Revue-Thommen

By Bruce Shawkey

Ever heard of the Revue-Thommen  watch company? It is one of more complicated stories in watch history. Their roots go all the way back to 1853 when Societe de Horlogerie d' Waldenburg was founded as a Swiss watch manufacturing company near the community of Waldenburg, Switzerland. It was created to provide jobs in the Waldenburg valley lost due to a relocation of the rail lines.

In 1859 Gedeon Thommen and Louis Tschopp acquired the company and privately restructured it. In 1869, Louis Tschopp withdrew from the company, and Gedeon Thommen became the sole owner and renamed the company "Gedeon Thommen - Uhrenfabrikation." We don't know exactly when the name "Revue" was added to the company name, but I suspect they did it because the name had a more snappy sound to it. To make things even more complicated, Revue is pronounced like REV- y rather than like re VIEW. All the ads of this time simply read "Revue." 

By the 1960s, they were probably one of the most prolific watch movement manufacturers in Switzerland. They had developed more than 100 unique Calibers, the most famous was probably the RT80 alarm movement, which powered the Vulcain “Cricket.” 

Revue-Thomman was was a fairly regular exhibitors at the annual Basel Exposition during the 1940s and '50s. By the 1980s, the brand all but disappeared. I remember there were a fairly large quantity of Revue-Thommen close-out watches on the market when the company went out of business. The company was resurrected, and today can be found at www.revuethommenusa.com. But their watches are not like those of the original company. The alarm watch is not offered.

The brand is all but forgotten. Most collectors don’t give them the credit they deserve.

Here are some ads for Revue-Thomman watches through the years.