The brand’s reputation was further enhanced with innovative products such as an eight-day mechanical alarm clock with single winding key (1945), the Sonomatic alarm clock (1957), and the gold Time-O-Vox alarm clock watch, which received official chronometer certification in 1956. This presaged the ‘Autorotor’ 485 calibre of 1957. In 1943, Cyma unveiled its first automatic wristwatch, endowed with a 420 calibre featuring a unidirectional rotor.
Sensitive and compliant, it yields if you handle it masterfully, revealing its face, divulging all its secrets, and each surrender simply adds to its charms…” She described the watch in her characteristic style: “It is a captive in the most romantic sense of the word… it is bought and sold. It quickly became known for its elegance and precision, and was adopted by the legendary French writer, Collette, who was then at the height of her fame. While men’s watches still accounted for the lion’s share of the business, in 1930 Cyma made an early foray into the ladies’ market with the Captive. In the same year, the company received first prize at the International Barcelona Exposition. By 1929, Cyma boasted the biggest workshop in Europe and employed 2,000 people to assemble 4,000 watches a day. The daily production was 150 pieces.ĭuring the 1920s, the company was at the forefront of component interchangeability, which enabled its workshops to produce watches on a much bigger scale. By this time, Cyma had established itself as a pioneer in the manufacture of intricate repeater watches, high complications and chronographs. Some 30 years later, the brothers went into partnership with a businessman called Frederic Henri Sandoz who had created a new watch company in Le Locle, another cradle of fine Swiss watchmaking. Indeed, with its ongoing achievements in technical innovation, Cyma was one of the companies that made Neuchâtel the renowned centre of the watchmaking industry it is today. Inheritors of the horological gene that pervades the Jura, the two brothers Joseph and Theodore Schwob decided in 1862 to set up their own watchmaking company, Cyma, focusing much of their attention on avant-garde mechanical production techniques. During the 18th century, the efforts of the region’s industrious and ingenious inhabitants gradually led to the establishment of fully-fledged workshops for the design and manufacture of watches, and by 1780 watchmaking had developed into a process involving 30 distinct operations. Check them outĪpril 2019 State of the Sub Discussion and SummaryĢ1-26 Mar 19 Baselworld 2019 Discussion MegathreadĤ Dec 18 - AMA with Arial Adams & Matt Smith-Johnson for a new LE watch collaboration with Laco.Initially, it was the harshness of the climate in the high valleys of the Jura – buried for more than half the year beneath deep snow and frequently cut off from the outside world – that gave rise to watchmaking activity during the long winters of isolation. The TAG Heuer subreddit has been reactivated and is now live.Updates to the Buying Guide have begun as well! Please come and suggest watches within the specific budget and style ranges.Let's hear your thoughts on anything relating to this brand! Personal anecdotes, opinions, technical articles, and everything else are all accepted and encouraged.