NIVADA Watches

Nivada is a Swiss watch company. It was founded in 1879 in the town of Grenchen, Switzerland.

HISTORY

Though founded in 1879, there is much confusion of who owns the actual rights to the brand name "Nivada". They display the line at the Swiss Basel Watch & Jewelry Fair every year.

In 1879, Nivada started as a small family business, but almost disappeared by the 1990s. During the late 90's Salinas Pliego and its company Grupo Salinas bought the brand from its original owners in Switzerland, the company was reborn and moved to Mexico in 2000. The brand focus now is to sell entry level watches. The brand has since grown to be one of the top watch manufacturers in Mexico and has become internationally recognized in recent years.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

ü  Rollamatic (also "Rollador") using Phenix 200 movements

ü   Reglavit, a water resistant watch with a unique external regulator screw

ü  Antarctic was a long-running series of watches initiated in 1958 in celebration of the International Geophysical Year, and using the ETA 2472 movement

ü   Depth master was a diving watch, water resistant to 1,000 M

ü   Depthomatic was another diving watch, water resistant to 200 M, and using the ETA 2472 movement

ü   Alertamatic was an alarm watch using the Lemania 2980 movement

ü   Ultramatic 36000 (1975) used the rare 36,000 A/h ETA 2734 movement

MOVADO Waches

Movado is a luxury watch brand, whose name is Esperanto for "movement" The brand's parent company, Movado Group, Inc., was founded in Switzerland in 1983 by Cuban-born Gedalio Grinberg. The company designs, manufactures, and distributes the following brands of watches in addition to its own: Ebel, Concord, ESQ Movado, Coach, Hugo Boss, Lacoste, Juicy Couture and Tommy Hilfiger.

HISTORY

Movado was originally founded in 1881 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, by Achilles Ditesheim. In 1983, the company was purchased by Gedalio Grinberg, a Cuban-born Jew, who fled Fidel Castro's Marxist Revolution in 1960 with his family.

His son, Efraim Grinberg, is the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Movado Group, Inc. The North American President of Movado and ESQ by Movado is Alan Chinich. In 2006, Movado celebrated its 125th year of watch making. On February 23, 1999, Movado Group, Inc. completed the sale of Piaget business to VLG North America, Inc., for approximately $ 30 million.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

The company is known for its iconic Museum Watch, designed by the American designer Nathan George Horwitt in 1947. It was originally manufactured by Vacheron & Constantin-Le Coultre Watches, Inc., Switzerland. Movado had started producing an unauthorized version starting in 1948, copying Horwitt's design. It was added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in 1960. Movado finally settled with Horwitt in 1975 with a payment of $29,000. Following Horwitt's death, Movado started heavy promotion of Horwitt and the design of the Museum Watch. Photographer Edward Steichen called Horwitt's design "the only truly original and beautiful one for such an object"

MIDO Watches

Mido SA is a luxury Swiss watch making company founded in 1918.The watches are sold through 2400 authorized retailers in 50 countries around the world

HISTORY

Mido was founded in 1918 by George G. Schaeren in Biel, Switzerland. Mido comes from the Spanish phrase Yo mido meaning "I measure".

In the 1920s, Mido introduced elegant lady’s watches with color enameled shaped cases and modern straps as well as visually attractive timepieces for gentlemen in art deco style, which rapidly established the image required for the new brand name. Mido found a market in the flourishing automotive market by producing watches in the shape of radiator grills of a wide range of brands such as Buick, Bugatti, Fiat, Ford, Excelsior, Hispano-Suiza, etc.

In 1934, Mido launched the Multifort design, the first to use a self-winding automatic movement. It was also shock resistant, anti magnetic and water resistant all in one which remained in the forefront for over three decades right through to the sixties. Mido attained yet another milestone the same year when it launched watches with unbreakable mainsprings. This was also the very first time that any watch manufacturer utilized this type of spring within the market place. During this time period, Mido used a Robot as its ambassador as a symbol of progress and robustness. A comic strip from this era featured the Mido Robot and its adventures.

In 1945, Mido became the very first manufacturer to introduce a central-read chronograph wherein the stop watch function had all its hands arranged at the center. In 1954 the firm launched the world's most efficient winding mechanism.

Mido launched its Commander model in 1959. This utilized a one-piece case design, the very first of its type, as well as a novelty in the time. The one-piece case revolutionized the market, and enhanced the life span of watches considerably. The Mido Commander has survived to today, and it is among the world's most acknowledged watches with numerous unique designs, including an eighteen karat gold model. The lineup also contains chronographs and COSC certified chronometers. In 1967 Mido was distinguished as the maker of the world's thinnest ladies watch.

