Sandoz Hong Kong products are assembled in Hong Kong using Swiss movements from ETA SA. Tavannes Watch Company is a result of the marriage between two companies: Cyma, founded by the Schwob brothers, and Tavannes Watch Company, a smaller entity. Sandoz Swiss manufactures high quality watches, while Sandoz Hong Kong and Sandoz Singapore manufacture cheaper watches of lower quality. All of these produce watches under the Sandoz name, but each production company has its own line of products. This has led to four separate brands, Sandoz Singapore, Sandoz Hong Kong, Sandoz Swiss, and Sandoz Spain (Munreco). Since 1971 the Sandoz brand name has been split into four main areas of production, due to its licences being leased or sold. By 1938, it was manufacturing four thousand items a day. After the death of Sandoz, the company he founded went on growing. Other names used by the Tavannes company at various times include Tavannes-Cyma, Bijou Watch Co., Tacy Watch Co., and Lisca. Sandoz was reported to have a paternalistic policy towards his workforce, exercising a fierce social control.
The enterprise occupied a 'model factory' employing one thousand workers and producing 2,500 watches a day. Good condition although with natural wear and tear over time and use.
Measurements: 33 mm without crown and 35.8 mm with crown.
By the time of the death of Sandoz on 18 March 1913, many watches were made under the name of Henri Sandoz & Fils. CYMA TAVANNES WATCH Co WW1 Antique Swiss hand winding trench watch MILITARY Porcelain Dial. Their new business was known as Tavannes Watch Co. In 1890, in partnership with two families named Schwob, Sandoz established a watchmaking firm at Malleray, near Tavannes, in the French-speaking Bernese Jura of Switzerland. Henri Frédéric Sandoz (sometimes Frédéric Henri Sandoz), born in 1851, was a self-made man of Le Locle who in the 1870s founded Henri Sandoz & Cie., later producing complicated watches under the name of Cyma. In 1966 Tavannes-Cyma ceased production and the rights to the brand name passed to Chronos Holding.A 1968 magazine ad of Sandoz watches in Persian, Zan-e Rooz. Another collector's item is the "Autorotor" self-winding caliber 485, launched in around 1957. This movement was fitted into the square-cased "Watersport" model, for example. In 1943 the company launched its first automatic movement, the caliber 420, with a swinging arm winding in one direction. At that time, Tavannes-Cyma claimed to be Switzerland's largest supplier of precision watches. Catalogs from the 1930s also show wrist-chronographs equipped with Valjoux movements. These were followed by "waterproof" versions. In 1938, around 2000 employees and 2200 machine-tools reached an output of about 4000 watches and movements a day The company's 20th-century product range naturally included wristwatches of the most diverse character - for example the shock-proof models with a protective cover issued to soldiers in 1915. New markets in the Far East and elsewhere gave a noticeable boost to growth. The company continued to expand after the turn of the century.īy around 1905, daily production amounted to some 1000 watches. Towards 1892 the company entered into a cooperative agreement with Schwob Freres of La Chaux-de-Fonds. Some of these went onto the market under the Cyma name. Forty employees, with the help of 55 modern machine-tools completed more than 40 timepieces a day. The new workshops covered more than 1000 square meters. Further patents ensued, among them for a stem-winding mechanism and a chiming movement. In the nearby town of Tavannes he started a new company for the production of simple and complicated watches, including chronographs, an aptitude for which was proved by a chronograph patent registered in 1890.
To get on in his profession he turned his back on his home town of Le Locle and the Henri Sandoz & Co.
It is 15 jewels with 4 adjustments, serial number 13,109,242. Henri Sandoz.įrederic Henri Sandoz was in heart and soul a businessman. I am looking for information on a Tavannes Watch Co 12 size. Cyma Watches We are out of stock or no items our inventory match your search criteria.In the mean time, here is a brief history of the manufacturer you selected:įounded 1891 in Tavannes by Tavannes Watch, F.