Zenith

 By Bruce Shawkey

In 1865, Georges Favre-Jacot, age 22, founded a small watch factory at Le Locle.

The name “Zenith” came to his mind, when he had just developed a movement which seemed to him more perfect than all previous.

Favre-Jacot is credited with inventing the concept of "in house movements," believing that only through control of the entire watchmaking process could the highest quality be achieved.

After the First World War Zenith began developing and manufacturing wristwatches, including alarm and chronographs. 

In May 1929, the astronomical observatory in England told the public that out of 19,835 watches from all over the world, a watch by Zenith set a new record with a daily deviation of only 0.6 seconds.

Here are a few Zenith watches from 1937:

We jump ahaead to 1969, when Zenith introduced the El Primero. That same year, Zenith debuted a quartz watch. Also in 1969, Zenith created an automatic chronograph. The automatic chronograph is ubiquitous today, but designing one had proven to be extremely difficult, due to the fact that the automatic winding system and the chronograph gearing occupy the same place in a watch. Within a few months of each other, Zenith, Seiko, and a consortium that included Buren, Heuer, Breitling, and Depràz, all introduced automatic chronograph calibers, each with its own distinct features. Zenith's El Primero is a high frequency movement, beating at 36,000 bph and therefore capable of measuring intervals as short as 1/10th of a second.

Here's ad ad for zenith watches, circa 1969 showing the El Primero:

Due to ongoing naming disputes with the Zenith Radio Company, the company was unable to achieve a sizable market share in the United States. With the popularity of quartz watches increasing, Zenith Radio Company decided to enter the market in 1972 through the acquisition of Zenith. It was during this ownership that production of mechanical movements was halted and the production shifted to quartz movements, a move meant to save the company, but ultimately led to it being put up for sale in 1978.

Dixi, who already had purchased many struggling Swiss watchmakers, purchased Movado-Zenith and put it under the leadership of Paul Castella. 

Here are images of some vintage Zenith watches over the years:

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18kt, 3-register, manual wind

 LVMH purchased Zenith in November 1999, becoming one of several brands in its watch division, which includes TAG Heuer and Hublot. Julien Tornare is President and CEO.

Here is a bit of trivia:: Mahatma Gandhi owned a Zenith pocket watch with alarm function. On March 5, 2009, the pocket watch along with some of Gandhi's other personal belongings were auctioned by Antiquorum in New York, altogether fetching $2,096,000.

additional Zenith watches from ads:

Disco Watches

 By Bruce Shawkey

The 1970s heralded the arrival of the disco watches, so named because of their clunky styling, similar to fashions of the times. They are actually not bad. They are still mechanical (pre-quartz) and still Swiss made. They were in fashion at the beginning, declared ugly, and are now back in fashion. Let's take a look at some:

Edox

Sandoz                          Invicta                                                            Rado

here are some more pictures of ugly watches from Europa Star magazine:

Pierce

The Birth of Electric Watches

By Bruce Shawkey

1957 saw the birth of the electric watch, and there was no shortage of competitors. Here are some of the companies that appeared in the Latin America edition of Europa Star magazine:

Angelus                                          ARSA                          Enicar                      Leonidas

Invicta                                        Mira                              Sandoz                                   Schild

            Silvana                                                        Reusser                                        Blancpain                    

This is the same time that Timex and Hamilton came out with electric watches in America. Despite all the brands, the inner workings of all the watches are basically the same, and rely on similar/opposing magnetic fields to oscillate a balance wheel. The advancement in technology to electric did not increase accuracy. It remained at +/- 1 to 2 minutes per day.

JENNY

 By Bruce Shawkey

JENNY (pronounced YEN-ny) watches fairly unknown except to collectors of vintage dive watches. Even lesser known is that JENNY also made some nifty looking time-only watches. Have a look at some JENNY watches from circa 1960. That last one, in particular, is a real looker.

Sandoz

 By Bruce Shawkey

It seems everybody was making dive watches in the mid to late 1950s. That's because equipment manufactures came up with the Aqualung and other devices that allowed divers to go deeper than ever before. These improvements  were due in no small part to Jacques Cousteau, the famous French naturalist. One of the many companies to come out with dive watches was Sandoz. Here are a couple of example from an ad in Europa Star magazine:

Sandoz is a Swiss watch brand, originally established in the late 19th century by Henri Sandoz near Tavannes, Switzerland. There are many variations of the Sandoz name which are used by at least four different companies around the world.

Here are some images of Sandoz watches through the decades:

Here are addition articles on Sandoz watches I have written:

Found this ad in the March/April 1960 issue of Swiss Horological Journal for a Sandoz Model 333 self-winding watch. The movement had six ball bearings, an obvious effort to compete with Eternamatic's five ball bearing watches:

The ad even stated that 1,000 of the ball bearings would fit into a thimble, the same statement made by Eternamatic.

here is another ad for Sandoz:

Pronto

 By Bruce Shawkey

Pronto was founded in 1890 Leon Maitre in 1890 in Noirmont, Switzerland. At the time, the name of the company was still Leon Maitre & Fils Co.; later dubbed Pronto Watch Co. L. Maitre & Fils SA ". The Pronto brand wasn't trademarked until 1902, and models didn't emerge until the mid-1950s to the mid '60s. Here's one model, taken from a mid 1960s issue of Europa Star magazine:

Here are some more models from the mid 1960s:

Pronto made many interesting models, including the "Vampire" in the mide'50s:

Here are more Pronto watches and ads

Pierce

 By Bruce Shawkey

Pierce was founded in 1883 in Biel, Switzerland, by Leon Levy and his brothers. Pierce has always made good watches ... time-only, chronographs, etc. Here's a look at some models from the mid-1960s:

Here are some additional images of Pierce watcches:

You can see the beginnings of the Disco watch era (clunky cases) but there are also some very nice classic designs as well:

Invicta

 By Bruce Shawkey

Found this interesting ad for Invicta dive watches in the June 1956 issue of Europa Star, a trade magazine:

The brand was well known and respected for more than a century, and even into the 1970s. I have an early Invicta watch, probably from the '20s:

 Unfortunately, the “quartz crisis” of the 1970s forced Invicta to sell, and their great watches were replaced by cheap mechanical and quartz watches most commonly found on cruise ship jewelry stores. Often, you will see them with prices slashed on final cruise day, 

Vintage Invicta watches still appear regularly on the secondary market, but prices are all over the board because collectors don't know how to price them, or they're looking for a sucker who will pay the price. They are probably one of the few bargains left in the watch market, if you buy them right. Don't be afraid to make offers when you see them for sale or at auction. Your offer will probably be accepted, or at least countered.

Here some additional ads and pictures of Invicta watches over the decades:

Here is another article I wrote about Invicta:

Meaning “invincible” in Latin, Invicta was founded in 1837 by Raphael Picard in La Chaux-d-Fonds. His goal was  to create quality watches at affordable prices.

The brand was well known and respected for more than a century, and even into the 1970s. Unfortunately, the “quartz crisis” of the 1970s forced Invicta to sell, and their great watches were replaced by cheap mechanical and quartz watches most commonly found on cruiseship jewelry stores. Often, you will see them wBy ith prices slashed on final cruise day, Vintage Invicta watches still appear regularly on the secondary market, but prices are all over the board because collectors don't know how to price them, or they're looking for a sucker who will pay the price. They are probably one of the few bargains left in the watch market, if you buy them right. Don't be afraid to make offers when you see them for sale or at auction. Your offer will probably be accepted, or at least countered.