate foreign member" of the Royal Society in London.

In the folowing years, Berthoud developed and build a number of sea watches which were tried and tested by the French navy. His work earned him 1770 the title of Horologist-Mechanic by appointment to the King and the Navy, with an annual allowance of £3,000 (compare this figure with Harrison's demand earlier) and responsibility for inspecting the construction of sea clocks. He received a royal commission for 20 sea clocks. Ferdinand Berthoud's clocks soon became a success and were used on board ship for various test campaigns and charting voyages.

In 17951, Berthoud was elected First Class Resident Member of the Mechanical Arts section of France's National Institute (Institut de France). Following the French Revolution, Berthoud moved in to the Louvre and received an allowance from the State, continuing to work on his clocks and maintain sea clocks. His most important priority, however, was the publication of his most significant work: Histoire de la Mesure du temps (1802).

On 17 July 1804, Napoleon made Berthoud a Knight of the Legion of Honour, as a member of the institute. He died childless at the age of 80 in 1807. He left a legacy of countless publications on horology and, more specifically, sea chronometry. As a determined experimenter, a skilled and daring craftsman, and an inventor keen to pass on his knowledge, Ferdinand Berthoud not only made a contribution to the advance of watchmaking but also promoted the use of precision clocks in the sciences of his day, thus contributing to progress in these various disciplines. He is the only watchmaker to have published the findings of all his research in a detailed, methodical manner. Gifted with a genuine spirit of scientific engineering and an extraordinary capacity for work, Ferdinand Berthoud performed more experiments than any other watchmaker of his day.

Meanwhile at work.... the actual watchmaking workshop had been entrusted since 1770 to his nephew Henry first and Pierre-Louis after, the latter also a gifted watchmaker and good businessman. Upon his death 1813, his Widow entrusts the company to Jean François Henri Motel (who had been apprentice of Pierre-Louis) until her sons are old enough to take it over. This happens in 1817. Jean-Louis and Charles-Auguste Berthoud take over the company and after that their timepieces bore the signature “Berthoud Frères”. Charles-Auguste is the technical one of the brothers and after his death in 1876 the brand goes into a coma.

Several new owners of the brand name follow, until 2006 when the history of Ferdinand Berthoud continues. Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, the Co-President of Chopard, hears about plans that someone was about to re-launch the brand. Scheufele is a member of the Scheufele family who runs Chopard since 1963 and he probably was looking for new business opportunities. The result: Chopard buys the brand name and creates a new company. Chopards L.U.C division develops new movements especially for Ferdinand Berthoud. In 2015 Chopard officially relaunches the brand.

Today the brand produces pieces of high horology, beatifully crafted and tastefully designed to bring forward their scientific character. They're really a pleasure to loook at, I can think of a couple of members who, judging by what I see here on RWI, would love these pieces (@C Master , @Horace_Derwent , @GrandmasterChime @Procurator maybe?).

On one of the historic pieces you will notice the motto "Invenit et fecit" that today is widely used by F.P. Journe.

Here we go to the eyecandy.

 

[DiggerOfWatches]

Great thread @Feefo

 

[C Master]

Invenit et fecit

I admire any brand with feck it as their motto

 

[Feefo]

Some notes on the oldest watch brands – Vacheron Constantin, 1755

We finally got to our first heavy hitter. Vacheron Constantin legitimately holds a place in the so-called Holy Trinity of Watches with Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet.

Before starting a quarrel about the righteousness of this exclusive club’s members (“Hey why isn’t A. Lange und Söhne in the club? They make better watches!”) a side note. The term “Holy Trinity” (or “the Big Three”) was coined as far back as the 70’s. At that time, those 3 brands were the only ones making high horology (and business) despite the quartz crisis and socio-historical changes. A. Lange und Söhne was re-established only after the re-unification of Germany in 1990, Blancpain was out of business at that time, Breguet wasn’t doing particularly good then, Jaeger LeCoultre was more into movement manufacturing rather than making watches and, well, Grand Seiko was just a lineup in Seiko’s palette, who at the time was more into Quartz anyway. So this is why, in that particular historical moment’s view, those 3 brands were considered the bulwark of high horology and craftsmanship.

Back to VC. Among the Big Three, and also among today’s top manufacturers, Vacheron Constantin holds the record of oldest watchmaking manufacture in uninterrupted activity for almost 269 years. Which means that among the brands presented so far in this thread this is the first one which continuously and consistently manufactured watches under the same name until today, hence probably the real oldest watch manufacturer in the world.

Jean-Marc Vacheron (1731 – 1805) was youngest of a master weaver’s five sons and was introduced early on to manual trades. On September 17th, 1755 an official document proves he took up his first apprentice watchmaker, marking this as his workshop’s founding date. He was 24 years old.

Vacheron was a cabinotier-watchmaker, he specialized in the production of single components selling them to etablisseurs – those putting a watch together from parts. Nevertheless Vacheron Constantin also manufactured whole watches, the most ancient example being this silver pocket watch fitted with a verge (or crown wheel) escapement. His timepieces bore the name J.M: Vacheron A GENEVE. The name “cabinotier” comes from the well-lit cabinets on the top floors of buildings where the watchmakers worked. From the onset, Vacheron’s work was characterized by high-grade craftsmanship which allowed him to acquire notoriety. Among his achievements the creation of his first complication in 1770 and the design of the first engine-turned dials in 1779.



1785 Jean-Marc’s son Abraham (1760 – 1843) took over the business and widened the clientele among the French nobility. This ended abruptly in 1789 with the French Revolution, but Abraham managed to keep up the business and teaching his son Jacques-Barthélémi the trade. A big milestone in VC’s history and horology at large was the production of the first known Lépine-style watch (according to VC website).

