Mathey-Tissot is a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

watch A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by ...

maker of prestige watches, originally established in 1886 by Edmond Mathey-Tissot at

Les Ponts-de-Martel Les Ponts-de-Martel is a municipality in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. History Les Ponts-de-Martel is first mentioned in 1360 as ''Martel''. Geography Les Ponts-de-Martel has an area, , of . Of this area, or 59.2% is used for a ...

in the canton of

Neuchâtel , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France), ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. Mathey-Tissot is an independent watchmaker, headquarter is located in Geneva. Mathey-Tissot is not associated with

Tissot Tissot SA () is a Swiss watchmaker. The company was founded in Le Locle, Switzerland by Charles-Félicien Tissot and his son, Charles-Émile Tissot, in 1853. After several mergers and name changes, the group which Tissot SA belonged to was renam ...

, another Swiss watchmaking firm.

History

Edmond Mathey-Tissot established his

watchmaking A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their part ...

business in the village of Les Ponts-de-Martel in 1886. He began by specializing in complications, and especially

repeater In telecommunications, a repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it. Repeaters are used to extend transmissions so that the signal can cover longer distances or be received on the other side of an obstruction. Some ...

pocket watches, that is, watches which chime the hour or the hour and quarter-hour (quarter-repeater) or the hour, quarter-hour and minute (minute-repeater). The firm soon proceeded to make

chronograph A chronograph is a specific type of watch that is used as a stopwatch combined with a display watch. A basic chronograph has an independent sweep second hand and a minute sub-dial; it can be started, stopped, and returned to zero by successive ...

s and won a number of prizes.Mathey-Tissot Switzerland
History
at mathey-tissot.net Mathey-tissot calamatic 1947

In 1899, the outbreak of the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

led to such an expansion in demand for Mathey-Tissot watches that a new factory was built. Among the orders received was one from a nobleman in Scotland who commissioned 2,500 watches, having decided to present every man in his son's

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...

with a repeater watch: in gold for officers, silver for other ranks. In 1914, Mathey-Tissot was represented at the

Kew Observatory The King's Observatory (called for many years the Kew Observatory) is a Grade I listed building in Richmond, London. Now a private dwelling, it formerly housed an astronomical and terrestrial magnetic observatory founded by King George III. T ...

Competition by six

Observatory Chronometer An observatory chronometer is a timepiece that has passed stringent testing and a slate of accuracy tests. Thus, the "observatory trial" developed as the standard process for determining accuracy of timepiece movements. If the chronometer passed t ...

s capable of split-second timing, all six being rated 'Class A' with the comment 'specially good'. The same year, Mathey-Tissot gained the Grand Prix at the Swiss National Exhibition. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the company supplied the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

's Corps of Engineers with precision chronographs in large quantities, while

General Pershing General of the Armies John Joseph Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948), nicknamed "Black Jack", was a senior United States Army officer. He served most famously as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on the West ...

, commanding the United States Expeditionary Force, chose the watch to award to members of his own staff. Both before and after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the company continued to supply the U. S. Army and the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. The name 'E. Mathey-Tissot & Co.' was protected by

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1937. The firm at one time had good relations with

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and made watches of Chinese designs for that market which have been described as "complicated and painstaking pieces... in the realm of superior watchmaking". In 1969 and 1970,

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

bought several dozen customized Mathey-Tissot

automatic watch An automatic watch, also known as a self-winding watch or simply an automatic, is a mechanical watch where the natural motion of the wearer provides energy to wind the mainspring, making manual winding unnecessary if worn enough. It is distinguis ...

es for giving to family, friends and staff; the purpose being to identify the wearers as having a privileged right of access to Presley's concerts and tours. The

bezel setting A bezel is a wider and usually thicker section of the hoop of a ring, which may contain a gem or a flat surface (usually with an engraved design, as in a signet ring). Rings are normally worn to display bezels on the upper or outer side of the f ...

s of these the name ELVIS PRESLEY in raised letters and four stars.

Present-day

Mathey-Tissot makes and customizes watches with both mechanical and

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

movements. Mathey-Tissot no longer produces its own

watch movement A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by ...

s in house. The company's

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

is similar to the "peace symbol" of the

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuc ...

, but turned upside-down, with the words ''Mathey-Tissot'' in manuscript, above the printed words "since 1886". The name of Mathey-Tissot is registered with the

World Intellectual Property Organization The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO; french: link=no, Organisation mondiale de la propriété intellectuelle (OMPI)) is one of the list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, 15 specialized agencies of the United Nation ...

, under the company name E. Mathey-Tissot & Co SA, of Boulevard de Pérolle,

Fribourg , neighboring_municipalities= Düdingen, Givisiez, Granges-Paccot, Marly, Pierrafortscha, Sankt Ursen, Tafers, Villars-sur-Glâne , twintowns = Rueil-Malmaison (France) , website = www.ville-fribourg.ch , Location of , Location of () () o ...

, Switzerland.(273710) Mathey-Tissot
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References

External links

Official website

Elvis Presley watch by Mathey-Tissot, 1969
(illustrated) Watch brands Swiss companies established in 1886 Manufacturing companies established in 1886 Watch manufacturing companies of Switzerland Companies based in the canton of Neuchâtel

History

Present-day

See also

References

External links