The Same Watch, Different Name

One of the things I find interesting about collecting 1970s jumping hours is how often familiar movements, designs and even complete watches appear under completely different names.

But there is an important distinction to make. Using the same movement doesn't make two watches the same.

I have three good examples in my own collection. My Tressa Spaceman jumping hours, my Tressa Saltomatic and a Tenor-Dorly are all powered by the A. Schild AS 2072. I have opened the Tenor-Dorly myself, so there is no mystery about the movement inside it.

Yet nobody would mistake these three for the same watch. Their cases, dials and displays are completely different. They simply share the same mechanical base.

Then it gets more interesting.

The Tressa Saltomatic has several close relatives carrying other brand names that look remarkably similar. This wasn't unusual in the Swiss watch industry of the period. Movement manufacturers supplied ébauches, while cases, dials and other components could come from specialist suppliers. The company whose name appeared on the dial was not necessarily responsible for everything underneath it.

The Spaceman takes this idea further.

André Le Marquand designed the original Spaceman for Catena, and versions of the design subsequently appeared under numerous names, including Tressa Lux, Fortis, Zeno, Jules Jurgensen, Octo, Omax, Vialux and Harlem. These weren't simply unrelated watches that happened to use the same movement. They belonged to the same recognizable design family.

The jumping-hour version is much less common than the broader Spaceman family. My Tressa jumping-hour examples use the AS 2072, although I haven't found reliable documentation proving that every jumping-hour Spaceman used that caliber, so I prefer not to make that claim.

There is another good example in my collection.

I own four Mondia automatic jumping-hour chronographs powered by the TDBK 1376. The initials refer to the companies involved in its development: Tenor-Dorly, Dubois-Dépraz, Brac and Kelek. The result combined an automatic movement, mechanical digital time display and chronograph.

Again, Mondia wasn't alone. The same TDBK 1376 appears in watches carrying other names, with examples known under Waltham, Tenor-Dorly, Kelek, Sandoz, Elgin and Precimax, among others.

This is where collecting obscure Swiss watches becomes a little like detective work.

Two watches can look completely different but share the same movement. Two others can look almost identical while carrying different names. And sometimes essentially the same watch was offered by a whole collection of brands.

So when I find an unfamiliar name on a 1970s jumping hour, I don't dismiss it.

I start looking for its brothers.

Sources

Fratello Watches André Le Marquand's Timeless Spaceman Audacieuse

Peter Doensen Watch: History of the Modern Wrist Watch

The Watch Spot Nivada Chronograph, TDBK Cal. 1369 Technical history of the TDBK 1369 and 1376 family

Hodinkee They Made Some Pretty Terrible Watches In The Good Old Days Too

Watchismo 1974 Waltham Jump Hour Chronograph