Bruce's World of Watches: Eberhard

By Bruce Shawkey

I had the pleasure in 2014 of attending the Basel watch show and interviewing Mario Peserico, managing director of Eberhard. This has long been one of my favorite watch brands. I especially like their chronographs and even owned a solid gold specimen. So it is with great pleasure I present this article to you.

Georges Eberhard founded his company at the age of 22 in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Early on, the company focused on time-measurement (chronograph) watches for scientists, technicians and physicians, and civil servants. An example from 1905 is shown below, and is from the Eberhard vault:

By 1919, sons Georges (II) and Maurice joined the company. Recognizing early on the shift of timepieces from the pocket to the wrist, the company came out with its first true wrist chronograph, and not just a pocket chronograph jury-rigged to fit the wrist.

1919 also saw the invention of the "Calotte Patrouille" ("Patrol Cap") which had an ingenious water-tight case which rivaled that of the Depollief case in American.

Calotte Patrouille

The 1920s and '30s were glorious times for Eberhard, with a post-war economic boom providing many consumers with the means to purchase a watch. In 1935, they introduced what is believed to be the industry’s first double-pusher chronograph featuring start and stop without having to reset the chronograph back to zero. The innovations kept on coming: In 1938: the company introduced its first chronograph with a third register to count elapsed hours.

1939 saw the introduction of the company’s first split-second chronograph that allowed two timing sessions to be displayed simultaneously.

The WWII years were quite devastating to Eberhard. As you might recall from your history, Italy switched sides during the war, first Axis powers, and then Allied. There is no evidence to suggest Eberhard supplied Ordnance to either side.

The 1950s provided another opportunity to prosper. But Eberhard still largely served Europe with some market share in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The brand was virtually unknown in the United States due to high tariffs that restricted Eberhard's presence.

The turmoil in the watch market of the 1960s, with cheap disposable watches, and the Quartz Crises of the '70s proved too much for the Eberhard family to deal with, and so it was sold. It was not until 1982 that the brand was relaunched and returned to making mechanical watches. (Yes, they did make quartz watches for a time).

1998 saw the rebirth of Eberhard, with the the Monti Barbara Monti (Peserico's boss) assuming control and laying down on paper a revolutionary design for a chronograph that would once again seal the company’s reputation in the market as a true innovator. The watch had four registers, and rather than being placed around the circumference of dial, were placed in a horizontal row at the bottom of the dial.

The company today remains focused on chronographs. The "Chrono 4" is still being made But the company also makes time-only models. Their website is at eberhard-co.

At this point, we'll take a look at some Eberhard watches produced through the years.