Movado

History

In 1881 Achille Ditesheim hired six watchmakers and opened his workshop in La Chaux-de-Fonds; in 1892 the family consolidated the business as "L.A. & I. Ditesheim, Fabricants". In 1905 the firm, by then with more than a hundred employees, took the name Movado. In 1912 it patented the Polyplan, a movement built across three angled planes so it could sit in a curved case that followed the wrist. In 1926 it launched the Ermeto, a pocket/case watch whose sliding cover wound it automatically as it opened and closed, and which won the Grand Prix at the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition. In 1947 the Bauhaus-influenced artist Nathan George Horwitt designed the dial of the future Museum Watch, defined by a single dot at 12 evoking the sun at noon. In 1956 came the Kingmatic automatic, offered in a water-resistant Sub Sea version. In 1960 Horwitt's dial became the first watch dial admitted to the permanent design collection of MoMA in New York. After several changes of ownership in the twentieth century, in 1983 Gedalio Grinberg's North American Watch Corporation bought the brand, later renamed the Movado Group.

Iconic models

• Museum Watch (Museum Classic)

  Its single dot at 12, designed by Horwitt in 1947, was the first watch dial accepted into MoMA's permanent collection (1960).

• Polyplan

  A 1912 pioneer with a three-plane movement and a curved case that hugged the wrist, decades ahead of ergonomic watches.

• Ermeto

  A 1926 case watch that wound itself as the cover slid open; it won the Barcelona Grand Prix in 1929 and stayed in production into the eighties.

• Kingmatic / Sub Sea

  A 1956 automatic (rotor calibre 531) that became the house's standard watch, with a water-resistant Sub Sea version.

• Bold

  A contemporary collection reworking the Museum dot in a modern, oversized register.