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Archives & heritage
A chronology of the chronograph
FROM THE BALANCE SPRING TO THE MOON (1675–1969)
By Europa Star
January 2018
A chronology of the chronograph
FROM THE BALANCE SPRING TO THE MOON (1675–1969)
By Europa Star
January 2018
Click to enlarge - PDF
WATCH FILES
Archives & heritage
Olivier Laesser: the great escapement
July 2023
At the end of an unprecedented investigation, this doctor in horology has drawn a “family tree” of the escapement through the centuries, introducing some (...)
1900-2000: A history of watch advertising
June 2023
A history of watch advertising: 1990-2000
June 2023
A history of watch advertising: 1980-1989
June 2023
A history of watch advertising: 1970-1979
June 2023
A history of watch advertising: 1960-1969
June 2023
A history of watch advertising: 1950-1959
June 2023
A history of watch advertising: 1930-1939
June 2023
A history of watch advertising: 1920-1929
June 2023
A history of watch advertising: 1900-1919
June 2023
The story of the Tissot Ping-Han Railway Watch
May 2023
Swiss watches for Chinese trains: the story of the Ping-Han Railway is fascinating in more ways than one. Its construction between the end of the 19th (...)
Becoming Chopard
EUROPA STAR ARCHIVES
May 2023
Chopard is one of the many “sleeping beauties” in the watch industry to have been stirred back to life, as illustrated by the Europa Star archives. This was (...)
Anarchists and watchmakers
April 2023
Two recent events - Florian Eitel’s extensively researched publication, Le Vallon horloger et ses anarchistes, and Cyril Schäublin’s film Unrueh (Unrest) - (...)
From the archives: our first look at the Swatch
ANNIVERSARY SERIES
February 2023
It has often been said that the Swatch saved the Swiss watch industry, and March 1, 2023 marks 40 years since its introduction. Although this view is (...)
Louis Cottier’s archives to be digitised
November 2022
The Watch Library Foundation (TWL) and the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Genève (MAH) have joined forces to digitise the watchmaking archives of Louis Cottier, (...)
A brief history of watch designers (which remains to be written)
CHRONICLE
November 2022
The anniversary of the Royal Oak was the opportunity to celebrate Gérald Genta, not only for the creations he developed for numerous watchmakers but also (...)
Lang 1943: several decades in a single watch
September 2022
Honouring the legacy of 1940s-born watchmaker Gerd-Rüdiger Lang, who founded the Chronoswiss brand in the 1980s, this new project relying on 1960s Marvin (...)
Reviving a watch brand: a risky venture
July 2022
Before the 1970s, Switzerland was home to a record number of watch brands, many of which collapsed during the quartz crisis. Over the past twenty years, (...)
The second life of watch archives
EDITORIAL
July 2022
Just imagine: a new, horological Library of Alexandria, accessible at the click of a button to journalists, collectors, designers, historians and (...)
Looking back, to move forward
EDITORIAL
July 2022
The act of digitising archives not only dusts them off and freshens them up; by cataloguing them digitally, with the help of artificial intelligence, it (...)
Debunking the Quartz Crisis
July 2022
The distinction between vintage and modern is often drawn at the beginning of the 1980s, when nearly every Swiss watchmaking company failed. Although (...)
Launch of The Watch Library Foundation
HERITAGE
June 2022
The mission of The Watch Library Foundation is to digitise and make accessible hundreds of thousands of pages and documents of watchmaking heritage, in (...)
The second life of Zenith’s legendary 135-O calibre
INTERVIEW
June 2022
On June 2, Zenith launched ten chronometers powered by the famous Calibre 135-O produced between 1949 and 1962, the most garlanded movement in observatory (...)
Watchmaking in 1927: major structural changes
95th ANNIVERSARY
May 2022
During the ‘Roaring Twenties’ the global watch industry was growing rapidly. Nearly one in two watches produced around the world came from a Swiss factory. (...)
When watchmakers face political risk: selling watches in the USSR
HISTORY
April 2022
Political risk has always been an issue for multinational companies in certain countries, as the recent closure of luxury stores in Russia shows. This is (...)
“Improving confidence in buying vintage Heuer”
INTERVIEW
January 2022
Nicholas Biebuyck is the new Heritage Director at TAG Heuer, a brand that is working on leveraging its long history, a key priority since its partnership (...)
UNESCO: a new starting point for watchmaking
OPINION
July 2021
In December 2020, UNESCO added the “craftsmanship of mechanical watchmaking and art mechanics” to its representative list of the intangible cultural heritage (...)
New watch archives online (1936-2021)
EUROPA STAR
May 2021
If you have a subscription to our digital archives, you may have noticed that we have now uploaded new sets of issues going back as far as the 1930s: more (...)
