Submariner and Fifty Fathoms: the watches that ended up leaving the water
Two watches born in 1953 to stop a diver dying. Seventy years later they are worn dry, under a shirt cuff. The story of a function that became a sign.
The day Breguet put gravity in a cage
In 1801 Breguet patented the tourbillon to correct the effect of gravity on pocket watches. Two centuries later it is of almost no use and costs a fortune. The story of a gap.
The last great leap in escapements: George Daniels and the invention refused for twenty years
For two and a half centuries every mechanical watch has beaten thanks to the same organ, the lever escapement, and its unavoidable drop of oil. In the 1970s a solitary English watchmaker invented something better. The Swiss industry took twenty years to deign to listen, until Omega industrialised it in 1999.
Cartier Santos, how flight moved the watch to the wrist
In 1904 an aviator could not read the time without letting go of his airship's controls. The jeweller of the place Vendôme strapped a watch to his arm. How a need born in the air took the watch out of the pocket.
The Moon watch: how a NASA procurement round made the Speedmaster a legend
It is sold as the space race on the wrist. At the start, though, there is a far less glorious scene: a request for quotes and ordinary production chronographs put through merciless endurance testing. The story of a technical badge that became a myth.
The toy that paid for luxury: Swatch, the plastic watch that funded haute horlogerie
In 1983 an ultrasonically welded plastic watch arrived in Zurich. Nobody yet saw the till that would buy Blancpain and Breguet. How an object costing fifty francs paid for the rebirth of Swiss mechanical watchmaking.
The three watch groups: who owns what, and why it steers the market
Swatch Group, Richemont, LVMH. Thirty years of acquisitions have concentrated dozens of brands in three pairs of hands, which hold the movements, the components and the shop windows. Yet the most powerful names at the top end escape them. The story of a real and partial power.
Seiko and the Japanese ascent: the rival nobody took seriously
In the 1960s Switzerland looked down on Japanese watchmaking as cheap goods. Then Seiko climbed the rankings of the Neuchâtel and Geneva chronometry trials, until the trials closed. The story of a contempt that cost dearly.
The quartz crisis: how Swiss watchmaking nearly died of its own invention
It took fifteen years for Swiss watchmaking to lose two thirds of its jobs. The blame has long fallen on a thin sliver of quartz out of Japan. The real story is more troubling.