Vulcain has been laying the groundwork for a fresh collection of timepieces in 2022, drawing on its history as the first maker to create a commercial mechanical wristwatch with an alarm and its popularity with American presidents down the decades. Simon de Burton sets the scene for a grand reawakening.
“It was in sleeping mode, and now we are waking it up.”
That old chestnut might be a corny but popular way of describing a defunct watch brand’s imminent revival, but it certainly sounded appropriate coming from Carla Duarte – she’s the CEO of Vulcain which, as any serious horophile will tell you, was the inventor of the mechanical alarm wristwatch.
Nothing much has been heard of Vulcain since 2015, at which point it belonged to Excellence Holdings, owner of the Les Ambassadeurs retail chain, with ultimate ownership ending at the front door of the Saudi Arabian Al-Rayes family.
In 2017, however, the Vulcain name was acquired by Luxembourg-based investment group Promobe Sa (which had also bought Italian-rooted watch brand Anonimo four years earlier) with Duarte coming in as an accountant in 2018 before being promoted to CEO last year.
As this issue of WatchPro goes to press, Duarte and her small team (Vulcain currently employs but two watch makers) are preparing to launch a new, four-model range which harks back to the firm’s glory days when it was among the most innovative, successful and far-reaching dial names in the business.
Indeed, if heritage sells watches, Vulcain deserves to go stratospheric. It was founded in La Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland way back in 1858 by Maurice Ditisheim and his two brothers, Gaspard and Aron.
Maurice ended up as sole owner, re-naming the business ‘Vulcain’ in 1894 – possibly on the basis that the Roman God of fire was an appropriate symbol for a company involved in smelting metal and making it into attractive objects.
The firm produced solely pocket watches right up until 1942 when Maurice’s son, Robert, began to recognise that the trend for wrist watches — which had been growing for 30 years – really wasn’t going to go away.
But the type he set out to develop was unlike any other – because it featured a mechanical alarm.
Although the facts are lost in the mists of time (that could be a pun), there is speculation that the request for an alarm wrist watch may have come from the military, not least because of the project’s mid-war start date.
But if such a watch was regarded as an essential piece of operational equipment it arrived a bit too late to influence the conflict’s outcome because, although an initial working prototype was quickly produced, it took a further five years and the input of an independent boffin to perfect the design.
Vulcain’s revolutionary alarm watch was eventually launched at the 1947 Swiss watch fair after physicist Paul Langevin developed a system that combined a tiny hammer and metallic membrane with a patented double case design to produce a sufficiently loud sound.
Since the resulting noise was more of a ‘brrrrr’ than a ‘trrrring’ it was likened to the chirp of a cricket, which is how the model got its name.
An ingenious dual barrel system enabled the alarm to run off its own spring to avoid the two-day power reserve of the main going train being affected, and it provided sufficient power for a consistent, 20-second ring.
Thanks to the efforts of the Ditisheim family during Vulcain’s early days, the firm’s products were sold far and wide – not least in America, where the already popular make was given a turbo PR boost after the White House Press Photographer’s Association presented a 14 carat gold Cricket to outgoing President Harry S. Truman.
The gift led to the tradition of Vulcain offering a watch to each new President, with the first to wear one in office being Dwight D. Eisenhower (who became better known as a Rolex Day-Date man).
Lyndon B Johnson got one too – and was so keen on the Cricket that he is said to have given away around 200 as presents. Richard Nixon and Barack Obama are also known to have been given the watches, but Joe Biden had bought his own several years before taking up the top job in January 2021.
Besides its political affiliations, the Cricket had also been adapted for mountaineering and underwater use, with the Cricket Nautical appearing in 1961, two years before Jaeger-LeCoultre’s more celebrated diver’s alarm model, the Memovox Polaris.
Under its previous ownership the modern-day Vulcain capitalised on the Cricket’s notoriety by producing numerous variations on the theme, ranging from the 44mm ‘X-Treme’ model to the high-priced Imperial Gong of 2005, which combined the alarm function with a tourbillon.
But, says Duarte, this month’s re-launch of the brand – which will see a new website with an etailing facility as well as the appearance of Vulcain in retailers including Harrods – is set to focus on the historic models that made the company its name.
“We have been working hard on developing re-editions not just of any old Vulcain models, but the really good ones,” Duarte told WatchPro in an exclusive, pre-launch interview.
“That means we will offer sizes such as 36mm and 39mm, which will be close to the originals and in-keeping with the current, growing trend for smaller, more traditional case sizes.
“The largest size we will offer initially is 44mm , which will be a chronograph model, and cases will be available only in steel at first – although there will be gold in the future, as Vulcain was once very well known for its gold watches. “
Duarte says that, although the firm will create new marketing material it will be heavily influenced on the period advertisements of the 1950s and ‘60s and the brand’s historic signature blue will still be used for the logo.
The initial four watch ‘families’ will be based around a 1970s two-button chronograph, a monopusher ‘Heritage’ model, the 36mm Cricket and a superb Nautical Cricket with Vulcain’s unique dive scale.
It should be possible to pre-order via the vulcain.ch website around now – and I, for one, am certainly looking forward to a revival of the brand’s innovative marketing material, as demonstrated by a 1967 magazine advertisement illustrated with the image of a man with a Cricket strapped to his head and the headline ‘the watch that thinks’.
“It rings on your wrist, wakes you up at home or wherever you are travelling,” ran the text.
“Reminds you of your appointments wherever you may be. It is really an unfailing second memory. Are you sure you don’t need a thinking watch?”
No – I’m sure I do.
Some important facts – Vulcain (the brand) did not present a Vulcain Cricket to a US President (current or past) until Barack Obama. As you mentioned, Truman received his as a gift upon leaving office from the White House News Photographers Association. President (then Vice President) Nixon received his as a thank-you for a speech he gave to the National Association of Watch and Clock Makers in 1960. History is silent as to how or when Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson received their Crickets (or purchased for themselves). What is know is that Johnson sent his staff on a shopping spree across Geneva (while attending a conference) with instructions to purchase as many Vulcain Crickets as possible. He would go on to give these as gifts. Interesting to relate one was presented to Secretary McNamara in an ad-hoc White House presentation.
Presidents Reagan, Bush (the elder), Clinton, Ford, Carter, Obama, Biden (then Vice President) and Trump all received Crickets from the Paajanen family, who owned a jewelry store in Helsinki Finland. The watchers were presented when these leaders visited or transited through Helsinki both during and after their terms in office. This was a unique partnership between the Paajanens and Michel Ditisheim, who owned the rights to the Vulcain name during the 80s and 90s. Although the brand was dormant, the Paajanens and Mr. Ditisheim negotiated an agreement whereby the Paajanens ordered 100 Vulcain Crickets to present to US Presidents and Vice Presidents, and to sell to customers in their Helsinki store. Those Crickets were, in fact, Revue Thommen Crickets that received a new dial bearing the name Vulcain. The Crickets given to the Presidents were stainless steel with gold plated bezels. The lone exception to this being the one presented to (then) Vice President Biden. His was stainless steel. Also interesting to note, he is the only recipient of one of these watches to be photographed actively wearing his. Meaning he declared the gift and wrote a check to purchase it from the National Archive.