Tavannes watch Co.

In 1891 a young, talented master watchmaker, Henri-Frédéric Sandoz, founded the Tavannes Watch Company in a small Swiss village, Tavannes, in the Jura mountains. He and his partners, who were rich fabric merchants, soon opened markets around the world, notably in Canada, Russia, United States, and the Far East.

1902. It was during this time that watches were becoming popular. Industrialization and the expansion of the railroad system made a standardized time necessary. The United Kingdom, in 1884, set its time to Greenwich Mean Time and it really established the watch business as we know it today.

1903. At the beginning of the new century, The Tavannes Watch Company had to expand and build a new factory.

1905. By 1905, the 750 employees produced 450’000 watches and the production grew very fast to reach 750’000 pieces made by 950 employees in 1909. 

1910. Thanks to its constant innovation, Tavannes Watch Co won the Gold Medal at the Grand Prix de Bruxelles in 1910. 

1915. The company’s 20th-century product range naturally included wristwatches of the most diverse character for example the shock-proof models with a protective cover over the fragile crystal glasses that were issued to soldiers in 1915. 

1923. Henri-Frédéric Sandoz was a real entrepreneur. His visits to American manufacturers inspired him, and he was the first to create machine tools exclusively for the Swiss watch industry. Tavannes became an important Swiss watch company because of his engineering abilities. 

1930. At the end of the twenties and beginning of the thirties, Tavannes Watch Co created new forms for watches like “La Captive” a desk-watch or the Belt-Watch, which consisted of completely new concepts at that time. These were followed by “waterproof” wristwatches, as well as wrist-chronographs equipped with Valjoux movements.

1938. In half a century, Tavannes built five factories in Switzerland, and became the 4th largest watch manufacturer in the world, having sold over 30 million watches. At that time they employed over 2,000 skilled watchmakers and produced over 4,000 watches a day.

1943. In 1943 the company launched its first automatic movement, the caliber 420, with a swinging arm winding in one direction. This movement was fitted into the square cased « Watersport » model, for example. The Tavannes Watch Co Distributor's network covered the whole world at this time.

1950. With over 300 patents obtained for mechanical and automatic timepieces, Tavannes was producing movements for most of the famous Swiss brands. Many of these innovations are still used today.

1955-1957. Around 1957, the “Autorotor” self-winding caliber 485 was launched. It’s now a collector’s item.

1966. In 1966, Tavannes Watch Co continued to sell movements to other watch brands until 1982 and then concentrated in the production of specialized numeric command machines for the watch industry. Watch our history in a short movie.

2008. Rebirth of the Tavannes Watch Co, which comes back with a new generation of watches, greater, more reliable and more perfect.

2011. This will be the year of the launch of a unique new concept based on a historic piece of Tavannes Watch history.

All Antique watches are mechanical. Many repairs will not be cheap, as most likely they will require replacement of non-standard parts (unlike most late model watches).

• Antique watches should not be beaten or dropped - because repairs may be expensive.
• Antique watches are generally NOT waterproof. This is because waterproofing was not in general production until the middle of the 20th century for most watches. Therefore you should protect your antique watch from exposure to moisture.
• If your watch becomes wet it should be dried off quickly. Carefully open all covers and use a hair drier to blow dry the movement, dial, covers, crown. This will reduce the amount of rust.
• If your watch becomes wet with any kind of salt water you should immediately immerse or spray your watch with fresh (no-salt) water to remove all the salt from the works before drying the watch completely. Any salt left in the watch will combine with moisture in the air to rust metal components of the movement, case etc.
• Winding any mechanical watch tight may break the mainspring. If you can avoid it do not wind the watch hard.
• When adjusting the hands of your watch, move them in a clockwise direction only. Counter-clockwise adjustments may damage the movement. It is desirable to adjust the hands of your watch at the same time every day. An automatic or self-winding watch should be worn for at least 8 hours a day. It is a mechanical watch in which the mainspring is wound automatically as a result of natural motion of the wearer's arm, to provide energy to run the watch, making manual winding unnecessary.
• If you must adjust counter-clockwise make it for small adjustments only (i.e. for minutes, NOT hours).
• Be careful and gentle when adjusting the movement speed (faster or slower). Don't make sharp movements, and don't touch other components in the movement especially the pendulum mechanism.
• Every 2-3 years it is necessary to service and oil vintage watches. If the course of your watches is worsening and the accuracy of the reduction in the duration of the clock (autonomy) from one fully wound spring - it need a service.
• IF the watch is dirty - allow the watch to run down, don't wind it again until you have it serviced by a qualified watch repair expert. Dust will absorb and remove important lubricants and cause the movement pieces to wear down.
• To clean the case, dial and crystal you should use a cloth that does NOT leave fibers as these may get caught up in the movement. Check with your Watch repair expert to get an appropriate cloth.
• Keep your antiques watch away from magnets. Strong magnetic fields may affect the accuracy of your watch since some vintage watches were made with iron based components in the movement.
• Most Cases and Covers are fine components and will not handle abuse well. The watch should not be shaken, beaten, or stressed.
• Antique watches generally experience an error of up to 5-7 minutes a day. Any accuracy of +- 5 minutes is very good.
• Mechanical watch is not recommended to use for engage in extreme sports, and expose them to excessive vibration loads. Recoil force, which take on the clock, affect their reliability and precision. No matter how perfect was not anti-shock mechanism, there is always the chance of excessive load that details of the mechanism can not survive.
• Watch with calendar. It is not recommended to adjust, the date between 20.00 and 06.00, because at this time involved a mechanism for automatic adjustment date. Translation pointers calendars manually in this position arrows may damage the mechanism. Date changes should be made, relegating pre-clockwise to lower sector of the dial (for example, to position 6 (18.00) hours).
• Chronograph watches. In most cases, these watches contain the "start/stop" button and "reset" button. It is strongly recommended not to press the "reset" if the chronograph is running. Before you use the "Reset" button need to stop the chronograph by button "start/stop". Using the "reset" when running chronograph can damage the mechanism of most models of watches.

1. Payment must be made within 4 days of auction closing. Non-payment may result in a UPI (Unpaid Item) being put on your account. eBay will automatically close your account if you accumulate 4 UPI's total.
2. Total amount due includes the final auction price plus Shipping.
3. Shipping will be determined based upon the SHIP TO address. PLEASE NOTE: Shipping does not include duties, local taxes or any other importation fees.

We ship to any country. This item will be shipped to you from Europe (Ukraine) via registered airmail with tracking number and insurance within 7-14 days (except for the weekends and holidays) after the payment is fully received.

Typical Delivery Time

• European Countries: about 7-10 days;
• USA, Japan & other: about 10-14 days.

NOTE: Delivery time may increase because of postal services and/or customs. Please, don't worry and check location of your parcel using provided tracking number. In spite of delays all our previous lots have been successfully delivered!

The item will be packed very carefully!

1. You have 3 days to contact us and 5 days to return it from the date it was received. If this item is in your possession more than 3 days, it is considered used and we will not issue you a refund or replacement. There are no exceptions!
2. All returned items must be in the original packaging and you must provide us with the shipping tracking number, specific reason for the return, and your eBay ID.
3. We will refund your full winning bid amount, upon receipt of the item in its original condition and packaging with all components and accessories included, after both Buyer and Seller cancel the transaction from eBay or you may choose to have a replacement.
4. Return shipping is to be paid by the Buyer.

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