Atlantic

Atlantic was founded in 1888 in Bettlach, in the canton of Solothurn, when Eduard Kummer founded EKB (Eduard Kummer Bettlach), a company that in its early decades did not produce watches under its own name but supplied pocket-watch components to already established houses such as Longines and Certina, as well as to smaller brands of its own like Ariston and Aristex. Only in 1932 did the company begin signing its own watches with the name "Atlantic," quickly becoming one of the first manufacturers to offer waterproof wrist watch cases.

1960 marks one of the brand's best-known technical innovations: the "Speed Switch" mechanism, which allows the date to be advanced up to 52 times faster than normal simply by turning the crown — a practical advantage significant enough to convince other manufacturers to license it. In the following decade, in 1970, Atlantic launched the Beachboy, a sporty model that became a genuine commercial success precisely during the years of the quartz crisis, and remains in production to this day.

Unlike many Swiss competitors, Atlantic built much of its fortune in Central and Eastern European markets: in Poland it became the best-selling brand for three decades starting in 1965, while in Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria it gained such prestige that, according to various sources, it was considered almost a status symbol in the Soviet era. Today, headquartered in Lengnau since 2008, the brand relies on ETA and Valjoux movements for current production, reserving manufacture calibres such as the ATL-3 for its most important anniversary editions.