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Joël Pynson
August 2025
Updated in November 2025
1. From San Marino to Grenchen
Goliardo Della Balda, a citizen of the tiny Republic of San Marino, founded the Fabrique d'Horlogerie Delba in Grenchen in 1934 [1]. It wasn't the best time to set up a watch factory in Switzerland: the company was in difficulty in 1938, but managed to survive.
1935
1943
The company produces attractive wristwatches with anchor escapements and cylinders.
In 1944, the company became Montres Delbana, with the arrival of Lotte Della Balda-Mensigen [2].
2. Delbana
Watch production increases and diversifies: automatic watches, waterproof watches, chronographs, and even alarm clocks.
1947
1950
1956
1958
1956
1956
Delbana's most original watch came out in 1954. This was the Voltige model, which featured an animated disc around the dial beneath the crystal.
This model is reminiscent of Ernest Borel's highly successful Cocktail watch, launched a year earlier.
1954
1957
Ernest Borel held a patent registered in 1952 [3] and Delbana held a patent, jointly with the B. Schlesinger, Narja watches, registered in 1953 [4]. The patents were slightly different, Ernest Borel claiming mobiles above the dial and Delaba around the dial. Discussions about patents certainly took place between the two factories, but a patent on the subject had already been filed by the German Richard Hirschmann in 1950 [5]. In fact, both Ernest Borel and Delbana licensed Hirschmann's patent, and Delbana continued to market its Voltige model.
Goliardo died in 1956, and Lotte Della Balda took over. She was later joined by Charlotte and Renate Della Balda.
Watch production continues with very classic models that are probably struggling to stand out from the crowd.
1956
1967
By the early 1970s, the Delbana brand had become very discreet, and in 1976 it was transferred to Fabrique Wega et Owix, headed by Max Kessler, and the Delbana company was transformed into a finance company in 1978 [6].
Wega & Owix went bankrupt in 1983, but Max Kessler founded Montres Wega + Delbana, Max Kessler in Grenchen [7]. Then, in 1994, the Kessler family created the company Ardiam Joyaux, renaming it Montres Wega Delbana the same year [8]!
This company went bankrupt in 2001.
Delbana is now a brand of Delma.
[1] FOSC 1934
[2] FOSC 1944
[3] Patent CH 296 061
[4] Patent CH 311 299
[5] Patent CH 284 141
[6] FOSC 1976 and 1978
[7] FOSC 1983
[8] FOSC 1994
The FOSC (Feuille Officielle Suisse du Commerce) is available on E-periodica
Notes :
About 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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