Jean-Antoine Lépine (1720 – 1814) was a French watchmaker, teacher to Breguet, official clockmaker to Louis XV, Louis XVI and Napoleon, inventor, among others, of his namesake calibre. Many consider Lepine the inventor of the modern “watch” as opposed to a “clock”. Before his invention, pocket watches were just small portable clocks, with the wheel train sandwiched between two plates and the balance placed on top. Lépine invented an entirely new way of constructing a watch on a single main plate, dispensing with the fusée and chain ( When winding the movement, the fusee chain would unwind from the mainspring barrel and transfer over to the fusee. As the watch winds down, there is a loss of torque in the mainspring, that’s where the fusee saves the day with “constant force”. The fusee balances out the distribution of force from unwinding mainspring, which in turn improves accuracy) and placing the balance on the same plane as the wheel train. Rather than sandwiching the wheels between two plates separated by pillars, Lépine screwed bridges and cocks to the main plate. This allowed for much slimmer watches, improved durability, and made assembly and maintenance easier. The invention was credited for giving French watchmakers an advantage over the then-dominant of English in the mid 19th century. But the Swiss took even more advantage of the invention, since the Swiss manufacturing
was more fitting to an industrial-style value chain than the French one, who was more focused on bespoke handmade timepieces.
The more superficial definition of a Lépine-style watch as opposed to a Hunter-style watch is that the former will have the crown positioned at 12 in a vertical line to the seconds subdial at 6, whereas the Hunter will have the crown at 3 o’clock.

End of the, a bit long-winded but necessary, footnote to highlight how the brand was at the front in the implementation of innovative technologies coupled with artistic craftsmanship and industrial production techniques at the same time.

These 3 pillars are perfectly embodied by the 3rd generation of Vacheron. Jacques-Barthélémi Vacheron takes the reins of the family enterprise in 1810, he starts producing more complicated watches and introduces a 4th deciding pillar in VC’s success formula: business development. It is him who promotes the expansion of the business in France and Italy.


To enhance the business aspect, 1819 Jacques-Barthélémi partnered with François Constantin (1788 – 1854) and together they founded the new company named Vacheron & Constantin. Constantin traveled throughout Europe for decades, opening up numerous markets for Vacheron et Constantin products. The first agencies in the United States were established in 1830, with Jean Magnin in New York and Brey in New Orleans. He also coined the company's motto, which is still valid today: "Faire mieux si possible, ce qui est toujours possible" (transl.: Do better if possible, and that is always possible).

At this point we have Jacques-Barthélémi Vacheron who drives the technical part, François Constantin who oversees the business and to top it off François’ brother Abraham (1788 – 1855) , official painter of the French court in 1826, lends his artistic sense to some of the brand’s creations and gave access to Europe’s high society.



In 1839, the history of watchmaking as a whole was radically changed by the appointment of Georges Auguste Leschot as technical director. He developed and built the first machines that enabled the mass production of watch parts, in particular the pantograph.



Until then, no watch part could be replaced by another, as all parts were manufactured manually and therefore inevitably exhibited irregularities. By supplementing manual work with machine production, Vacheron et Constantin revolutionized watchmaking and also made it possible to considerably speed up the marketing of the now industrially manufactured products.

Charles-César Vacheron (1812 – 1868), Jacques-Barthélémi’s son, took up management in 1844. Under his steer the company increased the development process of the manufacture and expanded in new markets such as Spain, Cuba, India and China. However, other sources state that Jean- François Constantin (François’ son) took over the management of the company. In 1864, the company set up its first sales outlets in the USA. The company was renamed César Vacheron & Co in 1867 and Charles Vacheron & Cie two years later. The company was renamed Vve. César Vacheron & Cie and renamed Vacheron & Constantin, Fabricants in 1877.

On December 18, 1880, Vacheron Constantin registered a "Maltese cross" as the brand's logo, which has since been added to the name as a trademark. It is a replica of a small wheel on the barrel cover, which was once used to limit the winding of the spring, thereby improving the rate of the watch.



In 1887, Vacheron & Constantin was reorganized into a joint-stock company. Notably, in the same year, Fabergé's 1887 Third Imperial Egg contained a Vacheron Constantin Lady's watch as the surprise. For the remarkable achievements of the company, Vacheron & Constantin was awarded a gold medal at the Swiss National Exhibition in Geneva in 1887. It was not the only prize they won. VC participated to both chronometry competitions and international exhibitions, collecting a lot of awards. 1906 VC opened its first boutique in Geneva.



WW I veteran Charles Constantin (1887 – 1954), trained watchmaker, became head of the company in 1936 inheriting a company that had taken heavy tolls from the Great Depression. To strengthen the company, Charles entered into an agreement with Jaeger-LeCoultre who had some work collaborations with VC. The deal was brought by JLC Director of Marketing Georges Ketterer and JLC Administrative Director Paul Lebet. 1938 the 2 companies signed the unification under the Holding name SAPIC. One of the directors of Vacheron Constantin, Henri Wallner, became managing director of SAPIC. Charles Constantin remained in his executive position.

However, Charles Constantin’s days were numbered and in 1940 Georges Ketterer eventually acquired the majority portion of the stock of Vacheron & Constantin from him, although Charles remained executive director until 1949.

Ketterer took over more and more leading functions in the Holding and at JLC, but eventually in 1965 he left the SAPIC Holding and became CEO of Vacheron & Constantin which was divested from the Holding. Ketterer died 1969.

End of the ‘70s the “&” disappeared from the company’s name and the dials. From 1985 to 1996 now Vacheron Constantin was owned by a former Saudi Oil Minister and eventually sold to the Vendôme Luxury Group (today Richemont). With the acquisition of Haut de Gamme, a manufacturer of watch movements, Vacheron Constantin finally became a watch manufacturer again in 1998.

In 2004, Vacheron Constantin opened its new headquarters and manufacture in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva. The Vacheron Constantin headquarters building in Geneva was designed by famous architect Bernard Tschumi, and has been noted for its architectural significance. In October 2005, the Richemont Group named Juan Carlos Torres as the chief executive officer of the company. Currently, the company is an active member of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH, and produces about 20,000 timepieces per year.


Although Vacheron Constantin can claim the oldest and richest history of the Big Three, it actually is the least appreciated. Maybe because Patek and AP are still privately owned while VC is part of a Holding, maybe because the other two brands were managed and marketed better in the last decades.

Be that as it may, Vacheron Constantin is a brand that produced some exquisite designs and stunning horology complications.


This quarter repeater watch with enamel dial, guilloché and engraved case back from the Vacheron Constantin collection is representative of VC's early watchmaking technical mastering.


