Cortébert (watch manufacturer)

This article is about a watch manufacturer. For the Swiss municipality, see Cortébert.

Cortébert Watch Company

Type	Watch Maker
Industry	Watch Making
Founded	1790
Headquarters	Cortébert, Switzerland
Area served	Worldwide
Products	Watches
Website	Perseo Watches

Cortébert has a very poorly documented history. The brand name is currently owned by Italian watch manufacturer Perseo^[1], and production under the Cortébert brand name has stopped in the mid-1970s. Cortébert used to be one of the highest regarded premium watch brands, manufacturing their own movements, supplying movements to other brands such as Rolex and introducing the jump-hour arrangement. When the quartz crisis hit the industry in the '70s, the majority of prestige brands ceased production including Cortébert. Others have already been resurrected (Baume et Mercier admits, while most companies like to pretend their production was continuous) and today Cortébert is the only remaining brand that has potential to be restored to its historic status.

History

Abraham-Louis Juillard opened his small watchmaking store in Cortébert village in Switzerland in 1790. This date is commonly used as the date of founding although the Cortébert brand name was only registered in 1855 using the bottony cross as a logo.

Cortébert Turkish Railroad watch

Cortébert went on to being one of the most desirable premium watchmakers, appreciated for their extensive range of own movements.

In the 1930s the company started distributing their Italian railroad watches through the Perseo brand, as the fascist Italy was rejective of foreign brand names.

By 1944 Cortébert had a lineup consisting of 20 different calibers and a range of special railway watches that became synonymous with the marque.

In the early 1970s Cortébert mysteriously blended into the Perseo brand name, not producing Cortébert watches anymore.

Today the brand is owned by Perseo, while Perseo is owned by a very small family business the Fernus Company. They still sell watches under the Perseo name but these are merely logo-printed promo watches with ETA, Valjoux or Venus movements^[2].

Notable watches

Cortébert jump-hour

In the late 19th century Cortébert has obtained license for the famous jump-hour movement designed by Joseph Pallweber. The very same movement was also used in some IWC models.

Cortébert jump-hour wristwatch

The early 1920s saw the development of the jump-hour into a wristwatch. Because it displayed the time with digits instead of rotating hands, it was the first digital wristwatch produced.

The rumor

There is a widely spread rumor that the Cortébert factory only employed Jewish workers, which made the brand particularly popular among the U.S. Jewish community. Because there is no dedicated caretaker of the company's legacy, this statement has never been proved or disproved.

References

1. ^ index
2. ^ catalogo meccanici Perseo

External links

• Cortébert's only documented history
• Perseo's current website