Technos

 By Bruce Shawkey

Technos is one of those brands that has fairly simple beginnings, but grew rather complicated as the quartz invasion of the '70s and '80s wreaked havoc on the Swiss watch industry and the brand was tossed around to various owners. It was a respected brand in the United States in the '50s and '60s, but today is primarily known in South America, especially Brazil.

Still, a small group of savvy collectors in the United States are familiar with this quality brand and eagerly buy up vintage Technos watches whenever they are offered on eBay or other venue. So let's take a look at the history of this brand.

 Founded 1900

 Technos is a brand that was registered in 1924 by M. Gunzinger-Hug, which in turn was founded in 1900 by Melchior Gunzinger in the city of Welschenrohr in the Swiss canton of Solothurn. Not much is known about the early years of the company's history, nor of Mr. Hug, who I assume was a founding partner in the firm. It appears the company started manufacture of wristwatches in 1918. In 1920, the company passed to Melchior's sons, and became, “Gunzinger Bros. Ltd.” (Gunzinger Frères SA) and the "Hug" name was dropped.

The brand experienced a modest success in those first years. A 1928 ad (left) showed 12 different styles of men's and ladies' wristwatches. But the brand didn't really take off until after WWII when pent-up demand for consumer goods resulted in a boom for watches. Gunziger Bros. ran a flurry of ads for Technos watches in the various trade journals of the time, and also exhibited at the Basel Fair in 1954 and '55 (two of their featured watch are shown below).

Their movements during the post-WWII boom and beyond were supplied by A. Schild, Kurth, FHF, and other ebauche suppliers. One interesting watch introduced during this time was called the Atomium (left), capitalizing on the atomic craze sweeping the world in the wake of the atom bomb. The watches -- often with molecule diagram motifs on the dials -- have become cult classics of sorts among watch collectors and chemistry geeks.

As stated earlier, Technos enjoyed a moderate success in the United States in the '50s through the '70s and even into the early '80s with a few quartz models. The country was swept up in the technology boom given the space race, the advent of computers, and the shift from the Industrial Revolution to an economy primarily based upon information technology. Technos seemed to be the perfect brand name reflecting the times.

Gunzinger registered a flurry of model names during this time, according to Mikrolisk.de, the online database of trademarks. These include: Alarmdate; Clinic (1957); Cougar, Goldshield (1962); La Marque qui se distingue (1975); Masterpiece (1962); Neutron; Partner (1962); Perpetron; Positron; Select (1955); Slim Dandy; Slim Master; Slim Mate; Slim Neat; Star King (1963); Supercron; Technograph; Technotron; Trans-World (1956); Univision (1962); Univista (1962); and Ultramar (1947).

Not all these model names were brought to market, of course, but it illustrates how much Gunzinger wanted to become a known brand during this period of expansion.

In 1956, Gunzinger and its Technos brand partnered with Brazilian businessman, Mário Goettems. Thus began the story linking the history of the brand with Brazil. Technos flourished in Brazil to the point where in 1973 Goettems was the largest brand importer/distributor in the world, selling half a million Technos watches per year. More on this later, but the bond exists to this day, with new Technos watches being sold on a Brazilian website, technos.com.br, and at retail outlets throughout the country. Let's pause now to look at some Technos ads and watches through the decades. 

Even as Timex and cheap Asian imports began to eat away the market for fine Swiss watches in the '60s, Technos still scored a few hits during this time. One of these was "The King," (left) introduced circa 1963. With its fluted bezel, date at 3:00, and ETA 2472 movement (same base movement used in the Rolex Date model), it's probably no coincidence the watch is a dead ringer for the Rolex Date model introduced in 1945.   

    Another was the "Skydiver," (below, right) introduced in the mid-1960s, with various dial/case configurations and water resistance up 500 meters. I see these offered for $1,000-$2,000 on various websites. They have jumped quite a bit in price, probably due in part to the 2021 article on the Fratello website: https:www.fratellowatches.com/technos-sky-diver-vintage-watch-review/#gref.

In 1970 or thereabouts, Gunzinger sold out to General Watch Company, which had recently joined the ASUAG consortium of Swiss watch companies. The history of Technos gets a little crazy after that, but the story goes that ASUAG could never quite find a niche for Technos. So in 1982, they sold Technos to the long-time Japanese importer, Heiwado & Co. Heiwado, which in turn, granted limited license to Goettems to design and manufacture their own Technos branded watches in Brazil.

This arrangement continued until 1995 when Heiwado sold the rights to the Technos brand outright to the Brazilian importer Technos Relógios SA, which I believe grew out of the company Goettems had started back in '56. The Technos stronghold remains in Brazil to this day.

Technos did maintain a small presence in the United States through the General Watch Company years and even the early years of Heiwado ownership. A quartz model is shown above. But the brand gradually lost presence in the U.S. and to my knowledge there are no authorized Technos dealers in the United States today. But collectors can certainly buy on the secondary market for vintage, or from the Brazilian website mentioned earlier for current models (some shown below) which bear very little resemblance to the classic (1950s) Technos watches.

 

Some examples of current-day Technos watches

 

Ran across this interesting ad in the Nov./Dec. 1958 issue of Swiss Horological Journal for a Technos "Atomium" watch. They were obviously capitalizing on the "atomic" craze that was sweeping the country at that time. Here is an image of the watch:

Note the atomic motif on the dial.

The Technos brand was registered in 1924 by Joseph Gunzinger. The company began to increase its manufacturing capacity and became one of the main employers in the area.

Here are other articles on Technos watches I've published:

Found this ad in the Sept./Oct. 1954 issue of Swiss Horological Journal for Technos watches.

The Technos brand was registered in 1924 by Joseph Gunzinger. The company began to increase its manufacturing capacity and became one of the main employers in the area.

Here's picture of a watch from the 1960s: