Eterna SA

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Eterna SA

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1856
Seat Grenchen , Switzerland
management Robert Dreyfuss
( CEO )
Branch Watch manufacture
Website www.eterna.ch

The Swiss watch manufacturer Eterna was founded in 1856 by the doctor Josef Girard and the school teacher Urs Schild as a raw works manufacturer Girard & Schild in Grenchen , Solothurn . This makes it the oldest industrial company in Grenchner and also the nucleus of the largest Swiss watch manufacturer ETA SA .

timeline

  • On January 7, 1851, Josef Girard and Anton Schild acquired a municipal council resolution to locate the watchmaking industry in Grenchen . On August 16, the municipal council commissioned these people to organize the training of apprentice watchmakers.
  • In 1852, the teacher Urs Schild became a part-time bookkeeper and clerk at the newly founded Girard Frères & Kunz raw material factory .
  • On November 7, 1856, the doctor Josef Girard and the 27-year-old school teacher Urs Schild in Grenchen , buying up the aforementioned factory, which went bankrupt, founded the “Dr. Girard & Schild ”, the cradle of the watch manufacturer Eterna. Eight years later, the company regulated the mutual rights and obligations of employers and employees in writing.
  • In 1858 the first railroad trains on their way from Solothurn to Biel also stopped in Grenchen, which significantly improved the logistical conditions for the company.
  • Girard left the company in 1866 and sold his shares to Urs Schild for 35,000 Swiss francs, in order to be able to devote himself entirely to the profession he had learned as a doctor. As the sole owner now, Schild converted the company into the Gebrüder Schild precision watch factory .
  • From 1870, the first automated production machines were used, which were driven by a steam engine instead of the Dorfbach water power as before . Due to the more precise production of the individual parts, Eterna was one of the first manufacturers to offer prefabricated spare parts for repairs, which significantly reduced costs through less rework.
  • In 1874 around 300 workers were employed who accepted a wage cut in order to ensure the survival of the company in the event of a sales crisis
  • In 1875, the first Eterna watch made entirely in-house was dispatched.
  • In 1882 Urs Schild accepted a mandate as the Swiss National Councilor. Six years later, in 1888, at the age of 58, he died. In the following year, 1889, the name Eterna first appeared on the dial of a pocket watch.
  • In 1900 the company was converted and the steam engine drive was replaced by an electric one.
  • In 1908, Eterna submitted the patent for the world's first wrist alarm clock. Six years later, Eterna presented the world's first wristwatch with an alarm clock at the Swiss National Exhibition.
  • In 1930 Eterna brought the smallest mass-produced ladies' wristwatch with a baguette movement (form movement) on the market.
  • In 1947, Eterna equipped Thor Heyerdahl's expedition team on the Kon-Tiki with robust and waterproof sports wristwatches. The crew sailed from Peru to the East Polynesian Islands on a balsa raft.
  • In 1948, the most important development in the history Eternas was presented with Eterna-Matic, the ball bearings - rotor for the automatic winding . Even today, the company logo shows five balls that refer to this invention, which is still the main rotor bearing to this day.
  • In 1958, the smallest automatic movement at the time was built into the women's Golden Heart watch . In order to provide enough moment of inertia for a reliable winding despite the small radius , a solid gold rotor was used.
  • In 1962 two particularly flat automatic movements called Eterna-Matic 3000 were presented.
  • In 1980 Eterna presented the thinnest quartz wristwatch at 0.98 mm.
  • In 1993, a sports watch line designed by the automotive designer Pininfarina was introduced.
  • 1995 FA Porsche Beteiligungen took over Eterna SA.
  • In 1998 the new Porsche Design watch line was presented. FA Porsche let the contracts with IWC expire at the end of 1997. Some of the new Porsche Design watches also have titanium cases and straps; some special models, like older Porsche Design models, are coated in matt black.
  • In 2001, Eterna built the quartz clock in the stadium of the Hamburger Sport Verein, which since August 2001 has shown the club's membership of the 1st Bundesliga since the league was founded, as a one-off production. When the clock stopped beating in November 2012, it was replaced by a new one from Eterna in April 2013.
  • In 2004, Eterna remembered its manufacturing past and created the caliber 6036.
  • In 2006, for the 150th birthday, the automatic manufacture 3030 followed, in 2007 the caliber 6037 and half a century after the Eterna-Matic, the “Spherodrive” in 2009 underlined the importance of tiny ball bearings in mechanical watchmaking.
  • In 2011, Eterna was taken over by the Chinese company China Haidian .

Picture gallery

  • Eterna, detail

  • Eterna-Matic, caliber 1414U, 1958

  • Eterna-Matic 1000, caliber 1479K, 1966

  • Eterna-Matic 3003, caliber 1504, 1974

  • Eterna-Matic 1.043.3.1.04

Collections

  • Adventic
  • Vaughan
  • Madison
  • Heritage
  • Centenaire
  • 1948
  • KonTiki
  • Tangaroa
  • Artena
  • Contessa
  • Monterey

swell

Porsche Design product catalog wristwatches, 04/98

literature

  • Gisbert L. Brunner , Christian Pfeiffer-Belli: Eterna - watchmaking pioneers. ISBN 978-3-033-00984-4 .
  • Gisbert L. Brunner: Eterna - 135 years of precision watchmaking. In: Old clocks. No. 5, 1991, pp. 33-48, and No. 6, 1991, pp. 9-24.

Web links

Commons : Eterna  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b German Vogt: Schild, Urs. In: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz ., Accessed on August 30, 2014
  2. ↑ Watch-Wiki, Dr._Girard_und_Schild_Ebauches (Eterna / de) , accessed on August 29, 2014