A new timepiece joins the Eberhard & Co. Museum collection: a 1941 wrist chronograph, a model from the Maison’s first, extraordinary era of chronographs.
The watch is powered by a hand-wound mechanical chronograph movement, caliber EB 1600, 16”’, with a mechanical device for momentary stop and restart without returning to zero, thanks to the presence of a sliding button at 4 o’clock (a distinctive feature of Eberhard & Co. timepieces of the period), while the button for starting, stopping, and resetting the chronograph is located at 2 o’clock.
The sinuous case has a diameter of 40 mm, with a stepped bezel, pushers, and crown in stainless steel. The dial displays a rich array of harmoniously arranged elements: matte black with contrasting gold-tone indexes and Arabic numerals, it features two subdials, an external telemetric scale, a 1/5th of a second scale around the minute track, and the characteristic spiral tachometric scale in the center.
This sports chronograph perfectly represents a period in which aesthetics went hand in hand with technical evolution and the Maison’s constant drive for innovation. It embodies the technical and sporting vocation initiated from the very beginning by founder Georges-Lucien Eberhard, who led the company until his death in 1942, handing it over to his son Maurice-William, who consistently continued the original vision.
The production of this watch comes at a significant moment for the Maison, already recognized as a benchmark in Swiss watchmaking. Founded in 1887, Eberhard & Co. had already achieved key milestones in its evolution: from the first patents at the turn of the century to 1919, the year in which it created the first single-pusher wrist chronograph, launching the Maison’s great chronograph tradition. In the 1930s, Eberhard & Co. then produced the chronographs chosen as a badge of recognition for officers of the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of Italy.
During a period of historical and social turmoil, the Maison maintained steady growth, supported by a constant spirit of innovation. Emblematic of this drive for progress is 1942, the year following the production of this model, when the famous Magini System was presented, a chronograph for astronomical navigation that accompanied the first Rome-Tokyo visual flight.
