It could have been worse. Last year, Swiss watch companies eliminated “only” 4,200 jobs, compared with the more than 5,000 that some officials had predicted. Employment is now 49,097, a decline of 7.9% from 2008, and nearly the same as in 2007. Manufacturing jobs were hardest hit, declining 9.8%, to 36,275.

These figures come from the Convention Patronale de l’Industrie Horlogère Suisse (CP), an organization that represents Swiss-watch-industry employers. Twenty Swiss-watch companies went out of business last year, meaning a decline of 3.2% in the total number.

Because 2008 was a record year for employment, it could be argued that a drop of 8% from that level wasn’t really that bad: despite the decline, employment last year was at its second-highest level in 30 years. Over the past five years, the industry has had a net gain in jobs of nearly 23%.

The number of Swiss-watch-industry apprentices actually increased last year, by 36, a 3.7% gain over 2008, the CP said.

More good news, kind of, came from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. Exports of Swiss watches to the world’s top 30 watch markets grew 19.7% in the first six months of this year over the same, admittedly dismal, period in 2009, when they fell 26.4%. For the month of June alone, they were up 35%.

The value of Swiss watch exports for the six months was 7.30 billion Swiss francs ($6.95 billion). Despite the gain, Swiss watch exports were still 11.9% lower than in 2008. Hong Kong remained the top market for Swiss watches (it’s the entry port for watches destined for much of Southeast Asia), and had a gain of 37.9%. Exports to the United States, the second-biggest market, grew 12.5% (30.6% for June alone) to SF757.7 million, or $721.6 million (this is a whopping 36.2% lower than the figure for the first six months of 2008). Mainland China lived up to its reputation as a red-hot luxury-goods market, posting an increase of 90.6%. It was the fourth-largest customer for Swiss watches, right behind France, buying SF482.7 million ($459.7 million) worth of them during the six months. Among the top 30 markets, only the Czech Republic, number 29, showed a bigger increase: 302.7%. Among the top 10 markets, Japan (#7) and Germany (#8) were the only ones to show decreases, of 8.6% and 5.3%, respectively.

Source: Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (.pdf format)

How much do you know about self-winding watches, past and present? Sharpen your pencil and set that cerebral rotor a’spinning. Answers, as usual, appear at the end.

1. Which of the following automatic watches was launched first?
A. Zenith El Primero
B. Eterna EternaMatic
C. Rolex Perpetual
D. Omega Centenary

2. Which watchmaker is widely believed to be the inventor of the automatic winding system in use today?
A. George Graham
B. John Harrison
C. Louis Cotter
D. Abraham-Louis Perrelet

3. Which company makes what are often called “clones,” i.e., near copies, of ETA’s most popular automatic movements?
A. Sellita
B. APRP
C. Dubois Dépraz
D. Ronda

4. Which watch has a self-winding system with a linear oscillating weight rather than a rotor?
A. TAG Heuer Monaco V4
B. TAG Heuer Pendulum
C. DeWitt Academia
D. Parmigiani Bugatti

5. Which of the following Rolex watches is NOT an automatic?
A. Air King
B. Datejust
C. Cellini Prince
D. None of the above. They are all automatics.

6. Which two companies were the first to introduce automatic watches with microrotors?
A. Hamilton and Breitling
B. Buren and Universal Genève
C. Heuer and Omega
D. Leonidas and Movado

7. When did the first Japanese-made automatic watch come out?
A. 1935
B. 1942
C. 1950
D. 1956

8. An unusual feature of Carl F. Bucherer’s in-house, self-winding Caliber CFB A 1000 is its
A. Two winding rotors
B. Rotor made of synthetic sapphire
C. Rotor that moves around the periphery of the movement
D. Rotor more than twice the normal thickness

9. What company uses the Magic Lever in its automatic winding system?
A. Seiko
B. Montblanc
C. Rolex
D. Patek Philippe

10. Who was John Harwood?
A. The Aegler engineer who designed the Perpetual movement
B. The ETA engineer who designed the 7750
C. The inventor of bi-directional winding
D. None of the above

11. Which of the following was an early automatic wristwatch?
A. The Zig-Zag
B. The Wig-Wag
C. The Autorist
D. B and C

12. Which two automatic-winding-related events occurred in 1948?
A. The patent on Rolex’s Perpetual winding system expired.
B. Eterna doubled the efficiency of the winding system then in widespread use.
C. LeCoultre introduced the first series-produced wristwatch movement with power-reserve indicator.
D. A and C
E. A and B
F. B and C

ANSWERS:

1. C. The Rolex Perpetual was introduced in 1931. Developed by Rolex’s then-movement-supplier Aegler, it incorporated the most effective and trouble-free winding system ever devised, consisting of a rotor mounted on the back of the movement that winds the mainspring as it spins around its axis. The same principle is used in nearly all automatic watches today. The Zenith El Primero, an automatic chronograph, came out in 1960. The EternaMatic came out in 1948. The Omega Centenary was also introduced in 1948, which was Omega’s centennial year.

