COLLECTING VINTAGE
By Laurent Martinez
MOVADO’S
Historical Treasures
A look inside the rich archives of this influential watchmaker.
I
personally have always loved vintage Movado watches,
and after speaking to other vintage watch collectors, my
appreciation for this brand is shared by many in community.
Prior to my appointment with Stephanie Riccoboni, the
person in charge of the Movado archive department, I had to
brush up on my knowledge about the company’s history, founder,
innovations, and watches. For this, I turned to the seminal book on
the topic, The Movado History by Fritz Von Osterhausen.
In 1881, Achille Ditesheim founded his company, LAI Ditesheim
& Freres SA in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Starting with just
a team of six people, the company grew at a rapid pace and by
1897, there were eighty employees working there. In fact, LAI
Ditesheim & Freres SA was the second largest employer in the
industry at that time with Jaeger-LeCoultre in the lead with about
100 people and Audemars Piguet in a distant third with a staff of
ten people.
The company’s main business was producing pocket watches,
which were assembled individually using parts supplied by other
companies. They then finished the movements in-house.
At the end of the 19th century, the company began producing
78 | AboutTime Magazine
in-house watches using their own components. Shortly thereafter,
in 1905, the name Movado was introduced, which is a word
meaning “always in motion” in Esperanto—a language created by
Ludwik Zamenhof in 1887.
USING HISTORY
It turns out that Movado is the perfect name since the company
has continuously been in action to stay ahead of its time. Movado
continues to use its past to create its future.
The Ditesheim family members at the helm of Movado were
true visionaries in horology, filing an impressive ninety-eight patents
to their name from 1900 to 1969. There was the 1912 Movado
Polyplan designed with a revolutionary patented “form” movement
to accommodate the curve of the watch.
Then there was the 1914 Movado “Soldier’s Watch” with a
protective grill that was popular during WWI, the 1926 Movado
Ermeto square pocket watch, the 1938 Movado monopusher
chronograph, the Calendograf, the Celestograf, the Calendomatic,
the Datron, the world time and the Artists’ Series, which included
the Andy Warhol timepiece.