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Joël Pynson
First published: December 2005
Updated: December 2025
2. Manufacture chronographs without counters
The 1930s represented the golden age of Swiss wristwatches. It was during this period that the first automatic watches, the first waterproof watches, shock-resistant systems and, in the field of chronographs, the first two pushers and hour counters were developed.
At the end of the 1930s, the chronograph experienced unprecedented popularity, linked in particular to the availability of inexpensive chronograph movements from Ébauches SA, such as the Venus 140, which appeared in 1935, or movements without minute counters, such as the Venus 103 or the Landeron 32.
However, at that time there were still many manufacturers capable of developing their own movements. Chronograph movements developed from simple movements by companies such as Vulcain, Bulova, and Gruen began to appear, and surprisingly, these companies never repeated this experiment later on.
- Vulcain chronograph without counter
Chronograph without Vulcain counter, Vulcain caliber 65 Y, 10.5 lines
Version of the Vulcain chronograph used by the Uruguayan armed forces
Vulcain was founded in 1858 in La Chaux-de-Fonds by the Ditisheim brothers. The company is universally known today for its "Cricket" alarm watch, which was released in 1947.
Vulcain was a Manufacture and in the 1930s produced a 10.5-line movement with a center seconds hand, the caliber 65 MS. It was on this basis that Vulcain developed a rare chronograph caliber with a column wheel: the 65 Y. The small size of this movement enabled Vulcain to produce very slim and elegant chronographs without counters, which were selected by the Uruguayan armed forces but were perhaps also popular with ladies.
- Bulova chronograph without counter
1938 Bulova chronograph without counter, Bulova 10 AH caliber, 10.5 lines
Although American, the Bulova company, founded in New York in 1875 by Joseph Bulova, opened a branch in Biel [1] in 1921, which employed around 100 watchmakers in the early 1930s.
It was in Biel that the Bulova chronograph caliber was developed and patented in 1938 [2]. It is a 10.5-line movement, caliber 10 AH with a column wheel, and here too, all the chronograph parts are mounted on a standard watch movement and can therefore be removed very easily.
With the threat of World War II looming, the manufacture of this movement was transferred to the United States, which is why it is engraved "USA" rather than "Swiss Made." This transfer was very poorly received by the Swiss authorities, who were very strict at the time about the export of spare parts, or chablonnage, and in 1941 an order from the Federal Department of Public Economy prohibited exports to Bulova [3].
- Movado chronograph without counter
1941 Movado chronograph without counter, Movado caliber 478, 10.25 lines
For its chronograph without a counter, Movado, founded in 1881 in La Chaux-de-Fonds by the Ditesheim family and a manufacturer since 1905, drew on the experience gained in developing its own chronograph-counter calibers [4] with the help of Les Fils de Louis-Elysée Piguet in Le Brassus. These 12-line calibers, 90 M with a 60-minute counter in 1938 and 95 M with a 12-hour counter the following year, have a modular design and the entire chronograph plate can be removed by simply unscrewing three attractive blued screws.
The Movado chronograph without a counter, launched in 1941, was based on a small 10.25-line caliber, the 470, with the version featuring a column wheel chronograph mechanism known as the Movado 478 caliber. This enabled the production of elegant watches, often equipped with a pulsometer scale, which was popular with medical professionals.
- Gruen chronograph without counter
1945 Gruen chronograph without counter, Gruen 450 caliber, 11.5 lines
This scale is also frequently found on the Gruen Chrono-Timer. Gruen was founded in Columbus, Ohio, by Dietrich Gruen in 1874 [5]. The founder was of German origin and had worked in Switzerland. This is undoubtedly why the company founded the Gruen Watch Manufacturing Co. in Biel in 1903 to manufacture Gruen movements [6].
These movements were renowned for their quality, and their names, such as Veri-Thin, Quadran, Precision, and Curvex, were noted on the watch dials. This tradition was continued with the Gruen 450 chronograph caliber without a counter, developed in 1945 on the basis of an 11.5-line movement bearing the name Precision on the dial and the names Veri-Thin and Precision engraved on the movement.
