Aerowatch

Aerowatch was founded in 1910 in La Chaux-de-Fonds. The English name, unusual for a Swiss manufacture of the time, deliberately evoked aviation — then a fledgling industry seen as the very symbol of modernity. The family-run company survived the First World War on razor-thin margins.

In 1942 Maxime Crevoisier took over the factory and moved it to Neuchâtel, specializing in pocket and pendant watches: under his leadership Aerowatch built one of the largest pocket-watch collections in Europe. On his death his son Georges Crevoisier ran the company for 46 years, from 1955 to 2001.

In 2001 leadership passed to the Bolzli family, who relocated the headquarters first to Le Noirmont and then, from 2008, to Saignelégier, where the brand is still based today. In 2005 the Bolzli family launched the brand's first true wristwatch collection, drawing directly on the aesthetics of the pocket watches it had produced for decades: this was "1942," named precisely in tribute to the year Crevoisier took over the company.