Watchmaking now on UNESCO’s world heritage list
HERITAGE
December 2020
UNESCO has registered the craftsmanship of mechanical watchmaking and art mechanics on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of (...)
Can watchmaking avoid another tragic loss of heritage?
KNOW-HOW
September 2020
Forty years ago, the quartz crisis caused havoc in the Swiss watch industry, leading to the destruction of many valuable documents in the ensuing economic (...)
A book on the most beautiful watch dials
LIBRARY
August 2020
There are innumerable books devoted to watchmaking, but as astonishing as it may seem, until now there was no work, no comprehensive survey focused (...)
Longines: the forgotten “first commercial quartz crystal watch”
HISTORY / GUEST COLUMN
août 2020
On August 20, 1969, Longines convened the press in Geneva to announce the world’s first commercial quartz wristwatch. Known as the Ultra-Quartz, it was more (...)
From Bulova to Omega: 50 years of lunar adventures
FROM OUR ARCHIVES
March 2020
Today, we tend to associate the conquest of space with the Omega Speedmaster – the only watch worn on the moon, as the Swatch Group manufacture emphasises (...)
Treasures from Enicar’s golden age
March 2020
The legendary Swiss watch company founded in 1913 comes to life again in a beautiful book by Dutchman Martijn van der Ven. The author used illustrations (...)
Secret Gérald Genta designs soon to be revealed
EXCLUSIVE
February 2020
From the Nautilus to the Royal Oak, the most celebrated designer left behind not only a long list of iconic watches, but some 3400 unseen designs. We find (...)
1950-2020: The voices of my ancestors... and mine
EDITORIAL
January 2020
As wishes are in order for 2020, I succumbed to the temptation to look at what my predecessors had written as Europa Star entered each new decade since (...)
The saga of the Bivouac by Favre-Leuba
THROUGH THE LENS OF THE EUROPA STAR ARCHIVES
November 2019
In August 1964, the great mountaineering pioneers Walter Bonatti and Michel Vaucher took four days to conquer the arduous, virgin North face of Whymper (...)
Introducing the MIH Gaïa watch
HERITAGE
September 2019
The Musée international d’horlogerie’s second timepiece has been unveiled and released in La Chaux-de-Fonds in honour of the the 25th edition of the eponymous (...)
Two of the oldest horological organizations join forces
WATCH EVENT
July 2019
The Horological Society of New York and the British Horological Institute will teach for the first time in their combined 300 years of history joint (...)
The quest for an everlasting story
ARCHIVES AND HERITAGE
March 2019
Never has the watchmaking heritage of watch brands been so well-documented. The fashion for vintage has had a hand in this, forcing watchmakers to (...)
WWII Japanese military watches
DAWN OF A QUIET SUNDAY MORNING IN 1941
March 2019
The rise and fall of the Japanese Empire during WWII is a deeply captivating but also frightening piece of history of the 20th century. If military watches (...)
The Movado Ermeto: the original “smart” watch
VINTAGEMANIA
March 2019
The story behind the Movado Ermeto, a disruptive timepiece that went against the flow of the rest of the watch industry. Smart, innovative, elegant yet (...)
The historic links between watchmakers and arms manufacturers
ARMOURERS AND WATCHMAKERS
January 2019
Detonators, ammunition and vehicle dashboards: the two sectors complemented one another for no fewer than eight centuries, during which watchmakers (...)
Watchmakers test their DNA
ARCHIVES AND HERITAGE
December 2018
The grand old companies with an uninterrupted history, such as Rolex, Audemars Piguet or Patek Philippe, maintain their heritage with absolute consistency (...)
Heritage: The power of the past
ARCHIVES AND HERITAGE
December 2018
In the watch business it’s difficult to talk about the present without bringing up the past. It’s almost Pavlovian.
Yesterday’s marketing is more modern than you think it is
VINTAGEMANIA
October 2018
Art deco advertisements certainly look prettier mounted on your wall than the modern ones you’ll find in the glossy magazines in your doctor’s waiting room. (...)
The risky lure of neo-vintage
12 DISRUPTIONS IN THE WATCHMAKING INDUSTRY
April 2018
Slowly but surely over the past few years, a vintage wave has been sweeping through the watchmaking establishment and influencing styles like few phenomena (...)
From sedentary time to travelling clocks
HISTORY
February 2018
Whether in quest of pastures new, whether migrating, invading or conquering, engaged in trading and cultural exchanges or on exploration, crusades or (...)
Zulu time
TRAVEL WATCHES
February 2018
Compared with Universal Time and its traditional 24 time zones, the GMT watch is more modest in its offerings: a second time zone, a second ‘point of (...)
Have time, will travel
PORTFOLIO
January 2018
Watchmakers did not need Einstein to intuitively understand that time and space are closely associated, like the two faces of the same coin. Their art was (...)