Bifora watches
Founding period
After Josef Bidlingmaier, born on December 25, 1870, learned the trade of goldsmith at the Zieher gold goods factory in Schwäbisch Gmünd and gained experience at various companies in Switzerland, Pforzheim and the USA, he started working with his in 1900 at the age of 30 Brother Bernhard and one other employee self-employed. First they made gold rings for pocket watch chains and their specialty were glass pendants for pocket watch chains with inlaid natural flowers. An order from Switzerland for the delivery of gold pull bracelets in 1913 ensured further growth for the company and in 1913 it already had 40 employees.
The first Bifora wristwatch
By the end of the First World War, the workforce had grown to 60. But sales fell. Josef Bidlingmaier was therefore left with a large batch of finished bracelets for which there were no buyers in Germany either. Bidlingmaier made a virtue out of necessity. Since medallions with folding hinges had been made from silver in the past, he came up with the idea of making watch cases himself and getting watch movements from Switzerland. And so in 1918 Bidlingmaier became one of the first suppliers of wristwatches in Germany. The 14 carat gold cases of the watches were not made in 3 parts as is usual in Switzerland, but in 2 parts with a hinge, like a medallion. The manufacture and sale of Bidlingmaier watches developed very well and the number of employees grew steadily. The business premises in Charlottenstrasse in Schwäbisch Gmünd soon became too small and so it was decided to build a new factory building. This now listed building on Hauffstrasse / Lorcher Strasse in Schwäbisch Gmünd was planned by the Stuttgart architect Josef Walter. Construction began in 1927 and the 230 employees could move into it by autumn 1928.
The first German wristwatch factory
In order to become independent, Josef Bidlingmaier had the great goal of being able to manufacture the clockworks that he obtained from Switzerland himself. He encouraged the precision mechanics, worked diligently on the raw work, on the dial and, last but not least, on the reassembly. After years of construction work, the 2025 caliber was presented in 1928 as the first self-developed and self-made movement. It is the first form movement in Germany specially built for wristwatches. It is also the first wristwatch movement with a lever escapement made in Germany. Other special features are the ratchet on the dial side and the crown mechanism with rocker. On the ¾ bridge of the plant were the lettering "BIFORA" (BI = Bidlingmaier, FOR = Formwerk, A = anchor escapement) and "DRGM" (German Empire utility model). In 1934 the “Bifora” brand was registered and the company was renamed “Bifora-Uhren J. Bidlingmaier Limited Liability Company”. Bidlingmaier attached great importance to quality and economic independence, and so he invested in the further development of the factories and increasing the vertical range of manufacture. With the exception of a few parts (such as the springs), all components of the watch and the movement were manufactured in Schwäbisch Gmünd. A separate department for the production of warehouse rubies was even set up. The J. Bidlingmaier company developed into one of the leading German wristwatch manufacturers and their watches had an excellent reputation. When war broke out in 1939, around 500 people were employed. Watchmaking continued during the Second World War and detonators for explosive devices were also made during the war. Fortunately, the company was largely spared from war damage and dismantling.
Bimag - the first German automatic watch movement
In 1951, the caliber 103 SA was the first German manufacturer to introduce an automatic movement. The patented “B” -Automatic was based on the hand-wound caliber 103. This was provided with an adapted circuit board and a double-sided winding rotor for self-winding. A lever changer based on a Felsa patent acted as a mechanical rectifier. The automatic and manual winding gears were completely decoupled from one another. The movement was constructed quite massive and so the watch looked quite clunky overall. In 1952 the automatic gearbox was changed and a rocker switch was installed instead of the lever switch. In the next few years the automatic was continuously improved and in 1962 the 7 ¼ liner caliber 70, the first German women's automatic, was brought onto the market. In the same year there was also a new Bifora automatic for men's watches. The caliber 910 was based on an inexpensive pillar construction. As with the ladies' watch, springless twin ratchet wheels were used to wind the massive heavy metal rotor on both sides. As a result, the focus of development was shifted to the electronic wristwatch, and it wasn't until 1971 that a new and at the same time the last Bifora automatic generation came with the caliber 1160.
