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Joël Pynson
August 2025
1. The Brack family
According to the official history, Messrs Brack and Tripet joined forces in 1852 to create a watchmaking counter in Villeret [1].
What is certain, however, is that in 1883, when the Feuille Officielle du Commerce en Suisse began to be published, Paul Brack's son ran the factory that bore his name [2]. In 1903, he registered the Lavina trademark.
1900
In 1904, the factory began producing its own blanks and changed its name to Fabrique Lavina [3]. From then on, Lavina was a manufacture, and remained so for the rest of its existence.
1908
1910
In 1916, two industrialists from La Chaux-de-Fonds took over the company. They were Victor Dubois and Edouard Dubois Peseux [4].
2. Dubois Peseux & Cie
The company is renamed Dubois Peseux & Cie, Fabrique Lavina, successor to Paul W. Brack. Production is geared towards high-quality pocket and wrist watches, with a particular focus on precision, since the manufactory offers chronometers with rate bulletins.
The company kept pace with technical advances in the Swiss watchmaking industry: water-resistant, shock-resistant watches and stainless steel cases from 1935 onwards.
1931
1935
1937
In 1937 the company became Lavina SA, with Victor's widow Jeanne Dubois and Maurice Bähler at the helm [5].
3. Lavina SA
The production of quality watches continues with round, rectangular or square precision watches, but simple and uncomplicated.
1940
1947
1946
1946
1948
In 1950 Lavina produced automatic watches, but it was probably not a manufacture movement: the Lavina automatic caliber was launched later.
1950
1950 saw the launch of the remarkable 10.5-line (23.6 mm) hand-wound caliber 150, which also existed in a chronometer version, and the awarding of Observatory bulletins in Neuchâtel to the 13-line caliber 105, which had already been in existence for several years at Lavina.
The performance was all the more remarkable in that the movement did not use the classic steel balance-spring associated with the famous Guillaume balance, used by regulators for Observatory timepieces at the time, but a Nivarox balance-spring and a Glucydur balance, with much more limited settings [6].
1950
1952
In 1957, Lavina launched its first automatic manufacture caliber, the 150A Vimatic, based on the caliber 150, enlarged to 11.5 lines.
In 1958, Lavina joined the Compagnie des Fabricants des Montres ORBIT, a central purchasing and sales organization for the manufacturers Fulton, Milex-Elem, Achille Nicolet, Sigma, Vinca and Lavina [7].
In 1959, Jeanne Dubois and Werner Pfister, Technical Director, left the company, which gradually disappeared.
In 1961, Lavina's trademarks were transferred to Favre-Leuba, which explains why Favre-Leuba watches can be found with both signatures.
In 1963, Lavina was transformed into a real estate company. Following the departure of Achille Nicolet and Vinca, Compagnie ORBIT became ORBIT SA in 1970 [8].
[1] La Suisse Horlogère, 1952, 2, p. 51
[2] FOSC 1883
[3] FOSC 1904
[4] FOSC 1916
[5] FOSC 1937
[6| For more information on the subject, see Joël Pynson, La montre-bracelet Suisse, 2004, Éditions Time To Tell, p.102
[7] FOSC 1958
[8] FOSC 1963 and 1970
The FOSC (Feuille Officielle Suisse du Commerce) is available on E-periodica
Notes :
Concerning Time To Tell: Time To Tell has one of the largest private digitized databases on the history of Swiss watchmaking, with over 2.3 TB of data on more than 1,000 Swiss watch manufacturers. This database has been built up over a period of some thirty years, and continues to be fed with around 50 to 100 GB of data every year. The database is made up of old documents, mostly Swiss trade magazines, dating from the late 19th to the late 20th century. Most of these documents are not available on the Internet. Historical articles published on time2tell.com always cite the sources used.
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