Pocket watch made for the American automobile engineer and horological collector, James Ward Packard. The clockwatch rings the hours and quarters in passing in the grand strike mode, while the small strike omits the hours at each quarter. In addition, this extraordinary timepiece strikes the half-quarters. Among its other features are a Guillaume compensation balance, a rock-crystal glass and a 20-carat gold engraved case with the owner’s monogram in blue enamel on the back.


In 1929 the Swiss residents of Egypt presented this timepiece to King Fuad I. It combines a chronograph, a perpetual calendar, a minute-repeater and a grand/small-strike clockwatch in a masterstroke of watchmaking. The royal arms in enamel decorate the caseback. The yellow-gold pocket-watch has a silvered dial with 10 arabic numerals in black, an aperture for the day and date at 12 o'clock, a subdial for the month and year at 9 o'clock, a 30-minute counter at 3 o'clock and the age and phases of the moon with the small seconds at 6 o'clock.


In 1932, a collaboration with Mr. Cottier resulted in the creation of the very first «Cottier system» World Time watch - known as ref. 3372. Its unique mechanical movement shows 24 time zones using a disc rotating around the central dial and an external bezel on which are inscribed the names of 31 major world cities. It was the first-born of a useful complication still present in our offer today.


1946 Vacheron Constantin creates one of its most complicated watches for King Farouk, son of King Fuad I of Egypt, who inherited his father’s appreciation of fine watchmaking. It took five years to compete this masterpiece, combining 14 complications.


Marlon Brando received this watch ref. 4877 with handmade guilloché dial as a gift from Zsa Zsa Gabor on the 24th June 1954, to celebrate his Oscar as Best Actor.


1955 VC launches the thinnest ever manually wound movement; at 1.64mm it is a thin as a Swiss 20 cents coin. The calibre 1003, today bearing the Hallmark of Geneva, has become representative of the ultra-thin movements.


The anti-magnetic and water-resistant case in yellow gold protects a column-wheel chronograph movement with an elapsed-time counter. A shield of soft iron protects the movement from magnetic fields. The dial displays a 30-minute counter at 3 o'clock and small seconds at 9 o'clock.


In June 1972, the French government awards Vacheron Constantin the rare and coveted Diplôme du Prestige de la France. VC launched a new design wristwatch that featured an asymmetrical curved case and an oval movement. Vacheron Constantin thus became the first watchmaking company to win such an honour.


Launched in 1977 as a celebration of the VC's 222nd anniversary. Its monobloc case on a fitted bracelet features a porthole-style screw-held bezel. Thanks to its unique character, this iconic model has become over the past 40 years one of the most recognizable Vacheron Constantin designs, inspiring the other recognizable line, the Overseas collection.


1996 marks the birth of the Overseas collection with which Vacheron Constantin embraces the technical and sports side of fine watchmaking.


To commemorate its quarter millennium, Vacheron Constantin launches a collection of five outstanding creations that pay tribute to all the crafts involved in the Maison art of watchmaking. At this occasion, VC presented a unique mystery clock in a pink-gold sphere engraved by hand which reveals a highly complicated watch and the Tour de l'Île watch, the most complicated watch ever made. The Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève awarded the "Aiguille d'Or" Grand Prize to Vacheron Constantin’s Tour de l'Île watch.


Revealed on September 17th 2015, at the occasion of VC’s 260th anniversary, Reference 57260 is the most complicated watch ever made. It was conceived over a period of 8 years and combines a total of 57 complications.

This is just a little part of VC's wide array of watches going from sheer elegance to sophisticated complexity. It's a brand that deserves more love from the watchlovers as well as from the rep industry. There's so many pieces I'd like to see repped, but unfortunately my taste is not what the market demands.

Here another couple of pics to showcase VC's variety of designs. I urge you to go to VC's website and have a look. Enjoy.

 

[Feefo]

Some notes on the oldest watch brands – Gevril, 1758

I can already hear you. Ge...who???? Yes, it's one of those, a story we've already seen here, some Marketer looked for a renowned watchmaker of the past to build a brand. Although in this case renowned may be a bit overrated, since the information about Gevril is very sparse. But then, I'm from Europe and it appears that Gevril's main market today is in the Americas. Let's start.

The story begins with Jacques Gevril. Jacques was a lucky man, as a young "worker", maybe an apprentice, he helped Jaquet Droz in the building of the automata that were to be presented in the Royal Court of Spain. He then accompanied JD to Spain and decided to stay there, eventually becoming the official Court's watchmaker and building his fortune.
The (alleged?) milestones of his career were 1742, when he "created his first chronometer", 1744 when he "designed his first repetition dial" and finally 1758 when he is named watchmaker to the King of Spain, marking the founding year of the brand. 1760 he also "designed his Louis XV verge escapement clock, the earliest known mechanical movement, including an alarm, eight days power reserve, pull repeater, and blued steel hands".

Moyse Gevril (1749 - 1791), Jaques' son, was born and remained in Le Locle, where he learned watchmaking becoming master watchmaker in 1784. He made pocket watches with automatic winding by means of an oscillating weight. He delivered watches to Ph. Du Bois & Fils, in the archives of Du Bois he is recorded with 18 watches, probably with automatic winding. Moyse founded the company Moyse Gevril & Fils.


Automatic pocket watch with full calendar and early oscillating weight winding movement Case: 18k pink gold, polished, fluted bezel, case maker's punch mark "DFML", lever to stop the centre seconds, large lateral hinge. Dial: enamel, eccentric hour indicator with Roman numerals, centre seconds, subsidiary chapter ring indicating the weekdays and the date, subsidiary chapter ring indicating the months with the numbers of days, power reserve indicator, signed, gold hands. Movm.: oscillating weight winding movement, firegilt, frosted, signed, cylinder escapement.

Other works by Moyse Gevril:


A Daniel Gevril continues the family business, concentrating mainly on dial design and perfecting enamelling techniques. So it may be assumed that Gevril became mainly an OEM supplier.