2. D. The Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Perrelet is widely believed to have made the first self-winding watch, in or around 1770. He actually made two types of automatic systems during his long career (he died in 1826 at age 97, and worked until at least age 95). One was the type we know today, with a rotor spinning around a center pivot. The other worked by means a weight that moved to and fro.

3. A. The company makes movements that are interchangeable with, and very similar (although not identical) to ETA movements whose designs are now in the public domain. These are the SW 200-1 (meant as a replacement for the ETA 2824-2), the SW 300 (for the ETA 2892) and the SW 500 (for the ETA 7750).

4. A. The TAG Heuer Monaco V4 is wound by means of a 4.25-gram platinum ingot that moves up and down a track between the four spring barrels.

5. C. The Rolex Cellini Prince, introduced in 2005 and modeled on the Rolex Prince launched in 1928, has a rectangular, hand-wound movement visible through the caseback.

6. B. During the 1950s, watch companies were eager to bring out automatic movements that were fashionably slim (a standard, full-sized winding rotor, which sits atop a movement, adds thickness). Both Buren and Universal Genève patented winding devices that used “microrotors,” small rotors that were set into the movement rather than on top of it, and hence did not add to the movement’s height. Buren did so first, in 1954. The company incorporated it in its Super Slender line in 1957. Universal Genève did not apply for its patent until 1955, but that year, before the patent had been granted, incorporated a microrotor device into its Polerouter watch. (The first Polerouter, which came out in 1954, had a “bumper” type of winding device incorporating a weight that moved back and forth.)

7. D. It was Seiko that brought out the first Japanese automatic watch. That the company lagged far behind the Swiss industry in making self-winding watches was due mostly to World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War that preceded it. During the war years, the company shifted production from civilian wristwatches to war materiel. In addition, imports of foreign-made watches stopped almost entirely, so the domestic industry had no incentive to improve and update its products.

8. C. The CFB A 1000 is wound by means of an arc-shaped weight that moves around the edge of the movement. Its main advantage is that, unlike a traditional rotor, it allows a view of the entire movement.

9. A. The Magic Lever is a two-armed device that drives a winding wheel in one direction, by either pushing it or pulling it, depending on which direction the winding rotor is turning. Seiko engineer Tsuneya Nakamura invented the Magic Lever in 1959 (he later became president of Seiko Epson). The Magic Lever is still used by Seiko today.

10. D. John Harwood was a British watchmaker who, in the 1920s, resurrected the 18th-century concept of the winding rotor and applied it for the first time to a wristwatch. Harwood, who fought in World War I, was inspired to design a self-winding watch when he observed the damage done to soldiers’ watches by dirt entering the cases through the crown-stem hole. The watch he designed needed a crown for neither winding nor setting; the latter was done via the bezel. The design, which he licensed to several companies, was not a success for technical and other reasons, and Harwood went out of business.

11. D. The Wig-Wag movement, introduced in 1931 by a company called La Champagne, served as its own winding weight: the entire movement slid back and forth within a frame. The Autorist, which also came out in 1931, was also an oddity: it was wound by means of the watch lugs, which were tugged on by the strap when the wearer moved his wrist.

12. D. The expiration of the patent for the Perpetual winding system in 1948 brought on a flood of new automatic watches designed on the same principle. Also that year, Jaeger-LeCoultre brought out its Powermatic, an automatic with a power-reserve indicator in the form of an arc-shaped aperture at 12 o’clock. It was the first production-model wristwatch with such an indicator, although Breguet had made a one-of-a-kind power-reserve watch in 1933.

Watchmaking has its own mini-language: a set of French terms with specific horological definitions. Match the following words with their meanings. The answers appear at the bottom in the form of 3-C, 5-G, etc. (To find out how to pronounce these words, see Part 2 of our Pronunciation Guide in the WatchTime.com “Reference Center” section.)

