Movado Celebrates 145 Years of Swiss Watchmaking with the Heritage Kingmatic and Alta Centurion
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Since its founding in 1881, Movado has built a watchmaking history defined by both Swiss craft and modern design. The brand’s story began in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, where Achilles Ditesheim opened a small workshop with six watchmakers. Over the decades, Movado would go on to produce a wide range of watch designs, from early 20th-century technical and case-shape innovations to Art Deco forms, midcentury dress watches, and the Museum Watch— one of the most recognizable designs in modern horology.
Movado Founder, Achilles Ditesheim
Movado
For its 145th anniversary, Movado is looking at that history from two directions. The Heritage Kingmatic brings back one of the brand’s notable midcentury dress-watch names, while the Alta Centurion introduces a new automatic chronograph that reflects Movado’s contemporary approach to geometry, materials, and mechanical watchmaking.
The Heritage Kingmatic
The original Kingmatic was introduced in 1956, during the golden age of the automatic dress watch. As postwar travel and modern living reshaped the idea of daily elegance, Swiss watchmakers competed to bring automatic movements into refined, wearable cases. Movado’s Kingmatic became one of the brand’s defining watches of the period and remained in production for nearly three decades.
The new Heritage Kingmatic revives that legacy with a cushion-shaped case inspired by a Movado design first released in 1962. Measuring 35mm, the watch carries a slim dress profile, a domed sapphire crystal, and a curved sunray dial with convex applied markers. The effect is vintage in spirit but clean in execution, with the shaped case and dimensional dial doing much of the visual work.
Inside the Heritage Kingmatic is the Sellita SW200-1-based Movado Caliber 608B, a Swiss automatic movement beating at 28,800 vibrations per hour. The movement is visible through a sapphire exhibition caseback, adding a mechanical view to a watch otherwise rooted in midcentury dress-watch design.
The collection is offered in four versions: yellow gold ionic-plated with a matching bracelet, yellow gold ionic-plated with a black Saffiano leather strap, stainless steel with a black dial and Saffiano leather strap, and stainless steel with a green dial and steel bracelet. Pricing for the Heritage Kingmatic starts at $1,495.
The Alta Centurion
If the Heritage Kingmatic looks back to Movado’s past, the Alta Centurion is the forward-looking half of the anniversary release. Its name comes from Esperanto, in which “Alta” means “the peak” or “the highest point,” and the watch is positioned as a new high point in Movado’s modern automatic offerings.
The Alta Centurion is a 41mm automatic chronograph with an octagonal case and integrated bracelet in 904L Durasteel. Its design is built around strong geometry, with satin-brushed surfaces, polished chamfers, and a textured dial that incorporates Movado’s signature dot motif. Azuré-finished chronograph subdials add contrast and depth, while Swiss Super-LumiNova markers provide low-light legibility.
Powering the watch is the hand-assembled Swiss-made Movado Caliber 95A, an automatic chronograph movement beating at 28,800 vibrations per hour. Visible through a sapphire exhibition caseback, the movement is finished with 51 jewels, rhodium plating, blued screws, perlage, Côtes de Genève, and snail finishing.
The Alta Centurion collection includes three executions: a blue-dial model in 904L Durasteel, a gray-dial model with a solid 18K gold bezel and gold-tone details, and a white-dial model with gold-tone accents and a steel case. Additional details include a screw-down crown, double anti-reflective sapphire crystal, 50 meters of water resistance, and an integrated bracelet engraved with Movado’s archival M Chevron logo. Pricing for the Alta Centurion starts at $4,900, with the 18K gold-bezel model priced at $7,900.
The original Movado manufacture
Movado
Together, the Heritage Kingmatic and Alta Centurion offer two distinct views of Movado at 145 years. One returns to the brand’s midcentury dress-watch history, while the other pushes its modern design language into a more technical automatic chronograph. Between them, the anniversary releases make the point clearly: Movado’s past remains a deep source of design, while the brand continues to evolve.
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