Phenix

 By Bruce Shawkey

Phenix, a rather obscure watch company to begin with, introduced a model in 1954 called the Rollamatic. It was nothing special ... a round automatic with sweep seconds hands. The movement was an ebauche supplied by a watch manufacturer. The ad contained so many superlatives, you'd think it was something brand new! Phenix did this to excite jewelers into thinking this was something new to drum up business to compete with other watch manufacturers caused by the post-WWII-boom when consumer goods were difficult to get.

The origins of Phenix watch go all the way back to 1873, when Jules Dubail, Jean-Baptiste Monnin. and Joseph Frossard founded a firm named after them: “Dubail, Monnin, Frossard & Cie.” Here is the image for the ad from the March/April 1954 issue of Swiss Horological Journal.