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Five Vintage Hearts | iW International WatchMagazineTuesday, August 6 2013, 1:28 PM

A look at Swiss movement makers of yore whose names are still familiar to collectors

By Anthony Young

During the 20th century there were roughly two dozen Swiss ébauche and movement manufacturers that supplied manymore mid-level and high-end watch companies. They operated for decades making manual-wind, automatic andchronograph movements for the great brands in Swiss watchmaking, as well as for the less well-know firms.

As the industry consolidated after WWII, the movement designs and tooling were all eventually absorbed first byÉbauches S.A. and then by ETA. However, many of these names live on today powering new watches with vintagehearts. These five companies, chosen because their names live on inside many of today’s most collectible timepieces,did business in northwest Switzerland.

A. Schild S.A.Adolph Schild-Hugi opened his ébauche and movement manufacture in Grenchen, within the canton of Solothurn, inthe late 1890s. He offered his manual-wind calibers in all sizes and quickly became one of the largest movementmakers in Switzerland, eventually employing more than 2,000 people. During the course of the company’s history, itmanufactured several hundred different calibers.

In 1926, A. Schild, along with AD Michel SA in Grenchen and FHF in Fontainmelon, formed Ébauches SA. Eachcompany kept its identity and manufacturing base and among the three factories produced about 75 percent of all theébauches in Switzerland. The A. Schild movements were identified starting in 1939 by an ébauche stamp under thebalance wheel consisting of a shield outline with the capital letters AS inside.

A. Schild did not venture into the popular chronograph segment as that form of complication would have addeddramatically to manufacturing cost and warranty servicing, so it was left to other makers like Valjoux and Lémania tofill that niche. Instead, the company focused on affordable, reliable three-hand and date movements. It survived theeconomic depression of the 1930s, the commercial lull during World War II and experienced dramatic growth in the1950s and 1960s.

The crisis for A. Schild came in the late 1970s with the advent of quartz development and a severe recession. Between1978 and 1979 the company merged with ETA (also in Grenchen) and reduced its caliber production by two-thirds. Yet,many A. Schild movements never ended up in watches and caches of these calibers are reworked into currentcollections, much like the Favre Leubra model pictured here.

Felsa S.A.Felsa was founded in Grenchen in 1918 not far from the mammoth A. Schild factory. It was far smaller but wasconsidered more innovative. Felsa also developed an impressive number of calibers and joined the Ébauches SAcombine in 1928.

Felsa’s principal movement designer in the late 1930s and 1940s was Friedrich Meyer, who after a period of designdevelopment for an automatic movement submitted an application for a Swiss patent on July 9, 1942 for a “Timepiece

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Automatic Winding Movement.” It became Felsa’s first automatic movement and featured a retractable pin (Felsa called

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it a bolt) for quick release of the rotor from the shaft toease servicing.

Meyer later made a refinement of this movement byemploying a bi-directional winding rotor. He appliedfor a Swiss patent on this design on July 23, 1947,titled “Double Winding for Horological Movements.”This became the famous Felsa Caliber 690-series,which the company identified as the Bidynator, whichit engraved prominently on the rotor. The quality ofthis movement was distinguished by its screwedbalance wheel.

The 690 and 691 calibers were the basic non-calendarautomatics with a sweep second hand. The 692 addedthe date, and the 692N featured a 24-hour dial. The693 added the calendar with day of the week andmonth in two small windows above the center and dayof the month around the perimeter of the dial withindividual recessed pushers for day, date, month andmoon phase—Felsa’s most complicated movement.

The 694 had the date set with a pusher, with sweepsecond hand. The 695 was a non-calendar designhaving a second subdial at six o’clock. The 697 hadday and date with sweep second hand. The 698 had asimple sweep second hand that must have differedfrom the 690. Finally, there was the 699 featured areserve indicator with a sweep second hand.

The Felsa Bidynator automatic movement became oneof the most popular choices of Swiss watchmanufactures for many years. It was the choice ofBreitling and other premium brands, as well as moreaffordable brands.

