Vulcain (watch brand)

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Vulcain has been a watch brand of MANUFACTURE DES MONTRES VULCAIN SA (formerly PMH SA) since 2001. The company was originally founded as a Swiss watch manufacturer in 1858 by Maurice Ditisheim in La Chaux-de-Fonds .

history

In the years after it was founded, Vulcain manufactured complicated pocket watches and received several awards at exhibitions. In contrast to other watch manufacturers, the company did not miss the wristwatch trend that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century and was able to come up with a large selection of men's and women's wristwatches very early on.

In 1947 Vulcain launched the world's first hand-wound wristwatch with an integrated alarm clock called cricket (English for 'grille'). The name is derived from the "snarling" sound of the alarm. Later, the Vulcain Cricket was also known as the Presidential Watch, as it was worn by US Presidents Truman , Eisenhower , Lyndon B. Johnson and Nixon .

Another milestone in the history of the Vulcain company from 1961 is the diving watch Cricket Nautical , a wristwatch with manual winding and alarm clock and a decompression scale on the dial that can be adjusted via a crown . In 1961, the Swiss diving expert and mathematician Hannes Keller set the Heliox deep diving record with this model on his wrist at a depth of 222 meters in Ticino .

After the merger with other watch brands to form the MSR Group during the quartz crisis of the 1980s, the Vulcain brand fell silent. The famous Cricket alarm clock , however, continued to be manufactured and used in Revue watches.

In 2001 the Vulcain brand was separated from the MSR Group and, together with the rights to the cricket factory, sold to Manufacture des Montres Vulcain SA in Le Locle .

In 2005, Vulcain presented at the Baselworld trade fair with the Imperial Gong , the world's first watch with tourbillon and alarm with gong .

In 2009 Vulcain presented the V-21 Automatic movement with the traditional alarm clock complication . In December 2009 Vulcain was sold to Excellence Holding AG in Rapperswil , which belongs to the Centum Prata Group .

In 2010, the Vulcain brand presented the original presidential watch from the 1950s with the same functions as back then, but in a contemporary design and with an automatic movement.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. [1] Brand history on the company's homepage
  2. Michael P. Horlbeck: The wrist alarm clock . Heel, 2001, ISBN 978-3898800037 .
  3. ^ Roger Ruegger: History of the diving watch . Dive (into) watches. December 1, 2003. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 7, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.diveintowatches.com