1. guilloché
2. rattrapante
3. anglage
4. ébauche
5. sonnerie
6. ligne
7. tourbillon
8. monopoussoir
9. remontoir
10. carré
11. chablon
12. chaton
13. foudroyante
14. perlage
15. reglage

Here are your definitions:

A. Square, used to describe square watch cases

B. A movement blank, i.e., a movement without its balance, escapement or mainspring. Translates literally as “rough draft” or “outline.”

C. Device consisting of an escapement enclosed within a tiny rotating cage. Its purpose is to eliminate timing errors caused by the effects of gravity on a watch’s balance. Translates literally as “whirlwind.”

D. A ring, often made of gold, in which a watch jewel bearing is set. Its literal translation, “kitten,” has no apparent connection to its horological meaning.

E. Winding mechanism

F. Engine-turning, a technique for decorating a metal surface, often a watch dial, using a machine called a “rose engine.”

G. Chronograph operated by a single button rather than the standard two.

H. A split seconds chronograph, i.e., a chronograph with two superimposed chronograph seconds that can be used to time simultaneous or consecutive events. At the end of the first event, the watch-wearer stops one of the seconds hands; the other continues running. After he records the first time, he pushes the chrono button and the stopped hand jumps forward to catch up with the other seconds hand. The word translates literally as “to overtake” or “to recover.”

I. A set of unassembled watch-movement components.

J. A chronograph seconds hand that rotates faster than the standard one rotation per minute. Some such hands are contained in a subdial, and rotate once per second. Others rotate around the main dial once every 10 seconds. Translates literally as “lightning,” as in “lightning quick.”

K. Chiming mechanism that sounds either on demand, when a button or lever is pushed, or automatically at certain intervals of time (such as hourly) or at a preset time

L. Beveling (used on the edges of many plates, bridges and other movement components)

M. A decorative finish consisting of small circles

N. A unit of measurement used to denote watch-movement diameters. It is equal to 2.256 millimeters.

O. A watch-manufacturing operation in which the movement’s rate is corrected to obtain acceptable precision

Ever wonder how your watch got its name? Test your knowledge of watch-brand handles by matching these brand names with the explanations of the origins. Answers take the form 1-C, 2-G, etc. Good luck!

Your list of brand names:

1. Citizen
2. Omega
3. Hautlence
4. Bell & Ross
5. Frédérique Constant
6. Casio
7. Girard-Perregaux
8. Seiko
9. Oris
10. Maurice Lacroix
11. Movado
12. TAG Heuer

Match the brands to these explanations of their origins:

A. This brand was named after a brook and a valley near Hölstein in the northwestern part of Switzerland, where the company was founded in 1904.

B. This brand’s name means “always in motion” in the artificial language of Esperanto. The language was founded in 1887 by an ophthalmologist from what is now Poland. Within a few years it gained a following in Canton Neuchâtel in the Jura mountain region of Switzerland, and some schools, including the region’s main business school, began teaching it. It was therefore “in the air” in La Chaux-de-Fonds, in Canton Neuchâtel, when Achille Ditesheim and his brothers named their watch company in 1905.

C. This name combines an acronym for a holding company with the name of a long-established brand the holding company purchased in 1985.

D. This name first appeared on a watch in 1924 and it was chosen by the company founder at the suggestion of a friend who was the mayor of a large city. The mayor suggested the name because it connoted affordability: the watches the company made were inexpensive enough for all.

E. This brand name means “precision” in its home-country’s language. It first appeared on a watch in 1924. The company founder had used a similar name for the factory he set up in 1892. That name disappeared in 1983 when a factory built in 1937 was renamed.

F. This company’s founder used an anglicized version of his last name when he christened the small-electronics and cigarette-holder company he founded in 1946. The company diversified and grew quickly after that. It began making watches in 1974.

G. This name was derived from the last names of the company’s two French founders. One was a fan of American product design from the 1940s and ’50s, and the other was a fan of the American entrepreneurial spirit, and they wanted to give their company an Anglo-sounding name. The company was founded in 1994.

H. This brand name is an anagram of “Neuchâtel,” the Swiss city where the brand, founded in 2004, is based.

I. This name is a combination of the first names of the grandfathers of the company’s founders, Peter Stas and Aletta Stas-Bax.

