A Gents 1950s Chronographe Suisse Chronograph

A gents 1950s Chronographe Suisse chronograph.

The watch has a hand-winding movement, more than likely a Landeron 51, which is working nicely. The movement has been hand signed with the name Buttes Watch Company, together with various details about the movement. We have seen this type of ‘engraving’ quite often in the past but not sure of its reasoning.

Buttes Watch Company was a small but important watch manufacturer founded in in 1924 by Arthur Charlet in Buttes, Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Mr Charlet’s son in law, Edwin Volkart, took over the running of the business in 1953 and that is when the company really took off, concentrating on chronographs such as this one. The company used Lemania, Landeron and Valjoux movements.

The watch itself measures 37mm diameter excluding the winding crown and the lugs. The case has a plated bezel, an alloy centre and a stainless steel case back, a combination often seen in the latter half of the 1940s and into the 1950s.

The dial is signed Chronographe Suisse, a generic name used by several manufacturers including Buttes Watch Company. There are two subsidiary dials, a constant seconds at 9 o’lock and a register at 3 o’clock which records up to 30 minutes. Note the three larger markers on this second dial at three, six and nine minutes… these were aimed at the business man who made international telephone calls which were very expensive at the time. The calls were rounded to chargeable chunks of three minutes and so watch making companies came up with this scale to help people control their talking duration.

The watch has a later vintage leather strap… it is stamped Rotary but we have left it on this watch as they sit so nicely together.

The watch will be sent in a new presentation box.

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