In 1970 Mido launched the Aquadura Crown Sealing system, an innovation that gained the reputation as the king of water-resistant watches. The Aquadura crown sealing technique makes use of an all-natural cork which is handled and formed to insure its water resistant qualities. This technique is utilized to seal the crown, the most susceptible place on a watch to water leakage.

During the nineties, the Mido World Timer was launched. This was a practical display that can show the local time anywhere on the planet. The user must only bring the desired city to the 12 o’clock position and press the crown to check the local time.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Ø  Novelties

Ø  Multifort

Ø  Great Wall

Ø  Ocean Star Captain

Ø  Mido Baroncelli Tonneau

Ø  Mido Belluna

Ø  Mido Commander Gold Limited Edition

Ø  Mido Commander Lady Diamonds

LACOSTE Watches

Lacoste (French pronunciation: ​) is a French clothing company founded in 1933 that sells high-end clothing, footwear, perfume, leather goods, watches, eyewear, and most famously polo shirts. In recent years, Lacoste has introduced a home line of sheeting and towels. The company can be recognized by its green crocodile logo. René Lacoste, the company's founder, was nicknamed "the Crocodile" by fans because of his tenacity on the tennis court. In November 2012 Lacoste was bought by Swiss family-held group Maus Frères.

HISTORY

 Lacoste founded La Chemise Lacoste in 1933 with André Gillier, the owner and president of the largest French knitwear manufacturing firm at the time. They began to produce the revolutionary tennis shirt Lacoste had designed and worn on the tennis courts with the crocodile logo embroidered on the chest. Although the company claims this as the first example of a brand name appearing on the outside of an article of clothing, the "Jantzen girl" logo appeared on the outside of Jantzen Knitting Mills' swimsuits as early as 1921. In addition to tennis shirts, Lacoste produced shirts for golf and sailing. In 1951, the company began to expand as it branched from "tennis white" and introduced color shirts. In 1952, the shirts were exported to the United States and advertised as "the status symbol of the competent sportsman," influencing the clothing choices of the upper-class. Lacoste was sold at Brooks Brothers until the late 1960s. It is still one of the most popular brands in the United States, sporting the "preppy wardrobe". In 1963, Bernard Lacoste took over the management of the company from his father René. Significant company growth was seen under Bernard's management. When he became president, around 300,000 Lacoste products were sold annually. The Lacoste brand reached its height of popularity in the US during the late 1970s and became the signature 1980s "preppy" wardrobe item, even getting mentioned in Lisa Birnbach's Official Preppy Handbook of 1980. The company also began to introduce other products into their line including shorts, perfume, optical and sunglasses, tennis shoes, deck shoes, walking shoes, watches, and various leather goods.

In the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, Izod and Lacoste were often used interchangeably because starting in the 1950s; Izod produced clothing known as Izod Lacoste under license for sale in the U.S. This partnership ended in 1993 when Lacoste regained exclusive U.S. rights to distribute shirts under its own brand. In 1977, Le Tigre Clothing was founded in an attempt to directly compete with Lacoste in the US market, selling a similar array of clothing, but featuring a tiger in place of the signature Lacoste crocodile.

More recently, Lacoste's popularity has surged due to French designer Christophe Lemaire’s work to create a more modern, upscale look. In 2005, almost 50 million Lacoste products sold in over 110 countries. Its visibility has increased due to the contracts between Lacoste and several young tennis players, including American tennis stars Andy Roddick and John Inner, French veteran Richard Gasquet, and Swiss Olympic gold medalist Stanislas Wawrinka. Lacoste has also begun to increase its presence in the golf world, where noted two time Masters Tournament champion José María Olazábal and Scottish golfer Colin Montgomerie have been seen sporting Lacoste shirts in tournaments.

Bernard Lacoste became seriously ill in early 2005, which led him to transfer the presidency of Lacoste to his younger brother and closest collaborator for many years, Michel Lacoste. Bernard died in Paris on March 21, 2006.