J. This brand name is derived from the 19’’’ caliber the company introduced in 1894, which was very successful because of its design and its low cost. In 1903, the company added this brand name to its existing name, “Louis Brandt & Frére.” In some contexts this name connotes perfection, which is why the company chose it for both its movement’s name and, later, its own name.

K. While most compound watch-brand names are combinations of the names of two founding partners or merged companies (e.g., Jaeger-LeCoultre, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin), this name is the last name of a single founder who followed a Swiss custom of adding one’s wife’s family name to one’s own upon marrying.

L. This brand name comes not from the founder, but from an executive in the silk-trading division of the Swiss trading company Desco de Schulthess Ltd. When Desco decided to launch a watch brand, it wanted to give it a fancy sounding French name. As it happened, one of its employees had such a name. Desco launched the watch brand in 1980. The man whose moniker was used had nothing to do with it other than lending it his name. He died in 1999.

ANSWERS:

1 – D

2 – J

3 – H

4 – G

5 – I

6 – F

7 – K

8 – E

9 – A

10 – L

11 – B

12 – C

How much do you know about the various quality seals and certificates awarded to watch movements these days? Find out by taking the WatchTime test. As always, the answers appear at the bottom.

1. Which of the following is required for a movement to receive the Geneva Seal?
A. The escape wheel axle must be set in rubies.
B. The bridges must have Geneva stripes.
C. The movement must have a screwed balance.
D. The jewels must be set in gold chatons.

2. Which of the following brands only sells watches with movements bearing the Geneva Seal?
A. Vacheron Constantin
B. F.P. Journe
C. Roger Dubuis
D. Richard Mille

3. The Geneva Seal requires that a movement be accurate to what mean deviation per day:
A. -4/+6 seconds
B. -3/+5 seconds
C. -5/+6 seconds
D. None of the above

4. Which of the following is NOT true of the Patek Philippe Seal?
A. Its precision standards are the same as those of COSC (Contrôle officiel suisse des chronomètres).
B. It has different requirements for tourbillon and non-tourbillon watches.
C. All new Patek Philippe watches on the market bear the seal.
D. The tests for the seal are administered by Patek Philippe itself.

5. Which brand in 2009 announced that thereafter none of its watches would be stamped with the Geneva Seal?
A. Bovet
B. Patek Philippe
C. Harry Winston
D. Piaget

6. How many movements were certified by COSC in 2008, the latest year for which the COSC has released figures?
A. 974,284
B. 1,599,588
C. 2,473,207
D. 3,378,359

7. What percentage of COSC certificates were awarded to Rolex in 2008?
A. 28
B. 38
C. 48
D. 58

8. After Rolex, the company that received the highest number of COSC certificates in 2008 was
A. Omega
B. Breitling
C. Panerai
D. TAG Heuer

9. How long does COSC spend testing each movement?
A. 3 days
B. 10 days
C. 15 days
D. 1 month

10. What percentage of COSC certificates went to quartz movements in 2008?
A. 22
B. 15
C. 8
D. 4

11. Which of the following Swiss towns has a quality seal named after it?
A. Fleurier
B. Tavannes
C. Bienne
D. Le Brassus

12. The chronometer testing facility in Glashütte, Germany, differs from COSC in that it
A. Tests cased, rather than uncased, movements
B. Tests watches in 6 positions
C. Tests watches at 4 temperatures
D. B and C

ANSWERS:

1. A. There are 12 requirements that a movement must meet to earn the Geneva Seal. One is that the axels of all the wheels in the gear train, plus the escape wheel, be set in rubies.

2. C.

3. D. The Geneva Seal does not have any requirements regarding the watch’s precision. They pertain only to the finishing of the movement.

4. A. The precision requirements are stricter for the Patek Philippe Seal than for COSC certification: movements with a diameter of 20 mm or more must be accurate to -3/+2 seconds per day, versus the COSC standard of -4/+6 seconds per day. Another difference: Patek Philippe has different requirements for tourbillon watches than for non-tourbillon ones: the former must be accurate to -2/+1 seconds per day.

5. B. When it announced its new Patek Philippe Seal at Baselworld in 2009, the company said it would no longer be using the Geneva Seal, which all its movements had borne until then.

6. B. The figure represented a 8.6 percent increase over the prior year.

7. C. Rolex received 769,850 certificates. It has for many years received more COSC certificates than any other company.

8. A. Omega received 377,514 certificates. It was followed by Breitling (234,021), Panerai (46,446) and TAG Heuer (35,429)

9. C. During the 15 days, the movement’s accuracy is checked in five positions and at three temperatures.

10. D. In 2008, COSC awarded 62,638 certificates to quartz movements. Breitling received the vast majority (56,224) of them.

