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WATCH
SANDOZ "MANZON
CIRCA 1970
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Sandoz is a Swiss watch brand, originally founded in the late 19th century by Henri Sandoz near Tavannes, Switzerland.
Henri Frédéric Sandoz (sometimes Frédéric Henri Sandoz), born in 1851, was a self-taught man from Le Locle who founded Henri Sandoz & Cie. in the 1870s, later producing complicated watches under the Cyma name.
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In 1890, Sandoz founded a watchmaking company in Malleray, near Tavannes in the Swiss Jura. This new company was known as the Tavannes Watch Co. By the time of Sandoz's death on March 18, 1913, many watches were being manufactured under the name Henri Sandoz & Fils. The company was a model factory, employing around a thousand workers and producing 2,500 watches a day.
Other names used by the Tavannes company at various times include Tavannes-Cyma, Bijou Watch Co., Tacy Watch Co. and Lisca. After Sandoz's death, the company he founded continued to grow. By 1938, it was producing 4,000 items a day.
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Sandoz specialized in ultra-thin watches in the 1950s and 1960s. Calibre HSF 55 was the world's thinnest in 1955, as was the similar calibre. HSF 56. Caliber 333, introduced in 1959, was the thinnest automatic movement, with six ball bearings for the peripheral automatic rotor. It was available with 17, 25 or even 50 or 60 jewels.
In 1970, Sandoz was part of the Société Des Garde-Temps SA with Elgin, Fleurier Watch, Invicta and Waltham. Later in the 1970s, the company sold LCD digital watches under the SGT brand.
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The design of this model is rather atypical. Indeed, its case is strongly reminiscent of Serge Manzon's style of the 1970s. Everything is an architectural detail, from the dial with its horizontal and concentric lines, to the glass flush with the case at the top, to the case with its domed sides and hidden crown.
The case has a raw edge, almost like unpolished silver, giving it an even more assertive character. The watch is powered by a Swiss-made mechanical movement. Difficult to say more about it, the photos speak for themselves. Architecturally rare.