There was even an Ermetophon, an Ermeto with a built in nightstand prop on the rear of its case, twin crowns and a travel alarm that pre-dates Jaeger LeCoultre’s Memovox. By the 1940s, there were Ermetos with moonphases and calendars and even an Ermeto-matic with moonphase and day/date/month complications.

For example, the rack-winding system was deployed on the 17 jewel calibre 150MN with a number of models being chronometer certified and tested in five positions. The movements Movado placed in their Ermetos were properly smart. This meant the watch could be mounted on a traditional watch chain and pulled from a pocket - or suspended around an elegant neck.īut the Ermeto wasn’t all about style without substance. Then, next in size order came the ‘Master’, the somewhat rationally-named ‘Normal’ and the ladies’ ‘Baby’ watch, designed to slip into a clutch handbag as one sipped Martinis at Raffles’ Long Bar.Įach of the smaller Ermetos had a tiny metal eye on one bottom corner. The largest Ermeto, the Pullman, was designed as an 8-day travel clock that the smart traveller could prop on their nightstand as they were whisked from Paris to Istanbul on the Orient Express. Or, more accurately, the watchmaker designed a range of travel timepieces. Movado designed the Ermeto as a travel watch from the start. The two halves enclose the watch, protect its face and back and also give you more options than even the flipside of a Reverso. Some are enameled, some are cased in leather or shagreen over metal, others are set with jewels. On later Ermetos, you can even see the crown turning as the rack-winding mechanism winds the watch.Īnd the case is one of the Ermeto’s main fascinations.

In fact, do this just three times a day and you have wound the watch for 24 hours. Move the two halves of the Ermeto case apart and back together and you’ve wound your watch. Simply because this particular Movado comes in a case that simultaneously seals (‘ermeto’ is ‘sealed’ in greek) and winds the watch - at least, on an Ermeto from 1927 onwards. Rather appropriate for a business that made travel watches. It’s an Esperanto word meaning ‘always in motion’. In 1899, they racked up six 'first-class Official Rating Certificates' for their watches and, in 1900, walked away with the 'Silver Medal' at the Universal demonstration in Paris. As one of the first makers to use electricity and mechanisation, he was far ahead of many other firms who were still using hand techniques.ĭitesheim’s ideas paid off. By 1897 he was employing 80 staff and running one of the largest workshops in Switzerland. He moved from Alsace to the watchmaking centre of La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Jura mountains. The business was founded in 1881 by the Swiss watchmaker Achille Ditesheim.

Movado is familiar to collectors, but most know little about the firm’s history. And it’s the watch that started it all - the 1926 Movado Ermeto. But there’s a hidden gem of a watch that pre-dates the GMT by nearly 30 years and has a history every bit as fascinating. Albania Andorra Anguilla Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Cabo Verde Cambodia Canada Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Estonia Fiji Finland France French Guiana Gabon Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Guadeloupe Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Haiti Honduras Hong Kong, China Hungary Iceland Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Kazakhstan Kenya Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao, China Macedonia, Republic Of Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Martinique Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Moldova, Republic of Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Namibia Nepal Netherlands New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Nigeria Norway Oman Pakistan Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Qatar Republic of Cameroon Reunion Romania Rwanda Saint Kitts And Nevis Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Sri Lanka St.If you want a vintage travel watch, the usual suspects would be Rolex’s 1954 GMT Master (first made for PanAm aircrew) or even a dual-movement Sandoz or Delma from the 1970s.

Vintage movado watch