- Universal chronograph without counter
1940s Universal chronograph without counter, 14-line Universal 285 caliber modified to remove the minute counter
A rare Universal version from the 1940s, probably linked to a military order, can also be included in the category of chronographs without counters. However, this is a chronograph-counter movement, caliber 285 of 14 lines, from which the minute counter function has simply been removed.
- Phenix chronograph without counter
1956
1956 Phenix chronograph. The seconds hand is controlled by the crown. Phenix 132 caliber, 10.5 lines.
At the end of World War II, the chronograph gradually lost its appeal, replaced by calendar watches and automatic watches. It would take another ten years before new chronograph calibers without counters appeared and certain companies took an interest in them again. This was the case in 1956 with Phenix.
The origins of Phenix date back to 1878 when Dubail, Monnin, and Frossard founded their company in Porrentruy. In 1899, it took the name Société Horlogère de Porrentruy, then in 1918 became Phenix Watch Co. SA. It was a manufacturer specializing in anchor watches, particularly in the 1940s with 10.5 and 11.5 line movements, beveled, with seconds in the center.
In 1954, Phenix made a name for itself with an automatic movement whose rotor pivoted on a roller bearing: the Rollamatic. Two years later, Phenix released a surprising watch called Chronostop, which gave no indication that it was a chronograph.
This watch had neither a counter nor a push-button. The central hand was controlled by the crown, a formula first used in a push-button-free chronograph by Nicolet Watch in 1955. But whereas Nicolet had based its design on a Landeron caliber, Phenix created its own movement, the 10.5-line Phenix 132 caliber, which achieved the feat of offering full chronograph functions without a column wheel: pulling the crown out to the first stop stops the seconds hand, pulling it out to the second stop returns the hand to zero, and pushing the crown back to its initial position resumes the seconds hand.
The Phenix 132 caliber was used by other Swiss manufacturers, notably Nivada, Richard, and Angélus.
- Oris chronograph without counter
ChronOris from 1970. Oris caliber 725, 27.50 mm
Swiss chronographs regained their prestige in the 1960s after a major promotional campaign organized by the Federation of Swiss Watchmakers, which was supported by chronograph manufacturers who launched successful new models such as the Heuer Carrera and the Breitling Top Time. The appearance of the first automatic chronographs in 1969 also had a considerable impact and probably overshadowed the release of a chronograph without a counter by a company that, once again, no one expected: Oris.
Oris was founded in 1904 by Georges Christian and Paul Cattin in Holstein. The Oris brand originated from the Lohner & Nägelin company, which went bankrupt in 1903 [7]. From 20 employees at its inception, the company grew to 668 in 1953 and then 770 in 1965, specializing in the Roskopf caliber, with a pin lever escapement, which it brought to an exceptional level of quality, since in 1953, 113 watches sent to the Le Locle Control Office obtained a Chronometer Certificate [8].
Subsequently, with the relaxation of the rules governing the manufacture of movements in Switzerland, Oris began manufacturing ruby anchor movements.
To manufacture its chronograph, Oris called on the specialist in chronographs and modular movements: Dubois Dépraz. This resulted in 1970 in the ChronOris, a chronograph without a counter, caliber Oris 725, 27.50 mm, featuring a small column wheel module 2 mm high and also displaying the date in a window at 3 o'clock. The watch appears to have a second push-button, but this is in fact a crown used to control an inner rotating bezel that acts as a minute counter. 27,000 ChronOris watches were manufactured [9].
To be continued...
[1] FOSC 1921
[2] Patent CH 208 214
[3] Christophe Koller, L’industrialisation et l’État au Pays de l’horlogerie (Industrialization and the State in Watchmaking Country), Éditions CJE, 2003, pp. 424-431
[4] Patent CH 192 625
|5] https://www.vintagewatchstraps.com/gruen.php
[6] FOSC 1903
[7] FOSC 1903 and 1904
[8] Journal Suisse d’Horlogerie, 1954, 11-12, p. 462
[9] Dubois Dépraz, 90 Years of Complicated Watchmaking, published by Dubois Dépraz, 1991, p. 77
The FOSC (Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce) is available on E-periodica
Notes:
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