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Identifying Swiss Watch Movements of the 1930s and 1940s
La Classification Horlogère des Calibres de Montres et des Fournitures d’Horlogerie Susisses - Classification of the Swiss Watch Movements and Watchmaterials - Klasifikation der schweizerischen Uhrwerke und Uhrenfurnituren – Clasification de los relojes suizos y de sus piezas de repuesta. Quartolingual edition: Français-Deutsch-English-Espanol [Facsimile re-edition of the three issues: I: 1936 (blue), II: 1939 (brown), III: 1949 (red).] By A.-F. Jobin (Editor). Published 2009 and 2010 by Historische Uhrenbücher, Berlin (Germany). ISBN 978-3-941539-04-4, ISBN 978-941539-05-1, ISBN 978-941539-06-8. Hardcover, spiralbound; 320, 330 and 336 pages. 29cm x 21cm. Thousands of illustrations (black & white). Euro 249.-for the three book set (plus postage of Euro 37.50 to the USA). Avai-lable at the website of the publisher: http://www.uhrenliteratur.de/verlag/index/start.htm . Or consult these books at the National Watch &-- Clock Library in Columbia PA.
For the collector of vintage Swiss watches dating from the fist half of the 20th century it has often been difficult to positively identify and date the many different calibers of movements (both pocket watch movements and wristwatch movements) that were made at that time by the numerous players in the then highly fragmented Swiss watch industry. The most common movements, particularly those made by the Ebauches group, or the big brands like Rolex, Omega and Patek are reasonably covered in the common price guides, and in a few brand specific reference books (such as e.g. Omega Sag (by Richon, Bienne: 1989). But for the vast majority of makers there are no specific books and it is virtually impossible to locate movement images.
Fortunately a series of movement identicication guides was published in Geneva at the time for the global repair trade in the years 1936, 1939 and-after a break for world war II- in 1949. Unfortunately not many were exported from Switzerland, and most of the few existing copies were used for many years as working tools in repair shops untill they desintegrated decades ago. Original copies are virtually impossible to find; not even the National Watch and Clock Library in Columbia, PA, or the AWCI Library in Ohio ever had a copy. Florian Stern in Berlin, a retired teacher of watch repair, who has made it his life’s mission to preserve hoorological literature has located a set and in 2009 produced a high-quality facsimile edition.
Each of the three volumes contains over 300 pages of information and each volume covers over 30 different brands in alphabetical order. The introductory part of each volume includes a table showing an enlarged image of each major movement component with the correct name of the part in French, German and English, and conversion tables for the various measurement systems (douzaines, lines, millimeters and American ‘Size’).
The following makers are covered: Volume I (1936): ANGELUS, Stolz Frères, ALTUS, AROGNO, AURORE, BETTLACH, BUHRÉ PAUL & BARBEZAT, BUSER Frères & Co., CORTEBERT Watch Co., DOXA Watch, DREYFUSS & Co., ENICAR, EROS, ETERNA, ETA, FELSA, FLEURlER, FONTAINEMELON (F.H.F.), FREY & Co., GLYCINE Watch Co., HORA, IMHOF, KURTH Frères, LANGENDORF Watch Co., LAVINA, LIENGME & Co., MARVIN Watch Co., MATTER F., MEYER & STUDELI, MICHEL A., MINERVA, MOERI F., MONTILIER, OLIVIA Watch, OMEGA Watch Co., OPTIMA Watch, ORION Watch Co., PATEK, PHILIPPE & Co., PERFECTA, PESEUX, Le PHARE, PHENIX Watch Co., RECORD Watch Co., RECTA, SCHILD, SONCEBOZ, TAVANNES Watch Co., UNITAS, VACHERON & CONSTANTIN, VÉNUS, WASA, WELTA, ZENITH, ZODIAC.