11. A. The Fleurier Quality Foundation seal was established in 2001. It is awarded to watches on the basis of both technical and aesthetic criteria.

12. A. The four-year-old facility, owned by the German company Wempe but operated by an independent laboratory, uses the same timing tolerances as COSC but, unlike COSC, tests the movements in their cases.

Movement maker BNB Concept is out of business. But its founder, and many of its watchmakers, have found a new gig.

Just months ago BNB Concept seemed to be smokin’. The Swiss maker of expensive, complicated movements for brands including Hublot, Concord and Bell & Ross, was being praised in press reports for its “phenomenal” growth. BNB’s founder and majority shareholder, Matthias Buttet, gave interviews describing the company’s 200% annual sales increases, recession be damned.

Matthias Buttet

The company was selling, yes, but getting paid was apparently something else. On January 18 the company, which had been based in Duillier, near Nyon, closed its doors.

One big reason was a huge portfolio of accounts receivable, which one source said amounted to more than $9 million, that BNB could not collect. Suddenly, the company behind such talked-about watches as Jacob & Co.’s 31-day Quenttin and Romaine Jerome’s Day and Night (it has two tourbillons, but doesn’t tell the time) was no more. Buttet told one Swiss paper he had tried to sell the company, but its heavy debts had scared away all suitors. In its heyday, BNB, founded in 2004, had more than 30 customers and employed some 200 people, including the small band of elite watchmakers Buttet had chosen to make branded, artisan watches under the banner “Confrérie Horlogère.”

Now Buttet (he’s one of the “B’s” in “BNB”: the other “B” and the “N” are Enrico Barbasini and Michel Navas) is starting a new chapter. Last week, Hublot, one of BNB’s biggest customers, hired Buttet to head a new “Haute Horlogerie” department to make complicated movements for the Hublot brand. Hublot chief Jean-Claude Biver told WatchTime he will hire 30 to 40 watchmakers from BNB. Biver said he is in the process of trying to buy all of BNB’s machinery. BNB machines and people will be relocated to Hublot’s new factory in Nyon, which opened last year. Prior to BNB’s collapse, but as a precautionary measure in its event, Hublot, which is owned by the LVMH luxury-goods group, had bought from it about $2 million of finished and unfinished movements so it would not be cut short.

Look for an in-depth report in WatchTime’s March/April issue.

BNB’s customers included Romain Jerome, Jacob & Co., DeWitt, Bell & Ross, and Concord

The first month of a new decade: what better time to mull over other promising (albeit not always successful) beginnings? Test your knowledge of a dozen watch-world firsts (the answers are at the end).

1. In 1957, Hamilton introduced the first
A. watch powered by electricity
B. watch wound by a micro rotor
C. single-button chronograph
D. watch with bi-directional winding

2. In 1972, Hamilton introduced the first
A. quartz watch
B. quartz watch with a frequency of 32,768 Hz
C. digital watch
D. digital watch with a liquid crystal display

3. Citizen launched the Crystron Solar Cell, the world’s first light-powered analog watch, in
A. 1970
B. 1976
C. 1984
D. 1988

4. The first watch with no balance wheel was the
A. Quartz Astron by Seiko
B. Ventura by Hamilton
C. Accutron by Bulova
D. Constellation by Omega

5. In 1934, Breitling patented the first
A. watch with a slide-rule bezel
B. split-seconds chronograph
C. single-pusher chronograph
D. chronograph with two separate pushers

6. The world’s first TV commercial was for
A. Bulova
B. Timex
C. Elgin
D. Hamilton

7. In 1990, IWC Schaffhausen introduced the first wristwatch with a
A. perpetual calendar and chronograph
B. minute repeater
C. tourbillon
D. perpetual calendar, chronograph and minute repeater

8. In the mid-18th century, King George III of England bought for his wife, Queen Charlotte, a watch that incorporated the world’s first
A. seconds hand
B. chronograph
C. lever escapement
D. detent (chronometer) escapement

9. The first effective self-winding system was invented by
A. Abraham-Louis Breguet
B. Abraham-Louis Perrelet
C. Pierre Le Roy
D. George Graham

10. The first wristwatch movement wound by a rotor was patented by
A. John Harwood
B. Hans Wilsdorf
C. Edmond Jaeger
D. Louis Brandt

