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Joël Pynson
December 2025
1. Creation in Tramelan
Charles Gigandet, not to be confused with Walter Gigandet who founded the Rigis factory in Solothurn, established his watchmaking factory in Tramelan in 1936 [1].
In the beginning, the company probably assembled watches for other manufacturers, as its first brand, Cinia, was not registered until 1947, and the Gigandet brand until 1956 [2].
Charles Gigandet was, however, an inventive watchmaker, as he holds several patents for waterproof watches, automatic watches, and jumping second watches.
1957
1959
1960
Charles Gigandet died in 1966 and André Gigandet became president of Charles Gigandet SA [3].
In the 1960s, with the end of the watchmaking status that protected the Swiss watch industry, many companies joined forces to face foreign competition. This was the case for Gigandet, which joined the Micro-Time group in 1967, bringing together the manufacturers Charles Gigandet, Georges Benguerel Fils & Cie, Nestor SA, and Cattin & Cie [4].
2. Gigandet and Micro-Time
André Gigandet was probably behind the creation of Micro-Time, since the company was initially called Société Anonyme d'Achats et de Production de la Concentration Charles Gigandet.
The aim of this business combination was to pool watch production while retaining independence in terms of marketing [5].
Micro-Time grew rapidly: by 1974, the group also included Dulux, A. Reymond SA (ARSA, Damas, Hoga), Arly SA, and Spera SA [6].
Gigandet produced a wide range of watches, including numerous chronographs, some of which were marketed in the United States by Wakmann Watch Co. in New York [7].
1974
1974
The "quartz crisis" hit Micro-Time and Gigandet hard. In 1983, André Gigandet left Micro-Time and in 1984 attempted to launch plastic quartz watches heavily inspired by Swatch. It should be noted that this range of watches was also available with automatic movements, long before Swatch watches offered this option.
1984
In 1987, the Gigandet family withdrew from the Charles Gigandet watch factory [8]. The factory attempted to relaunch itself but closed in 1999 [9].
The Gigandet brand was taken over by a German company and is still in business today: https://gigandet.com/en/
[1] FOSC 1926
[2] FOSC 1948 et 1956
[3] FOSC 1966
[4] FOSC 1967
[5] FH Informations, 1967, 6, p. 40
[6] La Suisse Horlogère, édition hebdomadaire, 1974, 48, p. 1449
[7] See, for example : https://monochrome-watches.com/the-vintage-corner-history-of-wakmann-watch-company-american-brand/ but the author does not cite his sources.
[8] FOSC 1987
[9] FOSC 1999
The FOSC (Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce) is available at 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 2.5 TB of data on more than 1,000 Swiss watch manufacturers. This database has been built up over a period of around 30 years and continues to be updated with around 50 to 100 GB of data each year. The database consists of historical documents, mainly Swiss trade journals, dating from the late 19th century to the late 20th century. Most of these documents are not available on the Internet. The historical articles published on the time2tell.com website always cite the sources used.
Time To Tell is a private company, independent of any watch manufacturer.
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