Volume II (1939): ALPINA Watch, ALTUS, ASTIN, AUBRY, BEGUELIN & Co, BUHRÉ PAUL & BARBEZAT, BÜREN, BULLA Watch, BOLE, BREITLING, BUREN, BUSER Frères & Co., CHAMPAGNE, DOXA Watch, DREYFUSS & Co., DULUX, EBAUCHES, ENICAR, ENILA, EROS, ETERNA, ESKA, FREY & Co., GENERAL Watch Co., A.G.M., GINDRAT, GLYCINE Watch Co., GRANA, HELVETIA, HENEX, IMHOF, INTERNATIONAL Watch & Co. (IWC), JEANNIN NUMA, KOCHER & Cie., LANCO Watch, KURTH Frères, LANGENDORF Watch Co., LAVINA, LONGINES, MAITRE L. & Fils, MIDO, OMEGA Watch Co., PATEK, PHILIPPE & Co., PERRET & BERTHOUD, PERY, PHENIX, PRONTO, ECONVILIER Watch Co., RECORD Watch Co., REVUE Watch, ROLEX Watch Co., SCHILD, SILVANA , SPORTEX, TAVANNES Watch Co., THOMMEN, TISSOT, UNIVERSAL Watch, ZENITH
Volume III (1949): AERNI CHARLES, ALPHA Watch, ALPINA Watch , ANGELUS, BEGUELIN & Co, BIELCO Watch, BUECHE-ROSS H., BUHRÉ PAUL & BARBEZAT, BULLA Watch, BUSER Frères & Co., BUSGA, CORTEBERT Watch Co., DAMAS Watch, DOM Watch, DOXA Watch, EBAUCHES, EBEL, EBOSA, ELECTION NOUVELLE, ENICAR, ESSOR,ESKA Watch Co., ETERNA, FLORA Watch, FRENCA Watch, GALA Watch, GENERAL Watch Co., GENEVA SPORT Watch, GERBER-MORGENTHALER A. , GLYCINE Watch Co., GOLAZ & Ce, GROSSENBACHER A., HALLAUER JEAN, HELVETIA, HEUER Ed & Co., HOMBERGER-RAUSCHENBACH E, INTERNATIONAL Watch & Co. (IWC), JEANNIN NUMA, JOBIN es fils de Paul, JUILLARD & Cie, JUILLARD Emile, OCHER & Cie LANCO Watch, LANCO, LANGENDORF Watch Co., LAVINA, LE COULTRE & Cie, LEONIDAS, LIENGME & Co., LONGINES, LUNESA Watch, LUXOR, MAITRE L. & Fils, MARDON Watch, MARVIN Watch Co., MIDO, MINERVA , MOERI F., MULFI, MULLER HENRI, NICOLET Watch, OLMA Watch, OMEGA Watch Co., OPTIMA Watch, ORATOR Watch, OREL Watch, PATEK, PHILIPPE & Co., PERRET & BERTHOUD, PIERCE, PRECIMAX, PRONTO Watch Co., RECONVILIER Watch Co., RECORD Watch Co., RECTA, REVUE Watch, ROLEX Watch Co., SADA, SCHILD, SCHWARZ-ETIENNE les fils de Paul, SILVANA, STOLZ FRERES, SURENA, THOMMEN, TRAMELAN Watch Co., UNIA Watch, UNION HORLOGERE, UNIVERSAL Watch, VACHERON & CONSTANTIN.
Each brand section (ranging from 2 to 20 pages per brand) starts with a ‘Advertisment’ for the brand (anywhere form 1/3 page to a full page, typically showing an image of the facory building), followed by life size illustrations of all their current movement calibers, followed by illustrated parts lists for each of the movements.
The originals were scanned at high resolution, and printed on good quality paper, making the facsimiles easier to use and more usefull than the originals. The resulting books are clearly a usefull and valuable reference and research tool, rather than a literary read.
Even if costly, this set of books is an indispensible tool for the serious collector of Swiss watches of the 20th century to correctly identify the movement, and Mr. Stern deserves the gratitude for having made this tool available once again to a wider range of collectors.
