The Universal Language Of Movado
In Esperanto, the universal language, the word means always in motion. In English, it has come to essentially mean “extraordinary, iconic timepiece.” The same definition pretty much applies to languages around the globe as Movado has become one of the most demanded and adored watches in the world. And the brand has quite an interesting history.
It was once known as the North American Watch Company, but today, the Movado Group is one of the leading makers and distributers of luxury timepieces in exisence. They are now an amalgamation of several distinguished watchmakers including the Concord company, and it thus makes timepieces under the ESQ and Vizio brand names. It also has licencing agreements with Coach and is a distributer for the Swiss fine watch brands, Piaget and Corum. Aside from all this, Movado owns and operates many retail stores that not only sell Movado watches but also fine jewelry and accessories.
Movado can trace its roots all the way back to 1881, when it was established by Achille Ditesheim, a nineteen year old watchmaker in the small village of La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Jura Mountains. Ditesheim’s little six-person workshop grew so quickly that by 1897 it had about eighty watchmakers, making it one of the largest manufacturers of luxury watches in the entire country. And already the brand had established a reputation for making watches of great technological sophistication being one of the first companies to utilize advanced machinery rather than simple hand tools. It was Ditesheim who gave Movado its Esperanto name.
By 1920 the Movado company was making and marketing over seven hundred different watch models throughout the world including two of its most well known timepieces, Ermeto and Valentino, the latter, encased in snakeskin, was named for the eponymous movie star, and the Ermeto, was one of the most luxurious watches of its era, with many of the different watches in the collection, covered in precious gemstones.
As good as the Twenties were to the Movado brand, the Thirties and Forties were perhaps even more innovative and noteworthy. In a roughly fifteen-year period, Movado created one of the first digital wristwatches, as well as water-resistant timepieces in various styles and in 1945, they introduced the first ever automatic winding wristwatch called the Tempomatic (which eventually evolved into the Kingmatic).
In the Sixties, Movado introduced the timepiece that till this day is probably most closely associated with the brand itself, its classic Museum Watch.
Nathan George Horwitt, an American artist, designed the Museum Watch with its now famous black, numberless dial. This design became so important to the horological world that Mr. Horwitt donated the prototype to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The brand went through a bit of a slump in the Seventies but when it was acquired by the North American Watch Company, its fortunes began to turn – especially in America and by 1996 the North American Watch Company officially adopted the Movado name as its own, as it had already become its most popular brand.
And today, Movado is still one of the most popular and innovative luxury watch brands in America, and that condition is unlikely to change anytime soon.
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment