Sotirios Voulgaris opened his first jeweler shop in his home village Paramythia, Greece. He then left the mainland for Corfu, Naples and finally Rome in 1881, where he opened his second shop. In 1884 he also founded the Bulgari company for jewelry and luxury goods, as watches, fragrances, accessories, and hotels in Rome,…
The Corum company was founded in 1955 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, by René Bannwart together with his uncle Gaston Ries. One year later, in 1956, the first Corum models were launched on the market and in 1960 the first model related to the Admiral’s Cup, the first water-resistant watch in a square case,…
The Eberhard watch company was founded at La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, in 1887 as the Maison d’Horlogerie Eberhard & Co. With a history of well over 125 years, its name has stood its ground ever since as a synonym for tradition, commitment and innovation. In the 1980’s Eberhard launched their regatta watch with…
The Frederique Constant SA company is established in Geneva, Switzerland, in its current form in 1988 by the Dutch entrepreneur Peter Constant Stas and his wife Aletta Francoise Frédérique Stas-Bax. The brand is involved in all the stages of watch production, from initial design to final assembly. Their first collection was launched in 1992. At the…
In 1791, at the age of 19, watchmaker and goldsmith Jean-François Beautte designed his first watches, and created a manufacturing company in Geneva. Some 60 years later, watchmaker Constant Girard founded the Girard & Cie firm in 1852 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. After he married Marie Perregaux in 1854, the Girard-Perregaux Manufacture was…
The Austrian watchmakers Richard Habring and his wife Maria Kristina founded their company Habring Uhrentechnik OG in 2003 in Völkermarkt, Austria. In 2004 they introduced their own brandname Habring². After having made two prototypes of Regatta Yachttimers for the Dutch brand TNG (see the TNG section here), Habring² developed its own regatta watch in 2007…
The Hamilton Watch Company was founded in 1892 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA. America was the company’s home for the first 111 years of its life. The Hamilton brand made its name during the early years of the American railroads, as the country built its crucial infrastructure. Hamilton supplied accurate watches that helped to…
Edouard Heuer started his watch company in 1860 at St-Imier in Switserland. Since then the brand has set many major milestones of high-end watchmaking, especially in the field of chronographs and ultimate precision. The patent of Heuer’s first chronograph is from 1882! Heuer grows in the first half of the 20th century by building…
Alfred Lugrin founded his Swiss watch company Lugrin S.A in 1884. The company focussed primarily on high quality movements and complications such as repeaters and calendars, with a special competence in chronographs. The tradename Lemania was adopted in the 1920’s, and was branded onto watches from the 1930’s into the 1960’s. In 1932…
The Italian Tullio Bolletta founded his company La Regale in 1934 in Milan, Italy. During the first years Mr. Bolletta sold swiss made watches that were not made by himself. The name Lorenz was adopted in 1938, named after that Mr. Bolletta was teaching watchmaking in Berlin for a couple of years.…