TAVANNES | Rectangle
Art Deco
1930s
Tavannes Watch Co. was founded in 1891 by the Locler (Le Locle / Swiss) watchmaker Henri-Frédéric Sandoz and named after the town of the same name. The CYMA brand, part of the group of companies since 1892, produced complicated pocket watches together with Tavannes using the most modern machinery. Sandoz and its partners, the brothers Theodore Schwob and Abramam Schwob, soon opened up markets all over the world - especially in Canada, Russia, the USA and the Far East. By 1905, it was 750 employees were producing 450,000 watches per year and production grew very quickly to 750,000 pieces manufactured by 950 employees by 1909. In the year 1910, Tavannes Watch Co won the Grand Prix at the World's Fair in Brussels for the production of 2,500 watches per day. Henri-Frédéric Sandoz was a prolific inventor. Between 1889 and 1907, he filed 39 patents for watch improvements in his own name; 11 more were registered by the Tavannes Watch Co. SA under his direction, until his death in 1913. Henri Auguste Sandoz (1878-1936) succeeded his father as director of the Tavannes Watch Co.
The man who would eventually be crowned King Edward VIII of England and relinquish the throne commissioned Tavannes to make him a custom watch that could be worn as a belt buckle while golfing. With a discreet push of a small button, the watch part of the buckle would flip open at an angle of about 90 degrees to the case. In this position, the time could be read. At the end of the twenties and the beginning of the thirties, Tavannes Watch Co kept creating new types of watches such as "La Captive" or even the Belt-Watch, which was the first model developed for Edward VIII, which at that time consisted of completely new concepts. This was followed by "waterproof" wristwatches and high-grade wrist chronographs with Valjoux movements.
In half a century, Tavannes built five factories in Switzerland and became the fourth largest watch manufacturer in the world. At the time, they employed over 2,000 trained watchmakers and produced over 4,000 watches a day. In 1940, a major fire destroyed several of the factory buildings as well as most of the archives. In 1943, the "CYMA" brand was increasingly used to trade with the "Tavannes" brand. With over 300 patents for mechanical and automatic timepieces, by 1950 Tavannes was producing movements for most of the well-known Swiss brands such as Jaeger-LeCoultre, Dunhill, Hermès, Zenith and Patek Philippe.
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Here we have a Tavannes rectangular dress watch from the 1930s. The Art Deco case covered in 14-karat white gold is detailed with wonderfully understated embellishments on the sides. The matte white dial is fitted with decent gold hour markers. A marvelous rarity that bears an original patina of almost 100 years, yet runs very reliably.
Manual movement
Diameter 38 (31) x 22 mm without crown
Technical indications | Keeping time +42 sec/day
Serviced 2023
Differential taxation according to § 25a UStG. No taxes included. | Differenzbesteuerung nach § 25a UStG. Kunstgegenstände und Sammlungsstücke, Sonderregelung.