11. The first quartz watch movement prototype was completed in 1967 and called the
A. Alpha 31
B. Beta 21
C. Delta 33
D. Omega 35

12. The Concord Delirium of 1979 was the first watch
A. less than 2 mm thick
B. wound by means of a micro rotor
C. with quartz movement and analog dial
D. with both analog and digital displays

ANSWERS:

1. A. On Jan. 3, 1957, Hamilton held a press conference in New York to announce the world’s first electric watch, which had a traditional balance and hairspring but was powered by a battery rather than a mainspring. The press release issued at the time described the watch as “the first basic change in portable timekeeping in 477 years,” referring to the invention of the mainspring shortly before 1500.

2. C. The watch, called the Pulsar, had been unveiled at a press conference two years earlier but the announcement was premature: the watch consumed a vast amount of electricity and had to be revamped. The Pulsar had an LED (light-emitting diode) display that lit up at the touch of a button and blinked off a few seconds later. It became a darling of celebrities and politicians.

3. B. The watch had an analog dial, most of which was occupied by eight rectangular solar panels. The Crystron’s unprepossessing looks made it a commercial failure.

4. C. Instead of using a balance and hairspring, the watch kept time by means of a tiny tuning-fork-shaped oscillator. The movement was battery-powered. The Accutron, introduced in 1960, was the most accurate watch of its time, losing or gaining no more than about 1 minute per month.

5. D. The patent was for a separate pusher used to return the chronograph hand to zero. Before this invention, chronographs had just one pusher, used to start, stop and, sometimes, reset the chronograph (Breitling’s chronographs were reset via the crown).

6. A. The commercial was broadcast on July 1, 1941 during a Brooklyn Dodgers-Philadelphia Phillies baseball game. It showed a map of the United States with a watch dial in its center.

7. D. The watch was called the Grand Complication. Some purists contended that the watch was not a true grand complication because its chronograph was not of the split-seconds variety. A genuine grand complication, they argued, must have a perpetual calendar, minute repeater and a split-seconds chronograph. In 1993, IWC brought out a watch that did have these three complications (plus a tourbillon for good measure). It was called Il Destriero Scafusia.

8. C. The watch was made by the great British watchmaker Thomas Mudge (1715 to 1794). Completed in 1759, and incorporating a new type of escapement that was the forerunner of virtually every escapement used in watches today, the watch became known as “the Queen’s watch.” The noted watch historian Cedric Jagger notes that it has often been called “the most famous watch in the world.”

9. B. Although there had been other attempts to invent self-winding systems, which, like Perrelet’s made use of an oscillating weight, it was Perrelet (1729 to 1826) who actually succeeded. He in fact experimented with two types of winding systems, one with a weight that moved back and forth, and the other with a rotor that spun around an axis, much like the winding rotors on today’s automatic watches. The former worked better than the latter (Abraham-Louis Breguet used a similar device in his perpetuelle watches). That’s because pocketwatches, which were of course the only type of watches used in Perrelet’s day, did not experience enough motion to make the rotor spin with sufficient frequency.

10. A. John Harwood was a British watchmaker who fought in World War I. During his time in the trenches, he noted the need for watches that would be impervious to dirt. In the 1920s, he patented a wristwatch movement with a rotor that wound the movement’s mainspring by rotating around an axis when the watch wearer moved his arm (it was the same idea Abraham-Louis Perrelet had experimented with in the 18th century). Because the movement did not need to be manually wound, there was no need for a winding-crown-hole in the case, and no entry point for dirt (the watch was set by turning the bezel). The movement was technically flawed and not a commercial success. A few years later, Rolex perfected the idea for use in its “perpetual” watches.

11. B. The movement was the work of a research laboratory called the Centre Électronique Horloger, which was sponsored by a group of Swiss watch companies. After developing the prototypes, the Swiss industry decided not to pursue quartz technology for the time being, and the Japanese company Seiko became the first to market a quartz watch.

12. A. The watch, which had a quartz movement made by ETA, was so thin because it did not have a bottom plate: instead, the parts were attached directly to the case. The next year, Concord brought out the Delirium IV, which was just 0.98 mm thick. But ETA’s engineers had gone too far: the movement was so thin it didn’t work.

For those who may have missed it, this was our featured article last week, and it was so popular, we’ve carried it over. Say goodbye to 2009 with this WIS quiz on some of the year’s top stories. To see how you did, or to ensure a perfect score, scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the answers.

