Mondaine
| Mondaine Watch Ltd.
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1967 |
| Seat |
Pfäffikon SZ Switzerland
|
| management | André Bernheim |
| Branch | Watch manufacturer |
| Website | www.mondaine.com |
The Mondaine Watch Ltd. is an independent Swiss watch manufacturer based in Pfäffikon SZ and a factory in Biberist . In Switzerland, the family company had a close partnership with Migros for decades . In 2010, Migros terminated the cooperation agreement after mutual allegations, but continued to use the name M-Watch for wristwatches from another source until the 2013 court ruling . Mondaine has again been delivering the M-Watch to Migros since 2019 .
history
Origins
Erwin Bernheim , the son of a Zurich tailor born in 1925 , promised his father on his deathbed that he would take up his profession. During the Second World War, the young Bernheim met many war refugees. When they returned home after the war, the demand for high quality branded watches was high. Bernheim initially supplied some of his friends from the war with small quantities of Swiss watches, discovered the business of his life and switched from the tailor's shop to the watch trade.
construction
Animated by the Volkswagen in the automobile, Bernheim wanted to develop a folk clock . He began to produce inexpensive metal and plastic watches for export himself. Together with partner companies, the young company Mondaine is doing pioneering work for the first digital watches with red LEDs and the LCD display that is still up-to-date today . In the mid-1970s, for example, a digital quartz watch was developed in collaboration with Brown, Boveri & Cie for customer-specific LCD displays and a chip manufacturer (see picture). For the first time, it allowed the user to digitally correct the rate by changing the electronic frequency divider at the push of a button. This also opened the doors of Swiss watch shops for Mondaine. However, when Mondaine launched a collection for Migros under the Mirexal brand , Mondaine disappeared overnight from the shop displays. At that time, Migros was still seen as the horror and death of retail .
M-Watch
In May 1980, the two young engineers Elmar Mock and Jacques Müller from the Grenchner watch manufacturer ETA had already sketched the plans for the original Swatch , in order to strengthen the slacking Swiss watch industry against competition from the Far East. However, since the Swatch was only launched in Zurich on March 1, 1983, it was unknowingly invented a second time by Mondaine. Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund-President Pierre Arnold also tried to bring about the boom in the watch industry with a cheap collection - through the retail giant he led. Ronnie Bernheim , son of the company founder, accepted the order in January 1983, even if the Migros conditions were almost impossible to meet: The first 500 models had to be available within 28 days to be handed over to the press at the annual press conference. There were also requirements regarding quality and price.
On February 24, 1983, a week before Swatch, the M-Watch was presented to the surprised public and competition. The "M" in the name could stand for both Mondaine and Migros. At 38 Swiss francs, the M-Watch was 11 francs cheaper than the competing product from ETA / SMH and ticked more quietly. Despite the initial success, those responsible at Mondaine trembled about commercial success. As the exclusive Swiss seller, Migros had courageously ordered 20,000 watches. To cover the costs, Mondaine had to sell at least five times as much. By the end of the year, however, 180,000 watches had been sold on the small watch stands between the fruits and groceries of the Swiss retailer. The fact that Mondaine, apart from the 20,000 watches, leaned so far out the window without any protection was just as courageous as the launch of the Swatch at the same time: It was all or nothing. Ultimately, over 7 million Mondaine wristwatches were sold through the Migros sales channel by 2010.
The legal dispute over the brand name M-Watch was decided by the Zurich Commercial Court in February 2013 in favor of Mondaine. However, an appeal to the Federal Supreme Court on September 30, 2013 (judgment 4A-128/2013) led to the decision being rejected by the Zurich Commercial Court with the condition that the origin of the M-Watch brand be re-examined. In 2015, Mondaine and Migros reached an out-of-court agreement on the independent use of the M-Watch brand name by both companies.
Mondaine today
Mondaine works with the Swiss department store group Manor AG . Around 70 models are offered through this sales channel under the M-Watch brand in Switzerland.
In addition to the M-Watch, which is also sold in Asia, America and non-Swiss Europe, Mondaine has been producing the official Swiss station watch for the wrist as a licensee of the Swiss Federal Railways SBB since 1986. There are two differently functioning watches. For many years, the simpler, cheaper version with a second hand has been sold every second, just like other quartz watches. A more complicated version as an imitation of the Swiss train station clock with seconds hand revolving in 58 seconds, followed by a stop at 12 o'clock and restarting after 60 seconds, synchronized with the next step of the minute hand, was sold until around 2001. After a delivery interruption of several years, the newly developed caliber 58-02 stop2go has been offered since autumn 2013 .
Mondaine also manufactures promotional watches and clocks for brands without their own production facilities. For inexpensive advertising watches, the Zurich-based company also has a subsidiary in Hong Kong , which produces inexpensive but no Swiss watches.
Mondaine was one of the first Swiss watch manufacturers to announce a smartwatch and will present prototypes at Baselworld on March 19, 2015. The dial of the pointer wristwatch is traditional. The additional functions can only be used together with a suitable smartphone or tablet computer . A pedometer and a sleep cycle alarm are built into the watch.
Mondaine Watch Ltd. belongs to Erwin Bernheim's two sons. André Bernheim headed the company until December 2017. At that time, he ceded management to Bernd Stadlwieser , who, however, was appointed managing director of the trade fair operator MCH Group (including Baselworld ) in 2019 so that Mondaine has to look for a new CEO.
Since February 2019, 60 Mondaine M-Watch models have again been available at many Migros sales outlets. This means that Mondaine can renew the business partnership with Migros that ended in 2010.
See also
Web link
Single note
- ↑ Now we can give full throttle , az Solothurner Zeitung, Vol. 107, No. 062, March 5, 2013, p. 21
- ^ Success for Migros in the brand dispute , Neue Zürcher Zeitung, vol. 234, no.229, October 3, 2013, p. 26
- ↑ Mondaine press release on stop2go ( memento of the original dated December 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 24 kB)
- ↑ Mondaine launches smartwatch , accessed on February 28, 2015
- ↑ Philipp Felber: From Mondaine to the MCH Group: This is the new boss of the ailing trade fair. az Basel, February 5, 2019, accessed on February 6, 2019
- ↑ Urs Mathys: Biberister Mondaine can again produce watches for Migros. az Solothurner Zeitung, February 5, 2019, accessed on February 6, 2019
