CYMA ROSE GOLD 1950s DECO STYLE WATCH NOS

Description

Item description: A beautiful 18K rose gold watch by Cyma Geneve. The watch with lovely Deco lugs, and circular case. Complementing the case, is a champagne silver dial with engine-turned outer ring with gold applied battons, and the brand name, Cyma Geneve. The watch with Cyma’s calibre 459 manual movement. The movement nicely finished with fine Geneva-Stripes. The inside of the case-back with fine engine-turned finish. The gold case hallmarked to one lug, the case body, and the case-back. The watch has an original dark tan crocodile strap, along with a non-Cyma branded gold finished buckle.

Size: 40mm x 34mm

Condition report: The watch surviving in new old stock condition. Unworn condition. Case mint condition (some wax protective residue still remaining to the case-back, which normally would be removed when the watch was sold). Dial original and with a pleasing patination. The gold applied battons also with a pleasing patination. Movement clean and in working condition (no warranty implied). The close to mint condition strap and buckle, probably dating to the 1950s, and probably original to the watch.  The timepiece may have been opened, so it should not be used near moisture or water without being checked by a qualified watchmaker.

Background to Cyma: Two brothers, Joseph and Theodore Schwob, set up the Cyma Watch Company in 1862. The word Cyma, came from the French word meaning summit, and was meant to give an indication to the public that their watches were accurate timepieces. In 1892 the two brothers partnered with Frédéric Henri Sandoz, the owner of a watch wholesale company, Henri Sandoz et Cie. Under Sandoz’s leadership, the company expanded and a new factory was built in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Sandoz used modern manufacturing processes, and together with the two brothers, the company started to produce very high quality and accurate timepieces, including complicated repeaters and chronographs. The company’s watches were trademarked as Tavannes, Cyma Tavannes, and simply as Cyma.
The high quality of the timepieces manufactured by Cyma meant that by 1910 they had become one of the largest watch manufacturers in Switzerland. Even the company’s most basic models were very accurate and many were consequently sold as officially tested chronometers. By the 1920s, Cyma had followed a growing trend to standardise watch part manufacture, but typical of the company, it wasn’t enough to just produce parts that were interchangeable, they had to be precision made to ensure long term accuracy. During the first decades of the 20th Century, watch movements tended to be susceptible to damage via physical blows. As such, Cyma developed their own shock proofing system, named the Cymerflex, which they installed into their high end watches. These proudly advertised the Cymaflex name on the dial. It was undoubtedly due to the company’s attention to quality and reliability that the British War Department gave them a contract to make military contract wristwatches, accepting the contract, Cyma unwittingly became one of what are now known by collectors as the Dirty Dozen. The twelve watch manufacturers all contracted by the War Department to make military watches. These were used in the last stages of the Second World War and after.

By the late 1960s and early 1970s the watch industry was changing, the advances of Hamilton and Bulova in the production of electric watches set the scene for the era of the quartz watch. By 1973 Cyma had produced their first electric watch and they were ready to embrace the new technology whilst other watch manufacturers were decimated by it. The company still exist to this day, and continue the reputation for making high quality wristwatches.

Provenance: n/a

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