Lacoste licenses its trademark to various companies. Until recently, Devanlay owned the exclusive worldwide clothing license, though today Lacoste Polo Shirts are also manufactured under licence in Thailand by ICC and also in China. Pentland Group has the exclusive worldwide license to produce Lacoste footwear, Procter & Gamble owns the exclusive worldwide license to produce fragrance, and CEMALAC holds the license to produce Lacoste bags and small leather goods.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

In the early '50s, Bernard Lacoste teamed up with David Crystal, who at the time owned Izod, to produce Izod Lacoste clothing. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was extremely popular with teenagers who called the shirts simply Izod. While the union was both profitable and popular, Izod Lacoste's parent company (Crystal Brands, Inc.) was saddled with debt from other business ventures. When attempts to separate Izod and Lacoste to create revenue did not alleviate the debt, Crystal sold his half of Lacoste back to the French and Izod was sold to Van Heusen

LOIUS MOINET Watches

Louis Cartier (1875–1942) was a famous French watchmaker and businessman known worldwide for his watch designs. Cartier was passionate about mechanical pocket watches and had the goal of creating his own line of timepieces. Although Patek Philippe created the first wristwatch in 1868, Louis Cartier is responsible for helping to popularize it over the traditional pocket watch

HISTORY

In 1904, his Brazilian friend Alberto Santos-Dumont, an early aviation pioneer, asked Louis Cartier to design a watch that could be used during his flights, since pocket watches were not suitable. Louis Cartier created for him the Santos wristwatch, which was also the first wristwatch, made for men. Santos first went on sale in 1911, the date of Cartier's first commercial production of wristwatches. In Rue de la Paix he designed timepieces with the help of Edmond Jaeger who agreed to supply Cartier's watch line with movements

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

The most important steps in Cartier's family business were made over several generations by the goldsmith Louis Francois Cartier, his son Alfred Cartier, and his three grandsons, Pierre, Jacque and Louis Francois. While his father Alfred managed the production of jewelry, Louis Francois and his two brothers, Pierre and Jacques, were the ones to help the family business expand. They eventually turned the Cartier brand into the most well-known name in the world of jewelry and watch making. In 1899 the Cartier family moved their Paris store to the elegant Rue de la Paix; later stores in London (1902), Moscow (1908) and New York (1909) followed.

In 1912 Cartier introduced two models still in production today, the Baignoire and Tortue; 1917 saw the debut of the Tank. It was also during this period that Cartier began adding reference numbers to the watches it sold, usually by stamping a four-digit code on the underside of a lug. In fact, many collectors refuse to accept a Cartier as an original unless these numbers are present.

KIENZLE Watches

KIENZLE Uhren GmbH is one of Germany's oldest watchmakers. Founded in 1822 in Schwenningen, the company headquarters has been in Hamburg since 2002.

HISTORY

In 1883 Jakob Kienzle married into the Schlenker family and hencefoward he contributed to the expansion of the company. In 1899, 162,000 watches and alarm clocks were made per annum. The name of the company was changed to Schlenker & Kienzle.

From 1894 onwards the weight and the cost of alarm clocks and wall clocks was significantly reduced by the introduction of the "American System" with standardized individual components and perforated plates. This process was highly innovative at that time. In 1897 Jakob Kienzle became the sole owner, with the name of the company being changed some time later to Kienzle. Watch production was continuously extended and modernized, and international activities expanded. In the following years branches in Milan, Paris and London were established.

In 1902 Kienzle launched the time stamp clock on the market, followed by inexpensive pocket watches, traveling clocks and wristwatches for ladies. The first clocks for automobiles were also made at that time. The so-called "Strapazier-Armbanduhr" was presented in 1931. This watch is extremely resilient because of its special construction. The watch model becomes a popular product, with 25 million examples sold.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

In 1997 Kienzle is taken over by the Highway Holdings Group. But only five years later in 2002 Kienzle returns to Germany with the establishment of Kienzle AG. The company employs over 400 workers in its new factory. Since that time the headquarters is located in Hamburg and Kienzle finds back to old success. The company purchases the worldwide brand and distribution rights and begins with the development and fabrication of three new watch collections in different price segments.

In 2008 Kienzle moves into the current headquarters, a time honored merchant's house in Hamburg-Harvestehude, which perfectly represents the company and its values: quality, tradition and innovation?

INVICTA Watches

Invicta Watch Group is an American-based watch company. Invicta Watch Group trades on the name "Invicta Watch Company" which was a company founded in 1837 by Raphael Picard in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. The Picard family had owned and operated the company which produced Swiss mechanical timepieces offered at modest prices until the quartz movement revolution of the early 1970s.

HISTORY

In 1991 the company was purchased by a United States-based investment company. The corporate headquarters were relocated to Hollywood, Florida, where the company also operates its customer service call center.

The president of the Invicta Watch Group, Eyal Lalo, is a third generation watchmaker whose family has been involved with Invicta for many years.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Invicta Watch Group helped found and operate the non-profit Invicta Care Foundation which aids overlooked areas and charitable causes by providing financial support.

In 2005, The Invicta Care Foundation raised $127,846 to support disaster relief causes related to Hurricane Katrina. The donation was given to the American Red Cross to help those in need after the hurricane's destruction.