Then, oblivion, or, almost.
Another Daniel Gevril (1794 - 1875), son to a "clock and watchmaker Jonas Pierre François Gevril de Carouge" does not follow the family's footsteps and becomes a painter, with little involvement in watchmaking (he is said to have been active in enamelling dials in 1829 - 1830).

The "lineage" pretty much dies out here. It's fun to read the story on Gevril's website. An excerpt:
"Echelons of time bore witness to the enduring flame of Gevril's legacy, carried forth by succeeding generations of the Gevril lineage. Figures such as Moyse Gevril and Daniel Gevril cast their own indelible imprints upon the horological canvas, their ingenuity marked by the genesis of novel horological mechanisms and the finesse of enameling artistry. The present day finds Gevril's pocket watches coveted as objets d'art of supreme rarity, with one enshrined within the hallowed halls of Muséum Genève, and another nestled amongst the treasures held dear by the venerable Wilsdorf family, architects of Rolex's opulent dynasty". The webiste goes on exposing the history of Le Locle's watchmaking as if Gevril had something to do with it.

Continued from Gevril's website:
"The dawn of the 1990s bore witness to a Swiss luminary who would rekindle the dormant embers of Gevril's name, unveiling an exquisite line of timepieces under its banner at the esteemed Basel Fair in 1995. Yet, it was in the year 2001 that Gevril's resplendent phoenix truly soared, as a visionary Swiss magnate, adorned with an ardor for horology, assumed the mantle of Gevril's stewardship. Acknowledging the profound significance enshrined within the Gevril legacy, he aspired to invigorate its prominence within the contemporary pantheon of watchmaking. A steadfast determination to restore the brand to its opulent zenith burgeoned within his heart".

Give me a sec, I have to puke...

In 1994, the UTC (Union Trading Company International - International distributors of Audemars Piguet, Breguet, Breitling, Bertolucci and Girard-Perregaux.) based in Basel, which distributed products ranging from textiles, office communication, cosmetics, jewelry & watches, wanted to have its own brand, and so it was decided to revive a genius from the past.

Thus the manufacturer, the Gevril brand, was revived.

Gevril now built watches (three-hand watches & chronographs) with bought-in movements and developed the UCI = Unlocked Crown Indicator, a warning indicator for an incorrectly screwed-in crown. The various models were limited to a maximum of 500 pieces.

Hardly noticed in Europe, Gevril watches sold very well in Japan and Taiwan. In 1996, over 4000 watches were sold in the Far East.

The good fortune was short-lived, however, because in 1997 UTC International AG merged with B. AG. In 1998, the latter was transformed into a financial holding company with no operational activities. The end again.

But it so happened that Samuel Friedmann acquired the historic Swiss watch company Gevril in 2001 and realized his early dream of owning a renowned watch brand.

Today, Gevril has a strong presence in the Americas and the Caribbean. Headquartered near New York, Gevril is a Swiss manufacturer of "elegant, technologically innovative" watches.

Still almost unknown in Europe.

Gevril's design today is.... nauseating, especially considering the price point. If you think I'm being harsh, take a look at this and bear in mind prices go from 2k up to 30k$+. Outrageous. Before you look at them, bear also in mind what they say about their watches today: "in the Gevril workshops, production revels in the astute craftsmanship and spirit of 250 years ago". Very astute, you gotta give them that...



The crazy hours "homage" retails at 30k$+. The Daytona copy at 7k$ + with an ETA movement....

Well, these aren't that bad, I guess:


Well, it's all about marketing, isn't it (according to their site, that's "Martin Sheet"....)

 

[Feefo]

Some notes on the oldest watch brands – Arnold & Son, 1764 (?)

While we've seen before how entrepreneurs will buy an old watch brand's name to boost marketing and launch their own one, in this case we may have a case of intellectual property infringement.

Today's "Arnold & Son" claiming a heritage going back to 1764 is a company today owned by Citizen Holding Co. Ltd. of Japan since 2012. This brand seems to have no connection whatsoever with the original brand founded by John Arnold. As a matter of fact, the true Arnold watch company was bought 1843 by British watchmaker Charles Frodsham. It is unclear whether Frodsham is still the legitimate owner of the name's rights or not, since Frodsham apparently stopped using the Arnold name 14 years after the acquisition. Frodsham may have sold the name, but more probably preferred to establish himself with his own brand name (as he did).

Be that as it may, in 1995 the name Arnold & Son was registered (or aquired?) by the Swiss company Les Monts SA. They also (re-)launched the brand Arnold & Son. Les Monts SA, renamed into The British Masters SA in 2000, also has or had the rights on the names of British watchmakers Graham and Tompion (the first modern collection of the Graham and Arnold & Son brands were launched in 1998). They sold the name (and the newly started company) Arnold & Son to a firm called La Joux-Perret in 2010. And La Joux-Perret sold Arnold & Son to the Citizen Group in 2012. Is it the Arnold & Son that John Arnold started? Not likely. Is it legal? Yes. You can only dispute the fact that this newly started company kind of borrowed and mixed the history of the original company. Oh, and, obviously today the can sell "swiss made" watches...

Let's just start with the real John Arnold (1736 - 1799) and shed light on the consistency of 1764 as founding year...
John Arnold was apprenticed by his own father, also a clockmaker and may have also worked with the uncle, a gunsmith. 1755 he left England for the Netherlands to work as a watchmaker, returning 1757 with more knowledge and speaking fluently German, which would be of advantage in the future working with the King's court.

In 1762 he meets a William McGuire, for whom he repairs a repeating watch. Impressed by his skill, McGuire granted him a loan to set up shop in London's Strand. So 1762 could be seen as a consistent date for the start of the official business.

In 1764 Arnold was introduced to King George III whom he presented a half quarter-repeating watch mounted in a ring. George promptly granted him 500 guineas for this piece (around 40k GBP purchasing power in today's money).

Arnold made another watch for the King around 1768, which was a gold and enamel pair cased watch with a movement that had every refinement, including minute repetition and centre seconds motion. In addition, Arnold fitted bi-metallic temperature compensation, and not only was every pivot hole jewelled but the escapement also had a stone cylinder made of ruby or sapphire. Arnold designated this watch "Number 1", as he did with all watches he made that he regarded as significant, these numbering twenty in all.



