The Community of Precision Watchmaking

[rdenney]

I was looking through the SST movement service manual on the Catalog site when I noticed that Zodiac had boasted of being a member of the "Community of Precision Watchmaking". That led to some research, and I found two bits of evidence: A letter written in 1957 by Charles-Eugen Blum (owner of Ebel) establishing the group, and an article in the June 11, 1958 issue of L'Impartial, the local newspaper in Neuchatel.

The article reads:

"Nine Watchmakers Founded a "Community of Precision Watchmaking"

Considering that the evolution of the watch-making makes desirable for closer collaboration between manufacturers of precision watches, watchmaking factories here after (see list below), have formed a company under the name of "precision watchmaking community."

This company, while respecting the individuality and independence of its members, aims to promote and foster their activity and development."

The companies are:

Ernst Borel (Neuchatel)
Doxa (Le Locle)
Ebel (La Chaux-de-Fonds)
Eberhard (La Chaux-de-Fonds)
Favre-Leuba (Geneva)
Girard-Perregaux (La Chaux-de-Fonds)
Heuer (Bienne)
Juvenia (La Chaux-de-Fonds)
Zodiac (Le Locle)

Of course, Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds are about three miles apart. Heuer is shown as being based in Bienne, but it is now headquartered in La Chaux-de-Fonds (and Ebel is now in Bienne). This is very much a Neuchatel club, and Charles Blum was the guy who had other watch company owners over to his house for cards every week.

Clearly, this was the organizational structure behind the autowinder collaboration for the AS1687/1688, which A. Schild apparently developed just for this consortium. And it was also the organization behind the development of a high-beat version of that and other movements. GP was the first to do so in 1966, but the CHP picked up that effort in 1968. That's when Zodiac started using high-beat movements.

Rick "a little more history" Denney