A collector's item! Rarity! Legendary HELVETIA pilot / aviation watch, year of manufacture is circa 1930. Working condition! The original chrome-plated nickel case has a diameter of 41 mm, so the watch is relatively large. Dial is original. Watch hands are original and has luminescent paint. Nice, clean, smooth going, watch movement is fully fitted with stones - 15 ruby jewels. Shock protector on the balance wheel (one of the first shock proof watch on the world). HELVETIA watches are mentioned in all publications of aviation watches. Look carefully at the pictures. I give for free, new wooden, lacquered watch box and new, genuine leather NATO Zulu watch strap.

REFERENCE:

https://www.helvetiahistory.co.uk/1930s-pilots-watches


HELVETIA BRAND HISTORY:

The history of the Helvetia watch goes way back to 1848, when a certain Louis Brands established a sales office for manufacturing watches. By 1880 Louis and his brother César set up a watch manufacturing business, La Generale Watch Co (General Watch Company). Clearly names for their product were required and the two brothers picked a number of names for their watches including Patria, Jura, Celtic and Helvetia, with Helvetia, being the female personification of the Swiss nation, bearing testament to the Swiss origin of their watches. The watches produced by the Brands brothers were highly thought of and by incorporation of the new lever movements in 1885, they produced timepieces that were accurate to within an astounding 30 seconds per day. Four years later the General Watch company was producing more than 100,000 watches per year and became the largest producer of watches in Switzerland. They formed collaborations with other manufacturers, most notably Audemars Piguet and produced highly desirable watches such as the minute repeating wrist-watch in 1892. This was way ahead of its time bearing in mind that wrist watches only gained popularity during the 1st World War.

By 1894 the General Watch Company had developed a new type of watch movement incorporating the revolutionary idea of having component parts that were interchangeable. This of course decreased manufacturing costs, made the manufacture of watches more efficient and also made watch repair easier. I simple name for this new product was required and it was the companies banker Henri Rieckel who came up with the simple and quite elegant name Omega. The Omega brand was a tremendous success and by 1903 it was decided that Omega would split from the General Watch Company as an independent enterprise, with the General Watch Company focusing its attentions on the manufacture of cylinder watches under trade names such as Helvetia.

In the depression of the early 1930s the Swiss watch manufacturing industry was in turmoil. There was a significant risk that many watch manufacturers and allied businesses would face bankruptcy. To prevent this the Swiss government and the Swiss banks provided funds to form Allgemeine Schweizerische Uhrenindustrie AG (ASUAG) as a vehicle to allow watch manufactures to pool resources and thus protect employment. ASUAG basically consisted of two arms, a conglomerate of movement blank manufacturers and movement part manufacturers, and a conglomerate of watch assembly companies under the company name of the GWC (General Watch Company) Ltd.

HELVETIA (legend):

Helvetia is the female national personification of Switzerland, officially Confœderatio Helvetica, the Swiss Confederation. The name is a derivation of the ethnonym "Helvetii", the name of the Gaulish tribe inhabiting the Swiss Plateau prior to the Roman conquest.

REFERENCE:

www.penroseantiques.wordpress.com/2013/07/14/the-helvetia-watch-by-morgan-denyer-penrose-antiques-ltd/