|
The Swatch Group
The Swatch Group Ltd is a Swiss manufacturer of watches and jewellery. The company was founded in 1983 through the merger of Allgemeine Gesellschaft der Schweizerischen Uhrenindustrie, ASUAG and Société Suisse pour l'Industrie Horlogère, SSIH, moving to manufacturing Quartz clock, quartz-crystal watches to resolve the quartz crisis threatening the traditional Swiss watchmaking industry. The Swatch Group is the largest watch company in the world and employs about 31,000 people in 50 countries. The group owns the Swatch product line and other luxury brands, including Blancpain, Breguet (brand), Breguet, Certina, ETA SA, ETA, Glashütte Original, Hamilton Watch Company, Hamilton, Harry Winston, Inc., Harry Winston, Longines, Mido (watch), Mido, Omega SA, Omega, Rado (watchmaker), Rado, and Tissot. History SSIH SSIH (Société Suisse pour l'Industrie Horlogère), originated in 1930 with the merger of the Omega SA, Omega and Tissot companies. Swiss watch quality was high, but ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Public Company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (listing (finance), listed company), which facilitates the trade of shares, or not (unlisted public company). In some jurisdictions, public companies over a certain size must be listed on an exchange. In most cases, public companies are ''private'' enterprises in the ''private'' sector, and "public" emphasizes their reporting and trading on the public markets. Public companies are formed within the legal systems of particular states and so have associations and formal designations, which are distinct and separate in the polity in which they reside. In the United States, for example, a public company is usually a type of corporation, though a corporation need not be a public company. In the United Kin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glashütte Original
Glashütte Original is a German producer of luxury watches founded in 1994 by the privatization of VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe (GUB), an East German conglomerate formed in 1951 from the watch companies based in Glashütte. Glashütte Original uses its own movements, and has 10 proprietary movement innovations. Glashütte Original is currently owned by The Swatch Group. History Origins Glashütte Original has roots dating back to 1845 when watchmakers Ferdinand Adolph Lange (of A. Lange & Söhne fame), Moritz Grossman, Julius Assmann, and Adolf Schneider came to Glashütte to manufacture watch parts and pocket watches. They chose this area for its proximity to Dresden's already established clockwork fame. The work of these founders led to innovations that became signature components of Glashütte watchmaking and are continued to this day, such as the Glashütte three-quarter plate, gold lever wheels, and chatons, all developed in 1865 and all increasing timekeeping precision ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Balance Wheel
A balance wheel, or balance, is the timekeeping device used in mechanical watches and small clocks, analogous to the pendulum in a pendulum clock. It is a weighted wheel that rotates back and forth, being returned toward its center position by a spiral torsion spring, known as the '' balance spring'' or ''hairspring''. It is driven by the escapement, which transforms the rotating motion of the watch gear train into impulses delivered to the balance wheel. Each swing of the wheel (called a "tick" or "beat") allows the gear train to advance a set amount, moving the hands forward. The balance wheel and hairspring together form a harmonic oscillator, which due to resonance oscillates preferentially at a certain rate, its resonant frequency or "beat", and resists oscillating at other rates. The combination of the mass of the balance wheel and the elasticity of the spring keep the time between each oscillation or "tick" very constant, accounting for its nearly universal use as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bulova
Bulova is an American luxury timepiece manufacturing company that was founded in 1875 in New York City. Formally the Bulova Watch Company, it makes watches, clocks and accessories. History Founding Bulova was founded and incorporated as the J. Bulova Company in 1875 by Bohemian immigrant Joseph Bulova. It was reincorporated under the name Bulova Watch Company in 1923, became part of the Loews Corporation in 1979, and was sold to Citizen Watch Co., Citizen at the end of 2007. Bulova started a small jewelry shop in New York City around 1875 on Maiden Lane, which specialized in jewelry and the repair of clocks and the occasional pocket watch. Around 1911, Bulova began producing table clocks and pocket watches. In 1912, Joseph Bulova launched his first plant dedicated entirely to the production of watches in Biel, Switzerland where he began a standardized mass production. The watches were popular with the American public. In 1927, Bulova set up an observatory on the roof of a skys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quartz Crisis
The quartz crisis (Swiss) or quartz revolution (America, Japan and other countries) was the upheaval in the watchmaking industry caused by the advent of quartz watches in the 1970s and early 1980s, that largely replaced mechanical watches around the world.Smithsonian: The quartz revolution revitalized the U.S. watch industry. It caused a significant decline of the Swiss watchmaking industry, which chose to remain focused on traditional mechanical watches, while the majority of the world's watch production shifted to Japanese companies such as |
Quartz Clock
Quartz clocks and quartz watches are timepieces that use an electronic oscillator regulated by a quartz crystal to keep time. The crystal oscillator, controlled by the resonant mechanical vibrations of the quartz crystal, creates a signal with very precise frequency, so that quartz clocks and watches are at least an order of magnitude more accurate than mechanical clocks. Generally, some form of digital logic counts the cycles of this signal and provides a numerical time display, usually in units of hours, minutes, and seconds. As the advent of solid-state digital electronics in the 1980s allowed them to be made more compact and inexpensive, quartz timekeepers became the world's most widely used timekeeping technology, used in most clocks and watches as well as computers and other appliances that keep time. Explanation Chemically, quartz is a specific form of a compound called silicon dioxide. Many materials can be formed into plates that will resonate. However, quart ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tissot