1. What watch brand ceased having its movements certified with the Geneva Seal and instead introduced its own quality seal?
A. Vacheron Constantin
B. Roger Dubuis
C. Patek Philippe
D. Piaget

2. Which of the following brand CEOs did NOT resign or get fired during the year?
A. Fabian Krone, A. Lange & Söhne
B. Georges Kern, IWC
C. Michael Nieto, Baume & Mercier
D. Manuel Emch, Jaquet Droz

3. What major change took place at Rolex effective Jan. 1, 2009?
A. It stopped sending its movements to COSC for certification.
B. It discontinued its Tudor line.
C. CEO Patrick Heiniger resigned.
D. It relocated its movement-making operations to Geneva so the movements would qualify for the Geneva Seal.

4. What major watch-industry figure died during the year?
A. André Heiniger of Rolex
B. Kintaro Hattori of Seiko
C. Henri Stern of Patek Philippe
D. Gedalio Grinberg of Movado

5. What did Cartier celebrate at a celebrity-studded party in New York on April 30?
A. Its 100th anniversary in the U.S. market
B. The 150th anniversary of its founding
C. Its first watch with an in-house movement
D. A new version of the Tank watch

6. The year’s highest price for a watch at auction was for the yellow-gold version of Patek Philippe’s Calibre 89, sold by Antiquorum in November. What was the price?
A. $3.1 million
B. $4.1 million
C. $5.1 million
D. $6.1 million

7. Attendance by U.S. watch buyers at Geneva’s SIHH luxury watch fair in January
A. Was about the same as in 2008.
B. Fell by an estimated 20%.
C. Fell by an estimated 40%.
D. Fell by an estimated 60%.

8. On Sept. 17, Antiquorum sold for $18,000 a Vacheron Constantin given by one celebrity to another. Who were the giver and recipient, respectively?
A. Zsa Zsa Gabor and Marlon Brando
B. Doris Day and Rock Hudson
C. Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong
D. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz

9. What brand launched its first in-house movement?
A. Panerai
B. Frédérique Constant
C. Breitling
D. Blancpain

10. Switzerland’s Competition Commission (Comco) began an investigation of the Swatch Group’s ETA movement-making subsidiary for possible
A. refusal to sell movements to other watch companies.
B. predatory hiring practices.
C. dumping movements below cost.
D. discriminatory pricing.

11. What clothing designer launched a watch brand under the Richemont Group umbrella?
A. Marc Jacobs
B. Betsey Johnson
C. Ralph Lauren
D. Calvin Klein

12. Madame Tussauds unveiled a Barack Obama waxwork complete with wristwatch. What brand is the watch?
A. TAG Heuer
B. Jorg Gray
C. Mido
D. Timex

Have you been taking notes? We did say there would be a test. Say goodbye to 2009 with this WIS quiz on some of the year’s top stories. To see how you did, or to ensure a perfect score, scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the answers.

1. What watch brand ceased having its movements certified with the Geneva Seal and instead introduced its own quality seal?
A. Vacheron Constantin
B. Roger Dubuis
C. Patek Philippe
D. Piaget

2. Which of the following brand CEOs did NOT resign or get fired during the year?
A. Fabian Krone, A. Lange & Söhne
B. Georges Kern, IWC
C. Michael Nieto, Baume & Mercier
D. Manuel Emch, Jaquet Droz

3. What major change took place at Rolex effective Jan. 1, 2009?
A. It stopped sending its movements to COSC for certification.
B. It discontinued its Tudor line.
C. CEO Patrick Heiniger resigned.
D. It relocated its movement-making operations to Geneva so the movements would qualify for the Geneva Seal.

4. What major watch-industry figure died during the year?
A. André Heiniger of Rolex
B. Kintaro Hattori of Seiko
C. Henri Stern of Patek Philippe
D. Gedalio Grinberg of Movado

5. What did Cartier celebrate at a celebrity-studded party in New York on April 30?
A. Its 100th anniversary in the U.S. market
B. The 150th anniversary of its founding
C. Its first watch with an in-house movement
D. A new version of the Tank watch

6. The year’s highest price for a watch at auction was for the yellow-gold version of Patek Philippe’s Calibre 89, sold by Antiquorum in November. What was the price?
A. $3.1 million
B. $4.1 million
C. $5.1 million
D. $6.1 million

7. Attendance by U.S. watch buyers at Geneva’s SIHH luxury watch fair in January
A. Was about the same as in 2008.
B. Fell by an estimated 20%.
C. Fell by an estimated 40%.
D. Fell by an estimated 60%.