However refined, these creations were a demonstration of his skills and made mainly for the export. Arnold's real passion and ingenuity came when dealing with marine chronometers. As we've seen also in Berthoud's story, the 18th century challenge of being able to establish the exact longitude in marine navigation was of paramount importance for a successful exploration of the seas - that is, one which successfully took the navigators safely back home... The problem was so important that the British Parliament issued the Longitude Act, granting a reward of 20.000 pounds (approx. 2M pounds in today's money) to whoever was able to solve the longitude problem.
Harrison's H4 marine timekeeper was regarded as a benchmark in this respect, but it was highly complicated and only a handful of watchmakers would have been able to replicate it. Lorcum Kendall managed to build a copy of the H4, but it wasn't as precise and cost about 450 pounds, a quarter of a ship's value at the time, too expensive for the Admirality to equip its fleet.

It was Nevil Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal, who encouraged Arnold to work on marine chronometers by providing him with copies of Harrison's work. Long story short, Arnold soon was able to present a model to the Board of Longitude which he could produce for "just" 60 pounds each. Although similar in appearance to Harrison's H4, his timekeeper housed a movement that, though relatively simple, was close to the same size as Harrison's, with a balance of a similar diameter. The radical difference, however, was a newly designed escapement that featured a horizontally placed pivoted detent (arresting device) that allowed the balance to vibrate freely, except when impulsed by the escape wheel.

This was the start of Arnold's work on marine chronometers which contributed the most to his notoriety. Compared to Harrison's complicated and expensive watch, Arnold's basic design was simple whilst consistently accurate and mechanically reliable. Importantly, the relatively simple and conventional design of his movement facilitated its production in quantity at a reasonable price whilst also enabling easier maintenance and adjustment. Arnold's timekeeping machines were tried and tested in numerous occasions and accompanied for example Cook's expedition. All this time, the Board of Longitude observed and recorded the results, continuing to fund Arnold's research over many years.



In parallel, Arnold continued producing technologically advanced pocket watches and broke the ground for new techniques in watchmaking especially focussed on eliminating on any imprecisions in timekeeping. Hi most important invention, object of his second patent (Arnold started patenting his inventions when he saw that other watchmakers were copying him and making money with his work...), was the overcoil balance spring. Through continuous experimentation, he worked out a way to make an effective but simple form of compensation balance. At the same time, he discovered a simple modification to his helical balance spring that let develop concentrically and, also, confer the property of isochronism (the property of an event re-occurring at equal time intervals) on the oscillating balance. Not only this, but adjustments to the compensation balance and the balance spring could be carried out in a simple, calculated way. These were the main subjects of the patent, which he took out in 1782.

The balance consisted of a circular steel balance wheel with two bimetallic strips attached diametrically. Each bimetallic strip terminated with a screw thread mounted with a weight or balance nut. The further along the strip this nut was screwed, the greater the compensating effect. Another part of the patent concerned an addition to the form of the balance spring—a coil of smaller radius at each end of the helical spring, which offered increasing resistance to the rotating balance as it turned towards the end of each vibration. This was an important invention, as it largely eliminated the problem of the positional adjustment of balance controlled watches. This device, known as the Overcoil balance spring, is still used today in most precision mechanical watches.



It's worth noting that improvements on Arnold's design were object of numerous debates about plagiarism, who invented what first, which original idea was at the crux of an improvement or not. Especially workman and escapement maker Thomas Earnshaw had a long quarrel with Arnold over the compensation balance and detent escapement improvements.

Who did not have this kind of problem with Arnold was Breguet.
The French watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet became a great friend of Arnold. In 1792, the Duke of Orleans met Arnold in London and showed him one of Breguet's clocks. Arnold was so impressed that he immediately travelled to Paris and sought permission for Breguet to take on his son as his apprentice. Arnold appears to have given Breguet carte blanche to incorporate or develop any of Arnold's inventions and techniques into his own watches. These included his balance designs, helical springs made of steel or gold, the spring detent escapement, the overcoil balance spring, and even the layout of an Arnold dial design that Breguet incorporated into his own. These were made from engine-turned gold or silver—a pattern that became the classic and distinctive Breguet dial. Arnold's pattern first appeared in 1783, on the enamel dials Arnold designed for his small chronometers, and the proportions and layout of their figuring is identical to that of the classic "Breguet" type of engine-turned metal dials which appeared around 1800, and which were quite unlike anything else made in France or Switzerland at the time.



Arnold also appears to have been the first to think of the concept of the Tourbillon; this must have derived from his known work on the recognition and elimination of positional errors. In the Tourbillon device, the balance and escapement is continuously rotated and virtually eliminates errors arising from the balance wheel not being perfectly balanced whilst in vertical positions. Arnold appears to have experimented with this idea but died in 1799, before he could develop it further. It is known that Breguet made a successful and practical Tourbillon mechanism around 1795 but, nevertheless, he acknowledged Arnold as the inventor by presenting his first Tourbillon in 1808 to Arnold's son John Roger. As a tribute to his friend Arnold Sr., he incorporated his first Tourbillon mechanism into one of Arnold's early pocket chronometers, Arnold No.11. An engraved commemorative inscription on this watch reads:

"The first Tourbillon timekeeper by Breguet incorporated into one of the first works of Arnold. Breguet's homage to the revered memory of Arnold, given to his son AD 1808."



A bit long-winded but necessary summary of John Arnold's life and contributions to horology, parallelled maybe only by Breguet.

John's son John Roger became Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in 1817. From 1787, he and his father founded the company Arnold & Son. After his father's death in 1799, John Roger continued the business, taking John Dent into partnership between 1830 and 1840.



John Roger and Dent continued supplying the Admirality with chronometers and also patenting new mechanisms. After his death in 1843, the company was bought by the horologist Charles Frodsham.

Charles Frodsham (1810 - 1871) was also a renowned clockmaker. As early as 1830 he submitted a marine chronometer for testing at the Royal Greenwich Observatory and won second prize. From 1834 Frodsham was a member of the Royal Society. In 1843 he took over the company John Arnold & Co in London.
Frodsham was for a time vice-president of the British Horological Institute and in 1845 became a member of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. In 1854 he was appointed royal clockmaker and purveyor to the court. A year later he was master of the Clockmakers Company.
A Frodsham clock was the official timekeeper when Australia was founded by the British in 1788.
The family business Charles Frodsham & Co. is still a purveyor to the British Royal Family today.