Tissot SA () is a Swiss luxury watch brand owned by the Swatch Group. The company was founded in Le Locle, Switzerland by Charles-Félicien Tissot and his son, Charles-Émile Tissot, in 1853. Tissot is not associated with Mathey-Tissot, another Swiss watchmaking firm. History Independent company Tissot was founded in 1853 by Charles-Félicien Tissot and his son Charles-Émile Tissot in the Swiss city of Le Locle, in the Neuchâtel canton of the Jura Mountains area. The father and son team worked as a casemaker (Charles-Félicien Tissot) and watchmaker (Charles-Emile). His son having expressed an interest in watchmaking from a young age. The two turned their house at the time into a small 'factory'. Charles-Emile Tissot left for Russia in 1858 and succeeded in selling their savonnette pocket watches across the Russian Empire. Russia became Tissot's greatest market, with the brand gaining popularity even in the Tsar's court; so Charles Tissot, Charles-Émile's son, moved to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swatch
Swatch is a Swiss watch company founded in 1983 by Ernst Thomke, Elmar Mock, and Jacques Müller. It is a subsidiary of The Swatch Group. The Swatch product line was developed as a response to the "quartz crisis" of the 1970s and 1980s, in which inexpensive, battery-powered, quartz-regulated watches were competing against more established European watchmakers focused on artisanal craftsmanship producing mostly mechanical watches. The name Swatch is a contraction of "second watch," its concept of "low-cost, high-tech, artistic and emotional" watches marketed as casual, disposable accessories. History Swatch began development in the early 1980s under the leadership of the then ETA SA's CEO Ernst Thomke with a small team of watch engineers led by Elmar Mock and Jacques Müller. Conceived as a standard timekeeper in plastic, Franz Sprecher, a marketing consultant hired by Thomke to give the project an outsider's consideration, sought to create a fashionable line of watches. Sw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rado (watchmaker)
Rado is a luxury Swiss watch brand owned by the Swatch Group. It was founded in 1917 under the name Schlup & Co. by brothers Fritz, Ernst and Werner Schlup in their parents' home in Lengnau, Bern, Switzerland. The "Rado" watch brand was launched in 1957 with the introduction of Rado Green Horse. "Rado" means "wheel" in Esperanto. The Rado Captain Cook dive watch debuted in 1962 and is named after Captain James Cook Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 1768 and 1779. He complet ..., the 18th-century British explorer and cartographer. Gallery RADO Captain Cook Redition .jpg, Rado Captain Cook Rado Diastar Ceramica.jpg, Rado DiaStar Ceramica RADO watch picture from Numan.jpg, Rado DiaStar RADO 231 BG.jpg, Rado 231 BG Rado Captain Cook MK1.jpg, Rado Captain Cook MK1 RadoSilverStar.jpg, Rado ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omega SA
Omega SA is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. Founded by Louis Brandt in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1848, the company formerly operated as ''Louis Brandt et Fils'' until incorporating the name ''Omega'' in 1903, becoming ''Louis Brandt et Frère-Omega Watch & Co.'' In 1984, the company officially changed its name to ''Omega SA'' and opened its museum in Biel/Bienne to the public. Omega is a subsidiary of the Swatch Group. Britain's Royal Flying Corps used Omega watches in 1917 for its combat units, followed by the U.S. Army in 1918, and NASA in 1969 for Apollo 11. The Omega Speedmaster, Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch is marketed as the first watch worn on the Moon, becoming one of the watchmaker's most iconic models. Omega is the current official timekeeper of the Olympic Games, Olympics, having first done so in 1932 Summer Olympics, 1932, in addition to being the timekeeper of the America's Cup yacht race. History Early history In 1848, Louis Brandt fou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mido (watch)
Mido SA is a manufacturer of Swiss luxury watches. The company was founded in 1918 and is under the Swatch group brand umbrella. History Mido was founded in 1918 by George G. Schaeren in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. ''Mido'' comes from the Spanish phrase ''Yo mido'' meaning ''"I measure"''. In the 1920s, Mido introduced ladies' watches with color-enameled shaped cases and modern straps as well as timepieces for gentlemen in art deco style. Mido found a market in the flourishing automotive market by producing watches in the shape of radiator grills of a wide range of brands such as Buick, Bugatti, Fiat, Ford, Excelsior, Hispano-Suiza, etc. In 1934, Mido launched the Multifort design, the first Mido to use a self-winding automatic movement. It was shock-resistant, anti-magnetic and water-resistant. In that same year Mido launched watches with unbreakable mainsprings. This was also the very first time that any watch manufacturer utilized this type of spring within the market ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longines
Compagnie des Montres Longines, Francillon S.A., or simply Longines (), is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Saint-Imier, Switzerland. Founded by Agassiz family, Auguste Agassiz in 1832, the company has been a subsidiary of the Swiss The Swatch Group, Swatch Group and its predecessors since 1983. Its winged hourglass logo, registered in 1889, is the oldest unchanged active trademark registered with WIPO. History 1832–1867 Longines was founded in Saint-Imier in 1832 by Agassiz family, Auguste Agassiz, a Swiss watchmaker and brother of biologist Louis Agassiz. Auguste had two partners, lawyers Henri Raiguel and Florian Morel; the company's original name was ''Raiguel Jeune & Cie''. By 1846, Raigeul and Morel had retired from the watch industry, leaving Agassiz as sole company head. Several years later, Agassiz brought in his bright, enterprising nephew, trained economist Ernest Francillon, into the business. Francillon was the mastermind behind several impressive innovations th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
