Eterna patented the ball-bearing rotor in 1948. Swiss patents lasted 15 years, or thereabouts--I can't seem to find it anywhere from before the TRIPS agreement that made all of Europe 20 years. If it was 15 years, then the patent would have been in force until the early 60's. My 1962 Ebel watch has an AS1687 with the automatic winder, so that had to have followed the work of the consortium (Zodiac, Eberhard, Doxa, Favre-Leuba, and Girard-Perregaux) that developed the autowinder for the hand-wind AS ebauche.
Of course, ETA became a separate ebaucherie from Eterna, and took those patents with it.
The ball-bearing rotor was a real advance, but it did not become ubiquitous until movements that were introduced in the late 60's and early 70's and thereafter.
Rick "wondering if your triovis regulator was installed correctly" Denney