The modern Arnold & Son was born as a swiss brand leveraging on Arnold's fame, pretty much like the modern Graham watch brand. Although both brands feature high quality and technological standards, I personally find there's a fundamental lack of originality in this marketing philosophy which is transferred to their designs. This brand caters to a very restricted pool of high-income individuals, some of them may also be tech-nerds who can appreciate the technology behind the creations. Still, not as refined as ALS, but demanding similar prices. Goes without saying, for those prices they at least make the movements themselves.

 

[Feefo]

Some notes on the oldest watch brands – Manufacture Royale, 1770

None less than the enlightenment philosopher Voltaire founded this brand in 1770 in Ferney, a French town in the Jura Mountains near the Swiss border, where the philosopher lived his last 20 years.

Although Voltaire was a philosopher who firmly believed in creating an ideal society with his writings, when he came into the watchmaking business, he openly targeted the social elite to market his "exceptional watches with a touch of insolence.” He aimed for his business to be the watchmaking industry benchmark, the one all manufacturers would look up to as the standard set for the elite.

In 1770 ongoing political conflict in Geneva resulted in an influx of natif watchmakers across the French border into Ferney, where the aged Voltaire was sympathetic to their cause. Voltaire advocated a rival French commercial centre to the Swiss primate. His first reference to “the manufacture of watches at Ferney” comes in March 1770; he soon sensed that the enterprise could become "a very large business"; within six weeks he boasted that he had forty workers "telling the time to Europe".

At its height the Ferney manufactory consisted of five separate watchmaking partnerships, assisted by myriad of artisans in ancillary industries: case-makers, finishers, jewellers, enamel painters - according to Voltaire, fifty pairs of hands were needed to make a single watch. These small enterprises were named after the watchmakers: Dufour & Céret, Valentin & Dalleizette, Servant & Boursault - all Genevan "natifs"- as well as the two Frenchmen Panrier & Mauzié, who had already arrived in Ferney prior to 1770. Georges Auzière and his brother - well-known as political activists - were specialist case-makers. Voltaire provided accommodation for the industry. He also embarked on a major programme of construction within the town, devoting a considerable part of his income to building new houses for the cabinotiers and their families. It is reckoned that in total Voltaire encouraged the construction of some 78 houses.



Despite frail health, Voltaire also enthusiastically - and energetically - took on functions of the typical Geneva watch merchant or établisseur, supplying capital and raw materials and arranging sales. It is estimated there were some 600 workers, producing 4.000 watches annually.

Voltaire's initial marketing efforts largely consisted of appeals to his highly placed personal contacts. He sent a box of samples to Choiseul, to distribute at the forthcoming marriage of the dauphin and Marie-Antoinette. He sent circular letters to French ambassadors requesting them to establish outlets for the watches. As time progressed Voltaire sought out more regular markets. The watchmakers themselves had contacts with Turkish outlets: by June 1771 Voltaire boasted that 30,000 livres worth of watches had been sent to Constantinople. According his nephew d'Hornoy, in 1775 Turkey and the Levant were the principal export markets. Nearer home Voltaire managed to market Ferney products in twelve French cities, although he complained that Parisian watchmakers would resell the watches under their own names for a considerable mark-up. After initial difficulties, he was able to enlist the help of the celebrated Parisian watchmaker Jean-Antoine Lépine, who sold Ferney watches in his Parisian shop in the place Dauphine, From 1774 until 1792, Lépine also had watch movements made at Ferney, and Voltaire wrote proudly: "I am well acquainted with L'Epine, watchmaker to the King, who has an establishment at Ferney, under my dependency indeed...“



Ferney watchmakers made both watches with a verge escapement and repeater watches. Voltaire boasted that he had one of the best repeater watch manufacturers in Europe working for him; among his most successful models was a gold repeater watch decorated with semi-precious stones called marcasites. The Lépine calibre, first made around 1775, was also used at Ferney. Equal importance was dedicated to exteriors, with gold cases embellished with elaborate engraving, enamel or set with gems. Not all Ferney watches, however, were very expensive. Voltaire was aware that Genevan watches were considered over-priced and boasted that his were produced more cheaply. He was able to benefit from tax concessions which enabled him to deliver to Paris via Lyon duty free.

However passionate, Voltaire's venture was short-lived. By the time Voltaire died in 1778, the watchmaking operation had withered under competition from Geneva watchmakers. The French Revolution, in 1789, was the coup de grace.

In 2010, the brand was resuscitated by Arnaud Faivre, owner of TEC Ebauche, a Swiss watch component manufacturer.

Mr. Faivre produced two tourbillon models under the Manufacture Royale label, one of them a minute repeater chiming timepiece priced at a hefty $1.2 million, before selling the brand last year to GNT Luxury Holding.

GNT is a company set up by four members of a family of watch industry veterans: Marc Gouten, formerly with Piaget and Vacheron Constantin together with Gérard, Alexis and David Gouten, with decades of experience in the business (Richemont Group).

Manufacture Royale watches today are, mostly, extremely expensive, shockingly hideous. Granted, they are made to highest horological standards with great complications and using top quality materials, but they are simply ugly, targeting millionaires who just care to show off their money on the wrist.

 

[Watch Hunter]

An interesting doco on Harrison who solved the problem of calculating longitude using marine chronometers. An endeavour that lasted his whole life and completed by his son.

 

[Feefo]

Some notes on the oldest watch brands – Urban Jürgensen, 1773

Please refer to post #26. Whereas that was supposed to be the "Jules Jürgensen" watch brand, it is connected and flows into Urban Jürgensen.

https://forum.replica-watch.info/threads/horology-history-and-the-oldest-watch-brands.10949629/post-11587982

 

[Feefo]

Moved to the General Discussion to share with a wider public.

P.S. I know it's been a while since my last one, but the next one is Breguet, a heavy hitter, lots of stuff to tell...

