Minerva (watch manufacturer)
| Fabrique d'horlogerie Minerva SA
|
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1858 |
| Seat | Villeret , Switzerland |
| Branch | Clocks |
The Fabrique d'Horlogerie Minerva SA is a small Swiss watch manufacturer based in Villeret in the Bernese Jura . The manufacture has its own hand-wound and chronograph calibers and produces particularly high-quality, mechanical watches in the 8,000 to 30,000 Swiss francs (5,000 to 19,000 euros) segment. Minerva has been part of the Richemont luxury goods group since 2006 .
history
The brothers Charles Robert and Hyppolite Robert founded the company H. & C. Robert in 1858 . It initially worked as an establishment of pocket watches . Works by Fontainmelon were preferred. In 1878 the sons Charles and Georges took over the management of the company. From 1885 Yvan Robert was also involved in the company management; the company name was changed to Robert Frères Villeret (Robert Brothers) and the new RFV logo was introduced. In 1885 Robert Frères Villeret took part in the world exhibition in Antwerp and in 1889 in the Paris world exhibition ; The company won medals for its watches at both exhibitions.
From 1895 Robert Freres Villeret began producing his own watch movements and pocket watch cases in nickel and silver ; the case production was stopped again in 1931. Up to the turn of the century, the company was continuously restructured by Roberts Sons into a real watch manufacturer . The first Minerva caliber was a pocket watch movement with a cylinder escapement .
In 1908 Robert Frères Villeret started manufacturing chronographs and stopwatches. From 1920 the raw works were gilded in the in-house workshop. In 1923 the Minerva brand was introduced and in 1929 the company was renamed Minerva SA, Villeret .
In 1934, Minerva SA was taken over by Charles Haussener and Jacques Pelot. Business was particularly good during World War II , when 12,000 movements and watches were sold, many of them to the Swiss Army, which still purchases mechanical stopwatches from Minerva today.
In 1955 Minerva's inheritance shares were passed on to the nephew and heir of Jacques Pelot, André Frey, and in 1960 Charles Haussener's son-in-law Maurice Favre inherited his shares. Frey and Favre managed the company until 1989, after which Jean-Jacques Frey took over the management of the company together with his father Andre Frey.
Development since 2000
In 2000 the Frey family sold the company to the Italian investor GPP International. Under the direction of the managing director Beppe Menaldo (previously at Breguet SA and Blancpain ), a new collection of watches was built and the company tradition of high-quality manufactured products was continued.
In October 2006, the Swiss luxury goods company Richemont bought the Fabrique d'Horlogerie Minerva SA, thereby expanding its business with particularly high-quality mechanical watches. One result of this takeover is Minerva's partnership with Montblanc to produce the Villeret 1858 collection . Since then, Minerva has been a department of Montblanc and is run under the name Institut Minerva de Recherche en Haute Horlogerie (Institut Minerva for research into fine watchmaking).
Web links
- Magnus Bosse: Like Phoenix from the ashes - the astonishing rebirth of Minerva SA, Villeret . ornatus-mundi.ch, May 2005 (English)
- History of Minerva, from its foundation to the integration into Montblanc . timeandwatches.com, December 2017 (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Minerva: The Background ( Memento of the original from October 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Z - The beautiful pages . In: NZZ magazine , 7/2010, p. 43.
- ↑ Watch Wiki: Minerva zeitgefuehl.de
- ↑ Richemont buys in luxury watch business . ( Memento from February 6, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Financial Times Deutschland , October 10, 2006
