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Joël Pynson
September 2025
Charles Couleru-Meuri established his watchmaking factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds at the end of the 19th century. He specialized in original watches: calendar, 24-hour, handless, and also in speedometers for bicycles.
He won numerous awards at major national and international exhibitions: La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1881, Zurich in 1883, Paris in 1889, Chicago in 1893, etc.
1890
1902
In difficulty in 1900, Charles Couleru-Meuri was supported by Hector Lévy, probably his distributor in France, who temporarily took over the company. [1].
In 1903, Charles Couleru-Meuri filed a patent [2] for an 8-day watch with a visible balance wheel., and registers the trademark Octo Non-Magnetic.
From that date onwards, Charles Couleru-Meuri became a specialist in 8-day watches, but confusion arose. A new company was created in 1905 under the name Charles Couleru-Meuri, Fabrique du Petit Château. [3]. However, 8-day watches are distributed by Gindrat-Delachaux, another specialist in 8-day watches in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
1904
1905
Furthermore, in 1907, a patent [4] for dashboard watches was granted to Ernest Tolck, a manufacturer based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, but it was in the name of Eugène Couleru, who took over Charles' business after the Petit Château factory went bankrupt in 1908 [5].
From then on, the Octo brand was used by Gindrat-Delachaux, Ernest Tolck, who took over the Marc Dubois & Cie factory, and Eugène Couleru!
1913
1910
1916
In 1920, Eugène Couleru ran the Octo factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds and registered the Octo trademark in 1923 [6]. However, the company ran into difficulties in 1926 and sold the Octo trademark to Ernest Tolck [7].
Eugène Couleru closed his company in 1927 [7].
[1] FOSC 1900
[2] Patent CH 28 536
[3] FOSC 1905
[4] Patent CH 38 361
[5] FOSC 1908
[6] FOSC 1920 and 1923
[7] FOSC 1927
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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