Peseux S.A.The small town of Peseux is located in the canton ofNeuchâtel not far from the north shore of Lac deNeuchâtel. Peseux Fabrique d’Ébauches Peseux S.A.was founded in 1923 and in early 1930s was acquiredby Ébauches S.A. Its ébauche stamp became thetrademark shield outline with the letter P inside.

The great majority of Peseux ébauches and completemovements were hand-wind models. The onlyautomatics on record were the 310 and 315 calibers.Curiously, Peseux filed a number of patents forautomatic movements yet did not offer more of them.

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The most famous of the Peseux movements was the 260. This was a purpose-built chronometer movement measuring13 lignes. At this time, observatory competitions established the precision and accuracy of certain movements and lentconsiderable prestige to brands. Peseux realized this and designed the 260 for this purpose. It has been estimated that3,300 such movements were made and sold to high-end brands.

Peseux also eventually came under the ETA umbrella, where today the Peseux 7001 movement is still made. Itmeasures 11.3 lignes (23.3 mm), 17 jewels, 21,600 bph and has beautifully finished plates.

UnitasIn 1898, Auguste Reymond established his watchcompany in the town of Tramelan in the heart of theJura Mountain region. Initially, he used movementsmade by others but in 1906 began manufacturingébauches. In 1926 he acquired the Unitas WatchCompany and applied that name to his movementsand ébauches. He produced watches under hisacronym, Auguste Reymond (S.A.: ARSA) as well aswatches under the Unitas brand.

The economic climate of the early 1930s affectedAuguste Reymond as it did every watch manufacturerin Switzerland. In 1932 the company became asubsidiary of Ébauches S.A. and as such developed theUnitas ébauche stamp with the now-familiar shieldoutline with the letter T inside the letter U.

By the 1950s, Unitas had manufactured over 200different calibers including many pocket watchcalibers. Sometime during this decade (Dr.RolandRanfft states in 1950) the company released two newpocket watch calibers that would become watchmovement icons: the 6497 and the 6498. These

movements were 19-ligne, 17-jewel movements that became known for their accuracy, reliability and ruggedness.

Auguste Reymond did not survive the quartz revolution. The owners liquidated the company, but Ébauches S.A. andlater ETA retained the designs and some tooling of Unitas movements. James Choffat, a former manager of thecompany, purchased the remaining assets, supply of movements and other equipment to keep the venerable AugusteReymond name alive. Nitella S.A. in Tramelan purchased it in 1989, and today it is run by Thomas Loosli. A number ofAuguste Reymond watches made today feature restored, new old stock Unitas movements that make them all the morecollectible.

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VenusFabrique d’Ébauches Venus S.A. was established inMoutier, in the canton of Bern, in 1923. In 1928 itcame under the Ébauches S.A. umbrella, and adoptedthe ébauche shield with an upside-down five-pointedstar as its ébauche stamp. Unlike the other companieslisted here, Venus did, in fact, manufacturechronograph movements and timers as well.Its earliest chronograph movement was the caliber103 measuring 10.5 lignes. This was followed by the131, 140, 150, and 152. With the Caliber 170, Venusbegan making dual pusher chronographs with severalvariants. Venus even made Caliber 179, a three-pusherchronograph to record split seconds.

There were numerous other chronographs with theaddition of moon phase or other complications in the180, 190 and 200 series calibers; these were cam-actuated chronographs, not column wheel designs.Breitling, Jaeger LeCoultre and several others utilizedVenus chronographs. As column wheel designs,Venus 175 and 178 calibers are particularly soughtafter by vintage watch collectors. Indeed,manufacturers such as Armand Nicolet continue to

offer limited editions with these movements fully restored and newly embellished. According to one British waspublication, Venus closed its doors in 1966 and Valjoux acquired its designs and tooling and used the Venus 188 as thebasis for its 7730 series calibers.

These five companies were once great names among movement makers. With a little searching, you can wear one onyour wrist and enjoy the legacy of these vintage Swiss movements.

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