Watches From Johnson Smith

 


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Zodiac

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  Figure 1 The company was founded in Le Locle, Switzerland, in 1882 by Ariste Calame, Figure 1. We know little about him, except that his Swiss family roots went back to the sixteenth century and he came from a long line of “mechanically minded” ancestors. He was born in 1839, and so started his company at a relatively later age (45) than did many of his contemporaries in the watch manufacturing world. He died in 1917 at age 78. For the first 24 years, the company was known simply as Ariste Calame. He used the name Zodiac on several of his models, but it was not until 1908 that Calame patented the brand name. Ariste retired from the company in 1890, but “unofficially” continued to run it until his son, Louis-Ariste Calame (1875-1955) took over in 1895. During the early years, Calame/Zodiac subsisted on manufacturing movements and movement parts for other companies, notably Favre-Perret and Seiko of Japan. Between 1908 and 1914 Zodiac manufactured its own calibers and movemen...
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Sandoz

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 By Bruce Shawkey It seems everybody was making dive watches in the mid to late 1950s. That's because equipment manufactures came up with the Aqualung and other devices that allowed divers to go deeper than ever before. These improvements  were due in no small part to Jacques Cousteau, the famous French naturalist. One of the many companies to come out with dive watches was Sandoz. Here are a couple of example from an ad in Europa Star magazine: Sandoz is a Swiss watch brand, originally established in the late 19th century by Henri Sandoz near Tavannes, Switzerland. There are many variations of the Sandoz name which are used by at least four different companies around the world. Here are some images of Sandoz watches through the decades: Here are addition articles on Sandoz watches I have written: Found this ad in the March/April 1960 issue of Swiss Horological Journal for a Sandoz Model 333 self-winding watch. The movement had six ball bearings, an obvious effort to compete w...
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Mathy-Tissot

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 Edmond Mathey-Tissot established his watchmaking business in the village of Les Ponts-de-Martel in 1886. Mathey-Tissot is an independent watchmaker, with headquarters located in Geneva. Mathey-Tissot is not associated with Tissot, another Swiss watchmaking firm. Mathey-Tissot initially specialized in "repeater" watches, timepieces that chime the hour and half hour. Soon afterwards, the company produced chronographs. During World War I, Mathey-Tissot supplied the United States Army Corps of Engineers with precision chronographs. Gen. John J. Pershing, Commander of the United States Expeditionary Forces, selected Mathey-Tissot as the watch to award to members of his staff. In addition to its regular business of producing fine watches for jewelers throughout the world, Mathey-Tissot before and during World War II turned out thousands of timepieces for the United States armed forces and the British Navy. The company is still in business to this day, and maintains a website...
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