History of Heuer - Part 1

[CurtEgerer]

Written by Jeff Stein of onthedash.com fame. PDF format:

http://www.onthedash.com/docs/HeuerHistoryPartOne.pdf

[scargo70]

Curt,
some of those early chrono's look like early Brietlings...do you know if they use similar movements?

[CurtEgerer]

I'm pretty sure they do. Seems like there was a thread on onthedash.com about that a while back.

[Rich Lambert]

Early Heuers used Valjoux movements, don't know about Brietlings.

[Bummler]

Curt,
some of those early chrono's look like early Brietlings...do you know if they use similar movements?

All you wanted to know and then some...

http://home.xnet.com/~cmaddox/heuer/...nd_the_future:

[CurtEgerer]

Well, I guess that link pretty much explains the Breitling-Heuer connection.

>>>The 1960s saw the race towards the development of the first automatic chronograph of the world. Two groups were in contention for this feat. The group of Movado/ Zenith versus Heuer/ Breitling/ Hamilton/ Dubois Depraz. Both groups achieved their aims independently, at about the same time and exhibited their new developments at the Basel Fair in 1969. Both claimed to be the first to introduce the first automatic chronograph of the world. However, the caliber 11 by the group of Heuer/ Breitling/ Hamilton/ Dubois Depraz would beat the Movado/ Zenith team by over a month.

A joint venture between Movado and Zenith aimed to produce an automatic chronograph named "El Primero", which literally means "the first". The automatic winding of the Movado/Zenith watch has a centrally positioned rotor. The date indication is in an aperture positioned between 4 and 5. The chronograph is equipped with 30-minute and 12 hour registers as well as the normal hour and minute hands, there is a small seconds hand at 9 and a tachometer scale around the edge of the dial. The balance beats at 36,000 vibs/hour and there are 17 or 31 functional jewels and a rotor running on ball bearings. Called the Caliber 3019 PHC movement, it is used in the Zenith El Primero and the Movado Datron.

The main competition of Movado/ Zenith came from the amalgamation of the chronograph specialists Breitling and Heuer-Leonidas with Hamiliton-Bruen and Dubois Depraz, who started the development of their project in 1965. When the delegation of the four houses met together for the first time in 1965, they were so obsessed with keeping things quiet that they gave their project a confidential code name: 99. During this meeting, the role each house would play was distributed in utter secrecy. Bruen would be in charge of the special automatic mechanism (adapted from Bruen’s "Intramatic" Caliber : Planetary rotor of heavy winding in both direction via gliding pinion); Dubois-Depraz would be responsible for the chronographic module (chronograph unit 8510 with coulisse-lever switching, equipped with a 12-hour and a 30-minute counter) as well as the oscillating pinion invented by Edouard Heuer. Breitling and Heuer would develop the other components and oversee the design of the watch dial and case.

By 1968, the group had carried out the first conclusive tests and developed experimental prototypes. The winding-mechanism and the caliber 11 chronograph, the "chronomatic" measuring 13 ¾ lines (31 mm in diameter) and 7.7 mm in height, worked marvelously well, even under extreme conditions, with an accuracy close to the norms required of a chronometer. Officially on March 3rd 1969, after 500,000 Swiss francs spend, the world first automatic chronograph was unveiled, over a month before Basel fair 1969 where the El Primero was introduced.

Named the "Chronomatic", the movement was used in the few houses under different models. With Heuer, it is used in "Monaco", "Carrera" and the "Autavia". "Chronomatic" under Breitling and Hamiliton Bruen.<<<<

[scargo70]

Curt,
great article....did other watch makers such as rolex, iwc use these movements or develope their own? And it is amazing that these makers were first to market with an automatic chrono.

[Rich Lambert]

Rolex used reworked Valjoux movements on the Daytonas until just recently. Now they have an in-house movement.

[CurtEgerer]

What's amazing is the sharp increase in value of these Heuers in the last 5 years ..... $10,000 for a Monaco these days