 

[Feefo]

Some notes on the oldest watch brands – Breguet 1775
(Part 1/2)


And finally, here we go. I didn’t post in quite some time because the next in line is at the top of the horology Pantheon and it requires a bit more effort than the previous ones. I’ll start with just Breguet the watchmaker.

Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747 – 1823) was a Swiss horologist who operated mainly in Paris, but whose craftsmanship, ingenuity and marketing savviness earned him the privilege to be considered one of the greatest watchmakers of all times. Breguet was known to be a relentless workaholic, constantly striving to make watches better, more precise, more beautiful.

Born in the then Prussian Neuchatel in 1747, Abraham-Louis lost his father at the age of ten and ended his formal schooling at twelve. His mother remarried a watchmaker who started to teach him the trade before he was sent to Paris, where his stepfather had connections, to do a proper apprenticeship at an unknown workshop. Here, near Versailles, aged 15, Breguet started to get it going. His enthusiasm and talent were so great that he took evening classes in mathematics and met some important persons for his career. He had the opportunity to study with Berthoud and Lépine (see previous posts) but it was Joseph-François Marie (known as Abbot/Abbé Marie) who proved to foster his career the most. Abbé Marie was his maths teacher at school and had access to the French nobility. It was him who introduced the young Breguet to the royal court and the aristocracy, his future clients.

Finally in 1775 Breguet opened his own shop in Quai de l’Horloge in the Ile de la Citè, the very center of Paris. Breguet’s ingenuity was the key to his success, coupled with his access to the rich clientele. In an age where setting new trends and “being in” was paramount to achieving a high social status, Breguet’s inventions were extremely sought after, and he received countless commissions which led to his reputation slowly rising to the attention of other royal courts.

The first notable “invention” of Breguet was the Perpètuelle, a watch with a self-winding mechanism that works with the same principle as today’s watches. The true inventor of such mechanism was his namesake Abraham-Louis Perrelet, a swiss clockmaker. Breguet had bought several of his clocks and endeavored in optimizing the mechanism. His first Perpétuelle was sold to the Duc d’Orleans 1780. A piece of 1782 (no. 1/8/82) with an oscillating platinum weight that rewinds the watch automatically survived to this day.



He also started to refine his watches from both a technical and an aesthetical point of view. Breguet liked a clean, neat design. He also understood that “less is more” not only from an artistic point of view, but also from a mechanical point of view. The lesser parts, the lesser friction, the better timekeeping. Aesthetically, Breguet’s “canvas” was a simple, thin (as opposed to the fat watches of the time) pocket watch with a white dial. He then started adding complications and other artistic features.



The gong-spring for repeating watches (Strip spring wrapped around the movement, which the striker of a repeating watch hits to make a gonglike sound, allowing for thin construction).



Guilloche (engine turned) decoration started being used more and more on his watches. It was first and foremost the functional character of the process that attracted his interest. The technique provided better protection against general wear and tear to polished surfaces, which are often susceptible to scratches and tarnishing; while its anti-reflective properties allowed easier readability of the dial. In addition, the guilloche patterns helped delineate different zones on the dial for different readings, such as the chapter ring, small seconds, power-reserve indicator, and various different counters. The use of guilloche decoration in the design of his watches was set to take on increasing importance for the master watchmaker. In fact, it would contribute to the emergence of an iconic “Breguet style”. For instance, the contrasts offered by dials from that point onwards allowed the watchmaker to opt for elegant hands instead of the typical Baroque components of the time. Known today as “Breguet hands”, these are recognizable by their delicate body, ending in the famous hollow apple shape. They would go on to be an immediate success.
In 1795 Breguet issued his own version of the balance spring. A small spring which through its elasticity regulates the oscillations of the balance. It is attached at its inner extremity to the axis of the balance and at its outer extremity to the cock. The flat balance spring, invented by the Dutch mathematician Huygens in 1675, had established a degree of isochronism that still left something to be desired. Breguet applied himself to the problem and in 1795 solved it by drawing the outer extremity of the spiral in towards the centre, following a precisely calculated curve. Thus endowed with the ‘Breguet curb’, the balance spring henceforth became concentric in form. Watches gained in precision, and the balance staff wore less quickly. The ‘Breguet balance spring’ was adopted by all the great watchmaking firms, who continue to use it to this day. Between about 1880 and 1910, many manufacturers inscribed the words ‘spiral Breguet’ or ‘Breguet overcoil’ in large letters on the cuvettes (back covers) of their watches in order to enhance their commercial credibility. Breguet, by contrast, never resorted to this type of inscription.




Breguet also kept an eye on the commercial strength of his brand. In 1796 he developed the so-called “subscription” watch, of relatively large diameter - 2 3/8 inches (61mm) - with a single hand and an enamel dial, equipped with a special movement of great simplicity. Launched through an advertising brochure in 1797, subscription watches were sold by Breguet on a subscription basis, and the firm required customers to make a down payment of a quarter of the price when they placed an order. Called souscription in the sales ledgers, these watches were reliable and affordable; they proved a great success, attracting a large new clientele. Some 700 were made, with a choice of either a gold or silver case.



Other countless inventions/innovations were made (Adopted and improved the lever escapement 1787, Invented the 'pare-chute' anti-shock device 1790, Invented a retrograde display mechanism 1794, Sympathique clock 1798, Constant force escapement 1798, invented the Tact watch 1799, Invented the echappement naturel, a double-escape wheeled chronometer escapement that needed no oil 1802, first wristwatch 1810, off-center/eccentric dials 1812, marine chronometers to the royal navy 1815, observation/split-seconds chronograph 1820) the most notable of which is the invention of the Tourbillon regulator. On June 26, 1801, Abraham-Louis Breguet patented a revolutionary mechanism that neutralized the effects of gravity providing incredible precision in mechanical timepieces. This invention was an engineering feat that cemented the illustrious watchmaker’s standing as one of the most innovative figures of all time.




During his lifetime, Abraham-Louis Breguet created 35 tourbillon watches, and fewer than 10 of them are known to survive.