Fortunat Mueller-Maerki (Sussex, New Jersey), May 2010
La Classification Horlogère des Calibres de Montres et des Fournitures d’Horlogerie Susisses - Classification of the Swiss Watch Movements and Watchmaterials - Klasifikation der schweizerischen Uhrwerke und Uhrenfurnituren – Clasification de los relojes suizos y de sus piezas de repuesta. Quartolingual edition: Français-Deutsch-English-Espanol [Facsimile re-edition of the three issues: I: 1936 (blue), II: 1939 (brown), III: 1949 (red).] By A.-F. Jobin (Editor). Published 2009 and 2010 by Historische Uhrenbücher, Berlin (Germany). ISBN 978-3-941539-04-4, ISBN 978-941539-05-1, ISBN 978-941539-06-8. Hardcover, spiralbound; 320, 330 and 336 pages. 29cm x 21cm. Thousands of illustrations (black & white). Euro 249.-for the three book set (plus postage of Euro 37.50 to the USA). Avai-lable at the website of the publisher: http://www.uhrenliteratur.de/verlag/index/start.htm . Or consult these books at the National Watch &-- Clock Library in Columbia PA.
For the collector of vintage Swiss watches dating from the fist half of the 20th century it has often been difficult to positively identify and date the many different calibers of movements (both pocket watch movements and wristwatch movements) that were made at that time by the numerous players in the then highly fragmented Swiss watch industry. The most common movements, particularly those made by the Ebauches group, or the big brands like Rolex, Omega and Patek are reasonably covered in the common price guides, and in a few brand specific reference books (such as e.g. Omega Sag (by Richon, Bienne: 1989). But for the vast majority of makers there are no specific books and it is virtually impossible to locate movement images.
Fortunately a series of movement identicication guides was published in Geneva at the time for the global repair trade in the years 1936, 1939 and-after a break for world war II- in 1949. Unfortunately not many were exported from Switzerland, and most of the few existing copies were used for many years as working tools in repair shops untill they desintegrated decades ago. Original copies are virtually impossible to find; not even the National Watch and Clock Library in Columbia, PA, or the AWCI Library in Ohio ever had a copy. Florian Stern in Berlin, a retired teacher of watch repair, who has made it his life’s mission to preserve hoorological literature has located a set and in 2009 produced a high-quality facsimile edition.
Each of the three volumes contains over 300 pages of information and each volume covers over 30 different brands in alphabetical order. The introductory part of each volume includes a table showing an enlarged image of each major movement component with the correct name of the part in French, German and English, and conversion tables for the various measurement systems (douzaines, lines, millimeters and American ‘Size’).
The following makers are covered: Volume I (1936): ANGELUS, Stolz Frères, ALTUS, AROGNO, AURORE, BETTLACH, BUHRÉ PAUL & BARBEZAT, BUSER Frères & Co., CORTEBERT Watch Co., DOXA Watch, DREYFUSS & Co., ENICAR, EROS, ETERNA, ETA, FELSA, FLEURlER, FONTAINEMELON (F.H.F.), FREY & Co., GLYCINE Watch Co., HORA, IMHOF, KURTH Frères, LANGENDORF Watch Co., LAVINA, LIENGME & Co., MARVIN Watch Co., MATTER F., MEYER & STUDELI, MICHEL A., MINERVA, MOERI F., MONTILIER, OLIVIA Watch, OMEGA Watch Co., OPTIMA Watch, ORION Watch Co., PATEK, PHILIPPE & Co., PERFECTA, PESEUX, Le PHARE, PHENIX Watch Co., RECORD Watch Co., RECTA, SCHILD, SONCEBOZ, TAVANNES Watch Co., UNITAS, VACHERON & CONSTANTIN, VÉNUS, WASA, WELTA, ZENITH, ZODIAC.