8. On Sept. 17, Antiquorum sold for $18,000 a Vacheron Constantin given by one celebrity to another. Who were the giver and recipient, respectively?
A. Zsa Zsa Gabor and Marlon Brando
B. Doris Day and Rock Hudson
C. Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong
D. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz

9. What brand launched its first in-house movement?
A. Panerai
B. Frédérique Constant
C. Breitling
D. Blancpain

10. Switzerland’s Competition Commission (Comco) began an investigation of the Swatch Group’s ETA movement-making subsidiary for possible
A. refusal to sell movements to other watch companies.
B. predatory hiring practices.
C. dumping movements below cost.
D. discriminatory pricing.

11. What clothing designer launched a watch brand under the Richemont Group umbrella?
A. Marc Jacobs
B. Betsey Johnson
C. Ralph Lauren
D. Calvin Klein

12. Madame Tussauds unveiled a Barack Obama waxwork complete with wristwatch. What brand is the watch?
A. TAG Heuer
B. Jorg Gray
C. Mido
D. Timex

Paris is always a treat, but Paris paired with a new Patek Philippe movement: ooh-la-la. On November 5, scores of reporters from around the world got just that, as Patek Philippe held a party at its newly renovated Place Vendôme boutique to launch its new in-house manual-wind chronograph movement, the CH 29-535 PS.

Click the images to view larger versions.

Click here to view an extra-large version of this image.

The movement, which was long expected (it replaces the CH 27-70, based on the Lemania 2310, supplied by the Swatch Group), was nonetheless a surprise. That’s because it’s making its debut not in a men’s watch, as is standard procedure for such a launch, but in a women’s. And what a women’s watch: bearing the reference number 7071, it’s a rose-gold, diamond-encrusted model with opaline dial, stylishly asymmetric subdials, and a very Place Vendômey price of nearly $80,000 (the price hasn’t been precisely determined yet).

Men will not have to wait long for their own 29-535-equipped watch. The company plans to bring one out at the Baselworld watch fair in March.

Why make them wait at all? According to Thierry Stern, Patek Philippe CEO, there are a couple of reasons for making a women’s 29-535 model first (the watch is rather coyly named “Ladies First”). First, doing so is a way to make waves and thus garner attention for a movement that has been five years in the making (and incorporates a handful of inventions that have either been patented or for which patent applications have been filed: see below). Second, he says, Patek Philippe believes the market for women’s complicated watches is growing. Response to the company’s women’s annual calendar, introduced in 2005, is evidence of that, he says.

The new chronograph is what Patek calls “classic” in its structure, meaning that it has a column wheel and a horizontal clutch. But it has much that’s new besides. Its patents include one for the shape of the teeth of the chronograph and clutch wheels, which enables the wheels to engage more smoothly. This, Patek says, eliminates the jumping motion that chronograph hands sometimes make when the chronograph is started. The teeth shape also reduces friction, so much so that Patek says the chronograph seconds hand on the 7071 can be kept running continuously.

Below, the clutch and chronograph wheels engage

Other innovations include an eccentric column-wheel cap that the watchmaker uses to adjust the depth at which the column wheel and clutch wheel engage. Patek says the cap makes for more precise adjustment than the standard method of using an eccentric next to the clutch wheel. Another feature that makes the chronograph operate more smoothly in the new movement is the direct synchronization of the clutch lever and the blocking lever. Patek has added a finger to the clutch lever that causes the blocking lever to stop the chronograph wheel’s motion in response to the chronograph being switched off. In a standard chronograph, the column wheel engages the blocking lever, causing it to stop the chronograph wheel.

The movement bears the newly minted Patek Philippe Seal, announced at Baselworld in March. It is Patek’s first new movement to bear the seal, which requires, among much else, that the movement be accurate to within -3 and +2 seconds per day.

Holiday shoppers will be hard pressed to find a 7071 this season. “Very few pieces will be delivered this year,” said one Patek official. Supplies of the new movement will be a little better next year. Stern doesn’t yet know how many movements the company will make in 2010, but it could be somewhere around 500 or 700, he said.

For more on the 7010 and the Ch 29-535 PS, see the January-February issue of WatchTime.