All the innovations were possible not only because financed by a rich clientele which included the royal courts of France, England, Spain, Russia, but also by Breguet’s curiosity and his intellectual exchange with scientists and watchmakers of the time. Breguet was good friends with John Arnold, so much so that they sent their respective sons to learn from the other’s father.

Breguet had to leave Paris in 1789 because of the French revolution. His good relationship with the nobility didn’t help with the riotous people, so, tipped by Marat who then was in the revolutionary council, he wisely left for Switzerland for a while. In 1795 he returned, cleaned up the mess left in his shop by the looters and started over. Unlike other watchmakers of the time who worked with unskilled apprentices, Breguet, undoubtedly helped by his reputation, preferred to work with professional watchmakers so that he could fully dedicate himself to new designs and creations.
Around 1807 Breguet’s son Antoine Louis entered the firm, which was then called Breguet et Fils.

Breguet became a member of the Bureau des Longitudes in 1814 and the following year gained an official appointment as chronometer-maker to the French Navy. He entered the French Academy of Sciences in 1816 as a full member, and received the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour from the hands of Louis XVIII in 1819. Breguet's name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.

Breguet was known for his kindness and good humour. It is recorded that if a workman came to Breguet with a finished piece of work and an invoice for payment, and Breguet was satisfied with the work, then if the invoice ended in a zero, Breguet would add a tail to the zero to make it a '9', thereby enabling the workman to be paid nine francs more than he had asked for. He was also known for his encouragement of his young apprentices, often advising them "Do not be discouraged, or allow failure to dishearten you."

The business flourished, and when Abraham-Louis Breguet died in 1823 it was carried on by Louis-Antoine. After Antoine-Louis retired in 1833 (he died in 1858) the business continued under Abraham-Louis' grandson Louis François Clément Breguet (1804–1883); his great-grandson Louis Antoine (1851–1882) was the last of the Breguet family to run the business. Although he had two sons and a daughter, they did not enter the business, so he took on noted English watchmaker Edward Brown of Clerkenwell to look after the Paris factory. Brown eventually became his partner and, after Breguet's death, the owner and head of the company. His sons Edward and Henry Brown headed the firm into the 20th century and after Edward retired in the early 1900s, Henry became the sole proprietor.

Without a doubt, Breguet’s fortune was in large part due to his many illustrious patrons. At the very top of that list is Queen Marie Antoinette of France, who would find her death on the guillotine on October 16th, 1793. The queen had in her day been one of the keenest admirers of the timepieces created by Breguet. At the French court of the 1780s, Breguet could not have wished for a finer supporter. She herself owned many of the master watchmaker’s designs and enthusiastically recommended him to the entire kingdom as well as to the court’s most exalted guests. Thanks to her, not a few crowned heads, emperors included, and diplomatic envoys, acquired a taste for Breguet’s works, consolidating his reputation in Europe and beyond. A regular patron of the horological workshop on the Quai de l’Horloge until her tragic demise, she even requested, and in September 1792 received, “a simple Breguet watch” in her cell at the Temple prison.

Legend has it that it was the ill-fated French queen herself who commissioned Breguet's masterpiece, the "Marie Antoinette" (No. 160), which is now widely regarded as one of the most important and valuable timepieces ever made. In fact, it was commissioned in 1783 by a member of the Marie-Antoinette Guards, possibly as a gift for the queen, and it took almost twenty years to complete—work stopped for around seven years (1789–1795) during the period of Breguet's exile—and it was not finished until around 1802. Even by the standards of the day, it was an astronomically expensive piece; the commission specifically called for every watch function and complication known at that time (A work of art in its own right, the new Marie-Antoinette perpétuelle, or self-winding, watch features a minute repeater that on command strikes hours, quarters and minutes as well as a full perpetual calendar showing the date, the day and the month at two, six and eight o’clock respectively. At ten o’clock, an equation-of-time display expresses the difference between civil and solar time. At centre, jumping hours and a minute hand accompany a large independent seconds hand, the forerunner to the chronograph hand, while a subdial for the running seconds is situated at six o’clock. A 48-hour power-reserve indicator and a bimetallic thermometer are positioned side by side) and the use of the most valuable materials (including gold, platinum, rubies and sapphires), with no limit placed on time or cost. Breguet company records indicate that the factory costs eventually came to the colossal sum of 30,000 francs – more than six times the cost of Breguet's other major work, (No. 92), which was sold to the Duc De Preslin for 4800 francs. The "Marie Antoinette" remained in the possession of the Breguet company until it was sold to Sir Spencer Brunton in 1887, eventually finding its way into the collection of Breguet expert David Lionel Goldsmid-Stern-Salomons in the 1920s. Stolen in 1983 from a Jerusalem museum, the “Marie-Antoinette” watch resurfaced in 2007, while at Baselworld 2008 Montres Breguet unveiled the new “Marie-Antoinette” number 1160, built on the basis of archival research and original drawings.

Last but not least, Breguet is also credited to have “invented” the first wristwatch. During her reign over Naples, Caroline Murat, Napoléon Bonaparte’s younger sister, was a great supporter of the arts and would acquire over 30 Breguet watches and clocks. In 1810, the watchmaker began an unprecedented creation for the Queen of Naples: a watch designed to be worn on the wrist. This would be the world’s first known wristwatch. From its delivery in 1812 to repairs in 1849 and 1855, the Breguet archives have kept track of the history and characteristics of this watch, whose whereabouts today are unknown. The oblong-shaped creation with an engine-turned silver dial was very delicate and included several complications: a repeater, a moon-phase indicator, and also a thermometer. Finally, it had a wristlet of hair and gold thread that allowed it to be worn on the wrist.

Stay tuned for part 2 with some info on the modern Breguet brand.

 

[Dave2302]

Love this thread, thank you.
I appreciate how much work goes into a reference thread like this

Regarding Rolex way back at the beginning of this thread, 17 years ago, when I was still in London / Kent area, Rolex still had a factory in Bexley, Kent, UK. I think that may be the one @C Master was referring to
I don't know if it's still there today, may be a block of Council Flats or a Mall by now.

Don't ask me how I know that, suffice to say I had a friend who worked there

 

[Feefo]

Don't ask me how I know that, suffice to say I had a friend who worked there

Would be nice to have the key... even if it's closed now.