Volume II (1939): ALPINA Watch, ALTUS, ASTIN, AUBRY, BEGUELIN & Co, BUHRÉ PAUL & BARBEZAT, BÜREN, BULLA Watch, BOLE, BREITLING, BUREN, BUSER Frères & Co., CHAMPAGNE, DOXA Watch, DREYFUSS & Co., DULUX, EBAUCHES, ENICAR, ENILA, EROS, ETERNA, ESKA, FREY & Co., GENERAL Watch Co., A.G.M., GINDRAT, GLYCINE Watch Co., GRANA, HELVETIA, HENEX, IMHOF, INTERNATIONAL Watch & Co. (IWC), JEANNIN NUMA, KOCHER & Cie., LANCO Watch, KURTH Frères, LANGENDORF Watch Co., LAVINA, LONGINES, MAITRE L. & Fils, MIDO, OMEGA Watch Co., PATEK, PHILIPPE & Co., PERRET & BERTHOUD, PERY, PHENIX, PRONTO, ECONVILIER Watch Co., RECORD Watch Co., REVUE Watch, ROLEX Watch Co., SCHILD, SILVANA , SPORTEX, TAVANNES Watch Co., THOMMEN, TISSOT, UNIVERSAL Watch, ZENITH
Volume III (1949): AERNI CHARLES, ALPHA Watch, ALPINA Watch , ANGELUS, BEGUELIN & Co, BIELCO Watch, BUECHE-ROSS H., BUHRÉ PAUL & BARBEZAT, BULLA Watch, BUSER Frères & Co., BUSGA, CORTEBERT Watch Co., DAMAS Watch, DOM Watch, DOXA Watch, EBAUCHES, EBEL, EBOSA, ELECTION NOUVELLE, ENICAR, ESSOR,ESKA Watch Co., ETERNA, FLORA Watch, FRENCA Watch, GALA Watch, GENERAL Watch Co., GENEVA SPORT Watch, GERBER-MORGENTHALER A. , GLYCINE Watch Co., GOLAZ & Ce, GROSSENBACHER A., HALLAUER JEAN, HELVETIA, HEUER Ed & Co., HOMBERGER-RAUSCHENBACH E, INTERNATIONAL Watch & Co. (IWC), JEANNIN NUMA, JOBIN es fils de Paul, JUILLARD & Cie, JUILLARD Emile, OCHER & Cie LANCO Watch, LANCO, LANGENDORF Watch Co., LAVINA, LE COULTRE & Cie, LEONIDAS, LIENGME & Co., LONGINES, LUNESA Watch, LUXOR, MAITRE L. & Fils, MARDON Watch, MARVIN Watch Co., MIDO, MINERVA , MOERI F., MULFI, MULLER HENRI, NICOLET Watch, OLMA Watch, OMEGA Watch Co., OPTIMA Watch, ORATOR Watch, OREL Watch, PATEK, PHILIPPE & Co., PERRET & BERTHOUD, PIERCE, PRECIMAX, PRONTO Watch Co., RECONVILIER Watch Co., RECORD Watch Co., RECTA, REVUE Watch, ROLEX Watch Co., SADA, SCHILD, SCHWARZ-ETIENNE les fils de Paul, SILVANA, STOLZ FRERES, SURENA, THOMMEN, TRAMELAN Watch Co., UNIA Watch, UNION HORLOGERE, UNIVERSAL Watch, VACHERON & CONSTANTIN.
Each brand section (ranging from 2 to 20 pages per brand) starts with a ‘Advertisment’ for the brand (anywhere form 1/3 page to a full page, typically showing an image of the facory building), followed by life size illustrations of all their current movement calibers, followed by illustrated parts lists for each of the movements.
The originals were scanned at high resolution, and printed on good quality paper, making the facsimiles easier to use and more usefull than the originals. The resulting books are clearly a usefull and valuable reference and research tool, rather than a literary read.
Even if costly, this set of books is an indispensible tool for the serious collector of Swiss watches of the 20th century to correctly identify the movement, and Mr. Stern deserves the gratitude for having made this tool available once again to a wider range of collectors.
Fortunat Mueller-Maerki (Sussex, New Jersey), May 2010
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