Chronometer Bifora "Unima"
Despite the constant further development of the automatic movements, the manual wind movements, which mostly served as the basis for the automatic movements, were not lost sight of. In 1955 a very successful manual wind chronometer movement was presented with the caliber 120 in the “Unima” version. The chronometer version of the movement was equipped with a Glucydur screw balance with a Nivarox flat hairspring, a gear drive with trumpet peg and a gooseneck fine adjustment. The Bifora “Unima” chronometers were, alongside the chronometers from Junghans and Laco, the top products in German wristwatch construction. Bifora experienced its heyday in the 1960s to the early 1970s. At its peak, over 1,000 people were employed and up to 4,000 wristwatches were made a day. These were exported to 42 countries and had a particularly strong presence in the Middle East and India.
Quartz watches
From the mid-1960s onwards, major investments were made in the development of electromechanical and later quartz movements. As early as 1967 functioning prototypes of the electromechanical plants B8 and B9 (like B8 only larger motherboard) could be presented. But these never went into series production. It was not until 1971 that electromechanical movements were ready for series production with the B10 / B11 calibers. However, in 1970 Junghans launched a pilot series of the first German quartz wristwatch, the "Astro-Quartz" with its own movement, which has been developed since 1967. Bifora then managed to produce its own quartz movement in 1973 with the caliber B12. Many parts of the B10 / B11 (e.g. circuit boards and bridges) could still be used. With the “flat-line” and the calibers B17 / B18, Bifora was able to present the world's flattest quartz watch at the time, with a height of 2.6-3.1 mm. The movement and case were made from one piece.
The end
Josef Bidlingmaier died on January 20, 1967 and his two sons took over the management of the company. However, in the 1970s the company came under increasing economic hardship due to the high costs of converting to quartz watch production, rising wage costs and the need to pay off a partner. Although the workforce was massively cut, the company had to file for bankruptcy in 1977 with the last 270 employees. In 1978 the company's previous representative in the Middle East, the Indian wholesale merchant Hiranand Gajria, took over Bifora. In Schwäbisch Gmünd, he initially continues to manufacture quartz watches with 150 employees. The manufacture of mechanical watches was relocated to Bangalore / India. Production in Germany was finally stopped in 1983 and the factory closed. In India, too, watch production was stopped in the 1990s. The plant there (BIFORA WATCH CO LTD) still produces precision parts for the automotive industry today.
The new beginning
In 2011 a small team dared a new beginning with the establishment of the "Bifora Uhren-Manufaktur GmbH". Conscious of tradition and with a view to today's requirements, the company wants to manufacture high-quality mechanical watches. And so in November 2014, the JB-60 was able to introduce the first Bifora watch in 30 years. The name is reminiscent of the company's founder Josef Bidlingmaier and the edition of 60 pieces. 60 original caliber 130 from 1965 are used for the watches. These have been completely overhauled and elaborately refined. According to their claim, all parts of the watch come from suppliers in Germany and Switzerland. So z. B. the case in Pforzheim and the bracelet in Augsburg. The dials and hands come from Switzerland.
literature
- Hans Heinrich Schmid: Lexicon of the German watch industry 1850–1980 . Villingen-Schwenningen: Sponsorship Association of the Living Clock Industry Museum e. V., 2005, p. 491, ISBN 3-927987-91-3 .
- Heinz Hampel: Automatic wristwatches from Germany, England, France, Japan, Russia, USA . Callwey Verlag, 1996, ISBN 978-3-7667-1228-8 .
- Hans-Peter Reif: Typically German: BIFORA , in Klassik Uhren 3/2001.
- Christian Wiechel-Kramüller: Bifora Unima: It depends on the second . Suhlendorf 2018, ISBN 978-3-940189-19-6 .
Web links
- www.bifora.eu - Official website
- www.bifora-ev.de - Bifora Circle of Friends